Wedding Reception Forum

help with old fashioned picnic ideas???

I am having an outdoor reception with a picnic theme.  We are going to have a catered box similar to this:



Possibly without the box...and people can assemble their own sandwiches. 
I have simple table settings, with a bud vase on the table with some decorative glass stones on a white table cloth.  We will have some fancy pinwheels, like these:





I hope to also have bubble wands becaues instead of rice or anything, we want to be sent off to bubbles! 
My only other idea is old fashioned candy.  I don't want a "candy bar" but when I think of old fashioned picnic all I can think of is salt water taffy and hard candy sticks.  I need decor ideas on how on earth to make this feel like a festive and fun picnic.  People probably would not use blankets and sit on the ground, so blankets would be pretty pointless.
I think I am also going to have regular and dark kisses...both for symbolism and colors.  Our colors are silver and purple, and those are the foil colors in those kisses.  We are giving out personalized packets of wild flowers. 
Anyone other ideas???  Thanks so much! ! !

Re: help with old fashioned picnic ideas???

  • Think you could maybe find picnic tables for rent and place some purple checked tableclothes on them?  You could also set up some games around like croquet...not necessarily to have your guests actually play, but just for some decorating ideas.  Also, ice cream for dessert might be fun.  My apologies for not having many innovative ideas but I do think your theme/idea sounds adorable!
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  • You don't provide much info on what sort of electricity would be in the area, or what time of day/night it is, but when you lay out your vision, I picture an old fashioned dance or picnic like communities used to have. Things like light strings with the huge clear bulbs, or if it's daytime, the strings with hanging triangular flags in your colors. These of course would need a building or tent to be hung from. Something like this, but not the baby shower theme:

    http://www.ezpartyzone.com/pd_mod_moms_shower_flag_banner1.cfm

    This website has "retro & nostalgic" candy. I've ordered gift baskets from them and they are really fun.

    http://candy-crate.stores.yahoo.net/engibali.html

    Good luck. Your theme sounds fun.
  • Thanks...It is a lunch time picnic...as far as I know we don't have access to electricity.  We will have a large tent.  I love the croquet idea, and looking for a set of horseshoes...yes, I guess retro might be what I am thinking of as old fashioned.  Thanks for the help :-)
  • I had a fall picnic wedding reception, and there are tons of pics in my bio. Each guest had a small picnic basket which they filled with tons of wraps, tiny containers of veggie chips, mayo-free slaw and handheld desserts like fried apple pies and cookies. We had a huge trunk full of color-coordinated blankets that my mom and I made and people could sit at a table or take a blanket to the grass.

    We filled each table with a bucket of red and white wines and then piled fresh fruit all around the base for eating and drinking, and had servers uncork and pour for each table. I used tissue paper pomanders to decorate the big white tent, and I had the big clear bulbs for lighting.

    HTH! If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. Good luck!
  • for some reason I can't seem to figure out how to see pictures in people's bios...Thanks for the ideas though!
  • When I think picnic, I think watermelon, kite flying, picnic baskets, and drinks in a thermos. 

    For decor, you could go with wheatgrass (easy to grow yourself), decorative pebbles, and definitely swap out the white tablecloths for something checkered or with some color in it - NOBODY picnics on white tablecloths!  lol
  • I LOVE the kite idea! That would be so fun!
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_old-fashioned-picnic-ideas?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:5Discussion:f8916b03-6bbd-4516-9e50-01a5be5bb160Post:2cf69137-62cf-49f6-8a59-c9309edffa2e">Re: help with old fashioned picnic ideas???</a>:
    [QUOTE]for some reason I can't seem to figure out how to see pictures in people's bios...Thanks for the ideas though!
    Posted by felkels[/QUOTE]

    I didn't use the bio from TK. If you click on "BIO" under my sig pic, it will take you to my site.
  • BecW2be, just out of curiosity, why did your bus have the Extreme Makeover Home Edition sign on it?  lol
  • LOL it had sponsor ads all over it, and I think it was used to shuttle some people to a house that Extreme Makeover did in our area a couple of years ago. It was photoshopped out of our final prints, thank God!
  • If it is going to be warm at your wedding I would be careful giving out hershey kisses because they may melt. World Market is a great place to look for different candies. You could probably even find some nice things for your picnic baskiets there because they have a lot of miniture food items.

    Good luck! Sounds fun!
  • anything helps!  Thank you all!
  • I LOVE the purple checked table clothes idea...anyone know where I can get them???
  • I was only able to find vinyl.  For cloth you might have to buy the cloth and DIY or have them made.

    http://www.doxieshop.com/shop/gingham-check-vinyl-tablecloths-purple
  • I have been searching for that for days!  How on earth did you find it? 
    I actually stopped at a unique fabric store and found some fabric that would work...maybe with diy and I think it is 50% off.  thanks!
  • thelike.com and find.com can be good for searching for things like that if google isn't coming up with much.  They pretty much search a ton of online retailers.
  • wow!  Thanks!
  • A few other things you could include: hay bales covered in quilts or afghans for some of your seating, milk glass or depression glass pieces as serving dishes or part of your centerpieces, an old-fashioned-type lemonade stand, serving homemade ice cream and/or root beer floats - not sure if there's one in your area, or if this place will ship, but there's a place in St. Louis called Fitz's that makes and bottles its own root beer, and it's the best old-timey-tasting root beer ever! They don't advertise it on their website, but they do actually sell half kegs of root beer, which we're using at our reception to make the root beer floats. The website is www.fitzsrootbeer.com if you want to check it out.

    There's also a spread in one of the current bridal magazines (Bridal Guide maybe?) that I think I'm going to use for our reception. The colors used were black, white, and yellow, but could be adapted other colors. They used a black and white tablecloth, six-packs of old glass soda bottles as vases (which they covered in some type of black and white printed covering thing - they have the ordering info for it in the magazine), and put a few long stem yellow roses in each of the soda bottles. Very rustic but elegant, and would work perfectly for a picnic reception. GL!
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