Your Outdoor Wedding Reception – What’s Your Style?

Planning your wedding reception can be a daunting task. After all, most engaged couples have not had the experience of planning such a large and important party before.

To help with your planning process, I will cover some of the hallmarks of three popular types of outdoor receptions in this post.  At first glance all three may seem to be very similar to each other but there are definite differences in décor and style that really do help create a unique look and feel for each one.

The reception styles I’m including are Casual – Festive, Rustic and Garden.

CASUAL – FESTIVE WEDDING RECEPTION
Venue: Backyard, park, farm, and other outdoor venues.
Décor: Pom-poms, banners/bunting, paper décor and often decorations that hang from trees, fences, and the like. You can go with just “casual” or include more fun details for “casual-festive”.
Seating: Pillows, benches and simple chairs with or without pillows, sometimes decorated with ribbon streamers.
Tables:  Often long tables are used without tablecloths.  You can include place mats, table runners or tablecloths in simple fabrics such as burlap and cotton.
Centerpieces: Simple DIY incorporating candles and flowers in vases or in recycled jars and bottles.
Flowers: Simple in-season local cut flowers such as roses and daisies with baby’s breath and greenery added.

This informal style often includes colorful ribbons to decorate place settings, bottles, vases and chairs.

Hot Tip:  Even though  your reception may be casual, it is fun to add “designer” items such as vintage-style drinking straws, creative cupcake wrappers, cupcake toppers, styling tags, and other elements that tie together your color theme and help create a cohesive put-together look. The photos below help illustrate how this style can take shape.

RUSTIC WEDDING RECEPTION
Venue: Farm, park or backyard — sometimes in a large, rented tent or in a barn.
Décor: Burlap is often used, sometimes paired with lace. Mason jars are plentiful to hold flowers, candles, beverages and food.
Seating: Benches or simple chairs often decorated with burlap.
Tables: Picnic tables; round or rectangle tables without cloths or with burlap cloths.
Centerpieces: Simple DIY using Mason jars and recycled bottles and jars. Colorful marbles or stones are often used at the bottom of the vases.
Flowers: Lavender; sunflowers, daisies, dried flowers.  Dried wheat is often used in the decorations.

Bales of hay and hand-painted wedding signs can be incorporated in to the décor.

Hot Tip #1: If you love the rustic style but want your reception to be a little more formal, you can make the short jump from “rustic” to “country chic”. Country Chic combines rustic with more refined accessories, as shown below in the last two photos in the collage and the last single photo. In the last photo the burlap runners and yellow metal buckets are paired with white tablecloths and an elaborately decorated ceiling to create a unique and appealing country chic décor.

Hot Tip #2: If you want to make sure that your reception “screams” rustic, be sure to include Mason jars, lots of natural wood, burlap and informally arranged cut flowers.

Rustic – Country Chic:

GARDEN WEDDING RECEPTION
Venue: Public or private garden or most any outdoor space that will accommodate the reception
Décor: Lots of flowers, of course! The décor can be simple or elaborate but this style is usually refined in the accessories and décor used.
Seating: Simple, stylish chairs
Tables: Tables almost always include a tablecloth or elaborate runner
Centerpieces: Centerpieces are usually lush and include lots of flowers
Flowers: Flowers often include roses and other in-season local flowers and can be in formal arrangements.

While this style incorporates nature in its décor, its decorations
usually lean toward simple elegance.

Hot Tip: If you have the reception in a public garden/park you will have some of your decorations already taken care of from the lush surroundings and plantings that are already there.

Below is an example of all of the styles together so you can more easily see how they differ. Click the photo for a large version.

———————————————-

For more ideas see our Pinterest Boards:
Burlap Wedding Ideas
Mason Jars for Wedding Decor
Mason Jars for Beverages
Mason Jars for Food
Country Chic/Rustic Weddings
DIY Centerpieces
DIY Reception Ideas from Exclusively Weddings

Resources on This Blog:

How to Use Mason Jars at Your Wedding
Taylor and Andrew’s Rustic Wedding
Rustic Wedding

Photo Sources:
Casual-Festive Collage:  Etsy, Piccsy, Ariella Chezar, Troy Grover Photographers Photo 1: Holland Photo Arts Photo 2: Style Me Pretty Rustic Collage:  Lovely Little Details, Jose Villa Wedding Photography, Jose Villa Wedding Photography, Ace Photography Photo 1: Southern Weddings Photo 2: Krista Fox Photography Garden Collage:  Moments of Magic, Vanilla and Cinnamon, Jose Villa Wedding Photography, Jesse Leake Photography Photo 2: Belle the Magazine

Your Wedding Invitation and Your Wedding Colors, Part 2

A couple months ago I created a post that showcased some of our wedding invitations that coordinated with the color stories I created. I was looking at some of our invitations today and noticed that we had quite a few more that seemed to work really well with some of my newer color-stories. I couldn’t resist putting them together to see if they matched as well as I thought they would. I was glad to see that they did! I hope the combinations below will be helpful for you. Here’s a link to that first post in case you missed it: Blog Post

Exclusively Weddings’ main invitation page is where you will find links to order free  invitation samples and will see all of the invitation categories that we offer: Wedding Invitations at Exclusively Weddings

Be sure and check out our Pinterest board with more than 100 color-story collages. The collages will help you narrow down the all-important decision of choosing your wedding colors.

For more information about the featured invitations, please click the “Featured” links in red below.

BLACK, WHITE AND RED WEDDING THEME
Featured: Greek Beauty Wedding Invitation
Click Invitation photo for full-size version.

MOSS GREEN WEDDING THEME
Featured: Watercolor Elegance Wedding Invitation
Click Invitation photo for full-size version.

ORANGE AND BROWN WEDDING THEME
Featured: Autumn Romance Wedding Invitation
Click Invitation photo for full-size version.

NAUTICAL WEDDING THEME
Featured: Anchors Away Wedding Invitation
Click Invitation photo for full-size version.

CORAL WEDDING THEME
Featured: Bold Daisy Wedding Invitation
Click Invitation photo for full-size version.

YELLOW AND GRAY WEDDING THEME
Featured: Passionate Peony Wedding Invitation
Click Invitation photo for full-size version.

LIME GREEN WEDDING THEME
Featured: Contemporary Scroll Wedding Invitation
Click Invitation photo for full-size version.

PEACOCK WEDDING THEME
Featured: Peacock Romance Wedding Invitation
Click Invitation photo for full-size version.

Collages created by Sher Silver.

Sources:
Black, White & Red:  Lemon Lime Photography, Kate Haus Photography, Samantha Erin Photography, Driscoll’s (Recipe Included),Kristyn Hogan, Amanda Oakleaf Cakes – Moss:  MaxieB’s, Etsy, Martha Stewart Weddings, OneWed, Style Me Pretty, Southern Weddings – Orange and Brown: Etsy, Weddings by the Color, Cariad Productions, McLellan Style, Ace Photography, Etsy – Nautical: Studio28photo, Inter IKEA Systems, Emilie Inc, Love My Dress, 6^th Street Design School, Renee Conrad Photography, Jenna Cole Photography, Pottery Barn – Coral:  Style Me Pretty, Confections of a Foodie Bride, Colin Cowie Weddings, Elizabeth Ann Designs, Society Bride, Connie Cupcake, Southern Weddings – Yellow and Gray:  Stephanie Williams Photography, Oh Lovely Day, Jamie Clayton Photography, Catch My Party, Stephanie Williams Photography, Memory Makers Photography – Lime:  Wirken Photography, The Culinary Chronicles, Jose Villa Wedding Photography, Formal Fringe, Sweet and Saucy Shop, Martha Stewart Weddings – Peacock:  J. Shipley Photography, Stacy Reeves, Catch My Party, Candid Impressions Photography, Melissa Jill Photography, tablespoon (recipe included)

An Orange Color Combination for Your Fall Wedding

If you are planning an autumn wedding it is not too early to start planning now. At the very least, it’s time to start choosing your wedding color theme. Typically for fall, the colors are deeper and warmer.

When I think of colors that “say” autumn, one of the first colors that comes to mind for me and probably for most other people, as well, is orange. In this blog post I will show you color ideas using orange with plum, purple, green and brown. With these combinations you can easily add seasonal decorations and accessories, which are easy to find as fall approaches.

When choosing a wedding color combination that includes orange for a fall wedding you can save money by using the many items from nature that are available in the fall such as pumpkins, colorful mums, wheat, leaves, and other natural elements.

The Plum and Orange palette below uses colors similar to Pantone’s Acai and Koi. The orange is not the main color but is an accent that leaves no doubt that this is an autumn wedding.

In my Purple and Orange collage I used a bit lighter shade of orange than I used with the plum. A darker shade of orange would work, also.

An Orange and Green combination for fall generally works best with a darker shade of orange and a warm shade of green. A few months’ ago I created an orange and green collage that works for spring and summer and want to share it in a link here. You can see how different it looks from the collage below, just by changing the hue of the colors. Tangerine and Green Color Story

Orange paired with Brown lends itself well to natural, earthy elements.

Collages created by Sher Silver.

Photo Sources: Plum and Orange: Sweetwater Portraits/Sgro’s Bakery, K&K Photography, Troy Grover Photographers, Wohnidee, Steve Steinhardt Fine Art Photography  Purple and Orange: Renee Landry Style, Project Wedding, Unique Event Design, Wedding Bee, Elizabeth Anne Designs, Project Wedding  Burnt Orange & Green:  Genevieve Leiper Photography, Bound By, Mix Shake Stir, Arising Images, R. Fritz Photography, Inc.  Orange and Brown:  Etsy, Weddings by the Color, Cariad Productions, McLellan Style, Ace Photography,Etsy

Gray Wedding Color -The New Neutral

When thinking of the usual neutral colors seen in wedding palettes, we typically think of white and ivory. Recently another color has gained popularity and gives couples one more option. That color is Gray.

The tone of gray can range from a soft blue-gray to a dark, warm charcoal. The color works particularly well for fall and winter weddings.

We created collages (shown below) that illustrate how to use gray as one of your wedding colors with Plum, Yellow, Green and Coral. It also works well with Pink, Purple, Blue and Red and more!

Please click the collages below for the enlarged versions.

When plum is added to gray, a particularly luscious palette unfolds.

Yellow is as sunny color that coordinates well with gray. The gray tones down the brightness of the yellow while the yellow brightens up the gray! A perfect match!

Green paired with gray creates a unique and somewhat “earthy” palette. While we often see green with brown,the gray takes it up a notch and is a bit unexpected.

Gray gives a fresh, modern look to a Coral, which has been a popular wedding color for many decades.

And if you can’t quite decide on a color to add to gray, you can’t go wrong with an all-gray palette!

Some links from our Pinterest boards to help with color ideas:
Purple Wedding Ideas
Purple from Exclusively Weddings on Pinterest

Yellow Wedding Ideas
Yellow from Exclusively Weddings on Pinterest

Green and Gray Wedding Ideas
Green from Exclusively Weddings on Pinterest

Coral Wedding Ideas

Gray from Exclusively Weddings on Pinterest

Photo Sources:
Plum & Gray: Kay Meyer Photography, Charlotte Geary Photography, Paul Barnett, Hazelnut Photography, Confetti Couture, Three Little Blackbirds Cakes, Absolutely Loved Photography – Yellow & Gray:  Stephanie Williams Photography, Oh Lovely Day, Jamie Clayton Photography, Catch My Party, Stephanie Williams Photography, Memory Makers Photography – Green & Gray:  Heather Parker Photography, Jillian Mitchell Photography, The Full Bouquet, Melissa Schollaert Photography, Just the Frosting – Coral & Gray: Cordele Photography, True Photography Weddings, Sugar City Sweets, Amelia Johnson Photography, Cupcake, Lane Dittoe, Yvonne Wong, Confectioner’s Counter – Gray:  Noaki Jewelry, The Cake Parlour, Christina Szczupak, Christian Oth Studio, The Nichols