An outdoor wedding and reception is always fun to attend. Help guests enjoy the event fully by striving to serve foods and beverages that will help them stay hydrated while outside. Also utilize nature for decorations and serve foods that are from the earth. Celebrate the joy of nature at your wedding and give out favors that will help the environment too.
Create a path up to the altar out of pink, red, yellow, or white wedding petals. This will create a lovely rose scent in the air as the bride and attendants walk up the aisle.
If the marriage will occur in a hot climate, have a table at the back of the seating area where the wedding will occur to distribute cups of lemonade, fruit punch, water and fresh fruit. This will help keep the wedding guests hydrated in the hot weather.
Use local nature to decorate the altar. Drape the altar or a trellis with one of the following items: pine boughs, garlands of colorful fall leaves, or garlands of daisies, roses, lilacs, or gardenias.
Use potted rose trees to line the back of the seating area to add a beautiful aroma in the area where guests arrive and walk to their seats.
Use favors that are “of the earth.” Give out packets of flower seeds, small tree seedlings wrapped in burlap, or baskets of perennial flowers for the guests to use to create a flower garden.
Set up a table to offer platters or 3-4 level cake trays full of colorful cupcakes decorated to look like roses, pansies, or other flowers.
Give guests paper bags of wildflower seeds and ask them to plant them in a garden or sprinkle them over an empty field. Then when summer is in bloom the bride and groom will know the flowers from their wedding should be growing and helping the birds and bees find food.
Create wreaths out of bouquets of flowers from the gardens of guests. Ask guests to bring the flowers to the bride’s home or to the home of one of the bridesmaids the night before or the morning of the wedding and work together to create the wreaths. Hang the wreaths from the backs of the chairs at the rear of the seating arrangements. Or hang the wreaths from trees or from stakes in the ground.
Have bridesmaids choose a dress in the color of a flower and then use that flower in their bouquet. Either have all bridesmaids use the same color or have a rainbow of colors in the dresses of the bridesmaids.
Provide colorful, large parasols or umbrellas to shield guests if the wedding is held outside in bright sun.
Create a large trellis out of tree branches and cover it with flowers that will add a lovely scent to the wedding area such as roses, lilacs, lilies, or gardenias.
Serve foods at the reception that have a high water content such as watermelon, cucumbers, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes, and other fruits to help keep guests hydrated.
Create a beverage table at the reception with large, clear glass holders of lemonade, sparkling fruit essence water, fruit punch, iced tea, and other beverages.
