If you're a bride-to-be who loves all things outdoorsy and you're looking for a country-style wedding that highlights your woodsy, simple lifestyle, planning a wedding with traditional style points is not the answer. After all, modern, sleek wedding elements have no place at the hunter's cabin or a farmhouse. Here are some design tips for your backcountry wedding that will make it an event to remember while still being true to your roots.
Bring Your Life to the Table
Instead of spending money on wedding decor, try to bring things you already have as part of your country lifestyle to the party to dress things up. For example, if you have a reserve of hay for your animals, use hay bales for seating instead of renting chairs. If you have furs from trapping, use these instead of normal linen or satin seat coverings. Use lanterns on rough-cut wood slices for table lighting instead of candles on candlesticks. Use galvanized buckets with wildflowers for table toppers.
White linens can provide contrast to the look of all these rustic elements, but you can also just use plaid hunting blankets for table coverings (then these can be used in your home later). Use pine boughs for some greenery; it will add more feminine elegance to these masculine details. Use rough-cut barn wood for tables, and if you do end up renting chairs, natural wood is the better choice over metal or a white-painted finished. Little things like antlers, washtubs, and even animal tack can be used in a tasteful way to bring country flair to your wedding décor.
Choose Beefed-Up Transportation
Instead of renting a sleek limousine for your getaway car as husband and wife, up the ante by using a Hummer limousine or another luxury vehicle that would not be as out of place in the back woods. This way, if you have the wedding outdoors and off of paved roads, you won't have to worry about the limo getting stuck or damaged from gravel or mud.
Stay Authentic with the Food
While more refined wedding designs will serve French-inspired dishes or traditional American fare, you can be more relaxed with your food choices. Have your caterers cook up something that reflects your country lifestyle. For example, you might serve wild game like elk or boar instead of beef. You could have an open BBQ buffet or even a roasted pig on a spit. To make thing more special, have the sides prepared and styled to be more fancy than your typical paper-plate family get-together. Instead, use tin dishes that go with the theme of your wedding and serve alcohol in tin cups, flasks, or thick-bottomed tumblers instead of delicate glasses. Have cornbread baked in individual-serving loafs, and if you're serving pasta, beans, or slaw, have them prepared with individual servings in mind using white ceramic bowls or tiny mason jars.
Get Carried Away with the Cake
The cake can be the star of the show. Instead of a traditional white cake, look for something a little more unique. For example, you could have your baker serve the cake on a platter made from a tree-cookie that has been sanded and polished. You could have a deer and buck as the cake topper instead of a traditional man-and-wife design. If you're avid hunters or farmers, order one layer of the cake to be finished with a camouflage or barn-wood pattern.
For more ideas on how to bring the wow factor to your country wedding, talk to a wedding planner about details and contact a local limousine and vehicle rental company like Millanio Limo for details on what cars they have available for wedding rentals.
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