Planning Your Own Outdoor Wedding

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by Angela Kuncaitis • photos by Mark Lohman

The latest wedding trend is getting away from canned themes and typical decorations at inside venues and getting out into the open air of nature. You can celebrate your special day in the elements that beautiful Michigan has to offer; an outdoor wedding can be just what you are looking for to enjoy your special day. February is not too early to get inspired and start planning your outdoor wedding in West Michigan for the coming fall or next summer.

Start planning your outdoor wedding by picking your theme for the ceremony. When choosing your theme, think about having an affair as unique as you are. Put you and your fianc?’s brand on the day all the way down to the party favors and food for the reception.

If you have more of a modern flair and like contemporary clean lines, a sparse beach wedding with square paper fans for your program might be for you. You could simplify and save money by making the wedding at 2 p.m. Immediately following the ceremony, have an hors d’oeuvre reception under white tents with shrimp cocktails, drinks and stations of appetizer. Hand out something practical yet creative, such as handmade lotion with mints, when the bride and groom leisurely great the guests. The options are limitless.

Lately, outdoor, rustic and prairie type weddings have gained a large following. International author, editor and photo stylist Fifi O’Neill has written and captured beautifully what an outdoor, rustic and woodland wedding can be. In her book Prairie Weddings, O’Neill shows how to transform such outdoor locations into gorgeous “prairie style” celebrations that seamlessly blend ruggedness and elegance. A prairie wedding venue can have variant character, as O’Neill says, “from a woodland meadow to a simple shed or an old weathered barn, prairie-style weddings embrace the best hand-crafting, heritage, vintage chic, traditions, romance and much more.”

Allow yourself to think out of the box when it comes to wedding details. Everything can spin off the particular theme you chose, radiating originality. Combining you and your partner’s personality with creative yet practical ideas yields the perfect product for an outdoor wedding affair.

For example, one wedding featured in Prairie Weddings was in Coral, Michigan at Maple Valley Farms. The beautiful ceremony took place by the pond on the 40 acres complete with bullfrogs croaking in the background. The simple red velvet cake from the front cover was created by the bride’s 12-year-old sister, making the entire day a family affair. The mother-of-the-bride handmade the chair covers using the family farm’s corncrib as the backdrop for the outdoor reception. Handmade old-fashioned soaps served as place cards and the party favor with the new couples address and contact information. The children loved the popcorn and candy station during the barn dance.
Other ideas include renting the log cabin pavilion at a park for a covered dish reception after a natural wedding. Ask guests to bring a specific dish that corresponds with the theme of the menu and day. For a gorgeous fall wedding, have a pig roast, sides of hearty corn casserole, wild green salads with chunky homemade miniature pies for dessert and a handmade birdseed ornament as a party favor for your guests to hang outside their home.

Whatever outdoor theme you choose, be sure to have a backup weather location. Also, it is important to plan for the elderly and guests that may need special assistance navigating the outdoor terrain.

Use these last few months of winter to start
planning your special day. Most importantly, have fun planning! Do not stress for perfection, as an outdoor wedding is natural and unpretentious. The theme already will have guests at ease looking forward to seeing your commitment to one another in the great outdoors.

In her book, Prairie Weddings, O’Neill shows how to transform outdoor locations into gorgeous celebrations.

Angela Kuncaitis is an interior designer, decorator, grammy, wife and mother. Her passion is creating, her family and faith mixed with a lot of coffee.

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