Vintage Outdoor Wedding

I don’t have hard statistics on this, but if I had to guess, I’d say that somewhere in the vicinity of 70 percent of women spend their adolescent years fantasizing about their wedding. The dress, the flowers, the cake. In 2018, even the hashtag.

I was not one of those girls. I didn’t while away the hours of life dreaming of lace or chiffon. And I certainly didn’t know enough about flowers to care. In fact, the idea of planning my wedding gave me anxiety. I’m not keen on being the center of attention in any given moment (you should see me when people sing “Happy Birthday” to me…Level 10 on the Awkward Scale). And spending money (sort of a requirement when planning a wedding) sends me into a panic.

We knew early on in the planning that we wanted to spend as little money as possible. Being that we’re not overly-commercial people, we also wanted a wedding that paid tribute to our simple lives as rural Floridians. For us, that meant getting married in our cottage backyard on a budget. Luckily, we had the stunning lake view in our backyard to serve as the backdrop, which left little need to outshine nature in decorating.

The Wedding Details

As part of our vision, we knew we wanted a “gathered and imperfect” look. We stockpiled as many wooden tables and chairs from family members as we could. My mom visited local thrift and antique stores, collecting mismatched China to use as well. We adorned our tables with simple touches, including a sampling of mixed faux florals from Hobby Lobby in vintage vases coupled with vintage and antique items from around our home.

In the lead-up to the big day, we constructed a dance floor in the middle of the backyard and strung beautiful lights above it. At the center of the string of lights, we hung a vintage chandelier. Once it was dark, it looked stunning.

We welcomed guests in the front of the house with a sign to point toward the festivities. My mom’s best friend built it, and it set a beautiful, rustic tone for the day.

Once guests arrived around back, we asked them to highlight their favorite scripture and sign our Bible. As the back drop for that welcome table, we joined several old doors together and placed out some vintage touches, including our old typewriter.

In that same area, my mom created a sweet wedding favor display, complete with honey pots and handkerchiefs. The tags on the honey pots read “Love is sweet.”

An outdoor wedding is always at the weather’s mercy. To help where we could, we offered blankets to our guests. November in Florida tends to be mild, but a cold front blew that weekend. I regretted not securing heaters to make our guests more comfortable.

Near the water’s edge, my husband built a brick fire pit and gathered hay bales to create a bonfire area. My mom covered the tops of the hay bales with vintage sheets and gathered them along the edges for a fitted look.

My dad was kind enough to spruce up our landscaping for the big day. We decided to get married in front of an old Cypress stump with the lake as the backdrop. He planted encore azaleas around the stump that continue to be a focal point for our yard five years later. Considering my love affair with azaleas, they added a beautiful touch to both our day and our yard.

One of my favorite touches of the day was my vintage brooch bouquet. Several of the brooches belonged to my grandmother who passed away when I was three. My mother-in-law helped piece it all together, and I think it turned out so gorgeous.

My guests still talk about the fancy bathroom we rented from Royal Restrooms. At the time of our wedding, our drain field was on its last leg. We were terrified about what could potentially happen with 100+ people flushing our toilet, so we decided to spend the biggest part of our wedding budget on a fancy portable bathroom. I’m only sorry I didn’t think to get a picture of it considering it was such a memorable part of our day.

In a later post, I’ll offer my biggest pieces of advice for those considering a backyard wedding. While I certainly prefer the intimacy and personalized feel of a modest backyard wedding and would make the same choice again, I made several mistakes and failed to account for several things that would’ve made a significant impact on the day.