How to do a DIY woodsy/enchanted forest themed wedding in a tent

wolfsred2013

I am not very good at doing arts and crafts, but I still love doing them. My fiance and I found a cheap place to do our wedding ceremony and reception at, but we will have to rent tents and decorate the inside to go along with our theme, Little Red Riding Hood (along the Grimm Fairy Tale version), but I have no idea how to turn the tents into a woodsy or enchanted forest look. I have no help from my family and my friends have no ideas either. One of them suggested I give David Tutera a call, but I can't afford him Does anyone have any ideas that are simple and a horrible craft person can do?

novella1186

It's all about what elements you incorporate. I'd skip flowers and use ferns, moss, greenery, tree branches, etc. with some simple gold twinkle lights, lots of natural colors (think greens and earth tones), and things like the photos below. Google stuff like "woodland wedding" to get ideas. 

momofbride530

You could also Google images from the movie Into The Woods.I think this is a beautiful theme. Good luck!

augsum15

All of our wedding decor has to be free-standing at our reception, so we came up with using about a 1 foot square piece of plywood screwed to the bottom of a medium sized (ranging from 4 feet to 7 feet high to keep variety) branch (the bases are less than 2 inches in diameter, so they're skinny, but sturdy.) Then we painted them white, spray painted with gold glitter (to give the light something warm to bounce off of) then wrapped the stem in battery operated LED lights. 

You can also make paper or cloth leafs and hang them off, we're hanging battery operated lighted paper lanterns off ours.

Silverelf2015

augsum15 said:

All of our wedding decor has to be free-standing at our reception, so we came up with using about a 1 foot square piece of plywood screwed to the bottom of a medium sized (ranging from 4 feet to 7 feet high to keep variety) branch (the bases are less than 2 inches in diameter, so they're skinny, but sturdy.) Then we painted them white, spray painted with gold glitter (to give the light something warm to bounce off of) then wrapped the stem in battery operated LED lights. 

You can also make paper or cloth leafs and hang them off, we're hanging battery operated lighted paper lanterns off ours.

I love your free-standing trees idea! My venue will not allow tape/nails/etc either, and we have a similar theme to the OP (an enchanted forest, too, but LOTR) so I'm thinking of having my Dad and fiance build me some "trees", at least for the corners of the room. We'll hang blue paper lanterns with LED lights as well because the venue won't allow real candles. I'm hoping for four 7-or 8-foot trees. I'm also going to have about six large potted trees on pedestals with white and blue Christmas lights. The space is not terribly large but I want to create the illusion of having walked into a starlit forest. 

Do you think your method would work on something larger than yours were, if we use a bigger base? I don't want the trees falling on anyone! 

augsum15

Silverelf2015 said:

augsum15 said:

All of our wedding decor has to be free-standing at our reception, so we came up with using about a 1 foot square piece of plywood screwed to the bottom of a medium sized (ranging from 4 feet to 7 feet high to keep variety) branch (the bases are less than 2 inches in diameter, so they're skinny, but sturdy.) Then we painted them white, spray painted with gold glitter (to give the light something warm to bounce off of) then wrapped the stem in battery operated LED lights. 

You can also make paper or cloth leafs and hang them off, we're hanging battery operated lighted paper lanterns off ours.

I love your free-standing trees idea! My venue will not allow tape/nails/etc either, and we have a similar theme to the OP (an enchanted forest, too, but LOTR) so I'm thinking of having my Dad and fiance build me some "trees", at least for the corners of the room. We'll hang blue paper lanterns with LED lights as well because the venue won't allow real candles. I'm hoping for four 7-or 8-foot trees. I'm also going to have about six large potted trees on pedestals with white and blue Christmas lights. The space is not terribly large but I want to create the illusion of having walked into a starlit forest. 

Do you think your method would work on something larger than yours were, if we use a bigger base? I don't want the trees falling on anyone! 

The wider in diameter your trees are on the base, the less support you'll actually need; however you may need to trim some of the smaller branches off just to keep it steady, and make sure the trees you're using are relatively straight. You'll probably need a couple more screws in the bottom if they're larger though. You could try building a small ish wood planter to put them in, and then fill it with concrete half way, put the tree in, and then cover it with artificial moss or burlap or something to hide the box. We lucked out, FI's parents chopped down a big tree so we had a butt load of branches to chose from!