Outdoor wedding (ceremony&reception) where to start?

karawap1

Hi guys! Would love some input/help/ideas from anyone that has done an outdoor wedding at a private residence?  Somewhat against my wishes, my fiance wants to have an outdoor wedding/reception at a friend's place.  The place is lovely, with a huge open space surrounded by woods, in a very nice little town, but that's all it is.... a large open space.  We are still just about a year out (May 30th 2015) but I want to get things lined up as early as possible.  Thankfully my fiance is in the bar/restaurant bussincess, so some really random things have been taken care of.

What I have so far (and I'm going with everything): braidal party picked, my dress/veil, wedding bands, entertainment (wedding gift from friends), generators (gift from friends) bartenders and alcohol (though his work), officiant,  oh and my color scheme, lol.

 

I know I will need tents, dance floor, lighting, tables, chairs, decor, bathrooms, and obviously food.

I find it all a bit daunting.  Do I hire a wedding coordinator when we will be using a lot of connetions for some things?  Maybe a day of? 

Has anyone on here taken a space and made it into a wedding?  Again, would love ideas, pics, anything!  Thankfully I'm a year out, so think once I get the ball rolling on some things I'll feel better about it all, but right now I'm in panic mode!

 

TIA!

emmyg65

Tents, dance floor, tables, and chairs are all available from your local party rental company. If you google "rent toilets [your location], you can find a bunch of places that rent those and get quotes for various options. Lighting and decor, you just have to decide what you want to do. Same with catering.

We got married in my in-laws' yard. Fortunately, we were able to use the bathrooms in their house (those nice toilet trailers are stupid expensive to rent). We rented tables and chairs from a party rental place; we also rented tents from them, but canceled them when we got a good weather report. 

I used the table layout program at Wedding Wire (LINK) and spacing guidelines from A Practical Wedding (LINK) to figure out how much room we needed for the tables for the reception area. We set the tables up under a stand of trees. We bought a shit-ton of the cheapie Room Essentials globe lights from Target and my now-husband strung them among the trees. We bought white tablecloths from Smartyhadaparty.com (cheaper than renting) and decorated with craft paper runners and simple flowers from a florist. That was pretty much it for our decorations.

We hired a caterer that specializes in pig roasts and set up a DIY bar. A friend lent us his DJ equipment and I made the playlists. We didn't hire a wedding planner or coordinator. Instead, we relied on our incredibly generous families who volunteered to help. They set everything up, made sure everything ran smoothly, and broke it all down the next day. We're both related a bunch of crafty, organized folk, and they were awesome. It meant so much to us to have such a community-centered wedding.

I'm trying to think about what else you'd want to know. I wrote about our wedding for A Practical wedding (LINK) and their Logistics section (LINK) has tons of helpful resources. It was seriously a lifesaver. Feel free to PM me with any other questions, or just ask them here.

Here are some pictures of our reception.

ab6704a

Hi @karawap1, I just got married on Saturday in my backyard.  I rented a tent, chairs, tables and like emmyg65 above I bought my linens because I found them cheaper than renting. We had plenty of space so we set up lawn games for the kids (and a lot the adults played too).

My caterer brought a grill on site and cooked steak, chicken, potatoes, and veggies and we also had a garden salad on the menu.  We rigged our own surround sound system and loaded up a playlist on our iPod.  It worked out surprisingly well.

We strung up lights in and around the tent but were able to use our own house power for all that.  If you're going to use generators, make sure you have lots of extension cords so you can place the generators far enough away that the noise won't overtake your music.

Bathrooms are obviously a big deal.  We used our own, and for 60 people the two bathrooms we had available in our house were plenty.  There were never any lines that I was aware of.

We also did not have a wedding coordinator, my family and friends generously helped us, but if I did things over one of the things I would do differently would be to hire a DOC.  I just found myself running around a lot before and after the ceremony and I just wouldn't want to do it again.

One thing we did do though, was hire a pest guy to come out and spray for mosquitoes.  BEST DECISION EVER!  We live in a wooded area and the mosquitoes are crazy.  We worked some citronella candles in the decor too for a little extra protection from the bugs.

I haven't gotten my pictures yet, but here's one I took during the setup, and one that my mom took of my dress.  I think one of the benefits of an outdoor wedding is taking advantage of all the pretty greenery.

karawap1

That was one thing we were thinking of too! (spraying for bugs beforehand!)  I would love to see more pics when you get a chance, that looks very similar to where we are going to get married.

 

I go back and forth between getting a coordinator or a DOC.  I thinkg a DOC may be all we need, just to make things go smoothly, and the few I have looked into, seem to come to th rehersal as well, and that looks like it'd really help to go over everything the day before with them.

 

Lots to think about!

ab6704a

It sounds like you've already got a lot of details worked out yourself, so if it were me I'd skip the full blown planner/coordinator and just do a DOC.  I'll definitely post some more pictures when we get them back from the photographer

Good luck with your planning!

 

[Deleted User]

A day of coordinator if it works in the budget could be very helpful for you. You can explain to her what you want in advance and what is coming and they can make sure that the tables are all set the way you want them, lines, plates, etc, and basically handle the logistics of things while you get ready. Also if there are questions from any of the vendors, they will have to go to you so you will only have one possible person contacting you with questions instead of all the different vendors contacting you.

dcaviston

My fiance and I are getting married in a wide open space on a family friend's property in June 2015. Like you I am trying to line up my ducks early. We have researched local tent rentals with in a small radius to keep delivery fees down, that's something big to consider into the budget is delivery and pick up fees. We are going with a very rustic/casual feel so we are using plywood for the dance floor that can be re-purposed later on for my crafty ideas. Most tent rental companies have packages that come with tables and chairs or they will rent them separately, and might have lighting options or be able to direct you where to go. I've have found its all about asking questions. As for the bathrooms, rent-a-johns are an option, my family friend has offered the use of her guest house bathrooms, although we feel that's too much of an invasion.

onlyjamielynn

We are having an outdoor wedding at my future in law's in June 2015.  I researched online and found a tent rental company that had a package with tent, tables & chairs.  I suggest not looking on the first few pages.  Ours was a couple pages down and we saved over $500 by not going with one of the "top rental" companies that supply everything.  You will either need double chairs (for ceremony & reception area) or someone to move the chairs after the ceremony.