Organising your outdoor wedding can be more difficult than organising an indoor wedding. There are so many more variables, but when planned carefully, the results can be amazing.
These are our ten wedding table and outdoor décor tips for a truly beautiful wedding reception.
1. Marquees and Umbrellas
Marquees and umbrellas are a great way to ensure your wedding and reception goes off with a hitch.
Modern marquees can be very stylish. If you’re dedicated to being outside, but need to be undercover, you can always get a marquee with clear walls and roof.
You can book one in case of emergency, but it’s a great idea to set it up no matter what. If it doesn’t rain, it still provides protection from the sun. You don’t want to be heading off on your honeymoon with a sunburn!
2. Outdoor Lighting
Having an outdoor wedding means you’re going to need outdoor lighting. But your lighting should add to the atmosphere, not distract from it. There are many options for beautiful outdoor lights.
Beautiful, romantic ways to use lighting for décor include wrapping fairy lights around trees, threading bistro lights over your dance floor, or illuminating your wedding tables with lanterns and candles.
3. Use Fancy Crockery and Glasses
You want your wedding to be a stunning affair and your crockery plays a big part in that. Hire some beautiful plates, silver cutlery and crystal wine glasses, or buy some posh disposable plastic crockery.
There’s an art to setting your wedding table, so make sure you get everything you need and don’t be afraid to go all out!
4. Beachy Centrepieces
You don’t need to have a floral centrepiece. If you are having a beach wedding, you might even like to incorporate the beach into your wedding table centrepieces.
Use shells, sand, palm fronds, coral and dried starfish, coupled with candles, oil torches or paper lanterns to create beachy centrepiece for your wedding tables.
5. Buffet Picnic Tables
Fill picnic tables with colourful antipasto platters, ribbon sandwiches, champagne, pretty cake stands with macarons, and cupcakes.
Decorate the table with fresh flowers and a gingham tablecloth for a gorgeous picnic-themed buffet, perfect for that wedding in the park.
6. Decorate Your Marquee
Your marquee is a blank canvas; you can decorate it however you want. Your marquee supplier will have a range of colourful valences and linings to suit your wedding’s colour palette.
Decorate with hanging flower pomanders, buntings, hang chandeliers over wedding tables and add fairy lights for a twinkling lighting option.
7. Banquet-Style Tables
Using long, banquet-style tables has become very trendy recently and will make excellent use of the space available.
They make a large wedding feel more intimate and there are many ways to arrange these types of tables, from multiple rows to one long dinner table.
These picnic bench-style banquet tables are rustic and chic. They are the perfect choice for a wedding in the park and can easily be dressed up with a floral centrepiece and a white linen table cloth.
8. Colourful Centrepiece
You want a beautiful and interesting wedding table centrepiece, with floral centrepieces the classic choice. Your wedding table centrepiece will transform a bare table into a work of art.
When choosing flowers for a floral centrepiece, make sure to check that the flowers you choose are in season. Choose flower colours to suit the wedding’s colour palette.
9. More space? Scatter tables
Take advantage of your space. Outdoor weddings can often take up far more space than weddings held indoors. Spread out your tables to leave room for casual conversation and dancing.
10. Don’t Compromise Too Much
Just because you are having an outdoor wedding doesn’t mean you have to compromise. If you want to go all out, do it. Do a three-course course dinner, have creatively folded napkins and employ catering staff.
Your outdoor wedding doesn’t have to be casual, you can still throw an elegant event. Don’t forget, at the end of the day, it’s YOUR day.
