So I'm utterly confused! My fiancé and I have decided to have our wedding at the end of September in a local park, now I don't mind and its awesome that we found such a reasonable priced venue (25.00 an hour and it has a kitchen changing room bathroom an outside fireplace) but at the end of the day it's still a park. How do I decorate it to look relaxed an elegant without veering into kitchy birthday decor or going into astronomical amounts budget wise. My colors are eggplant,cream, artichoke, and grey.
Re: HEEEELP!!!!!!! Park wedding with no drama but clad needed
As for your question: Real fabric tablecloths, and no balloons or colored plates.
It sounds simple and dumb, but it's true.
If you can't/don't want to buy or rent tablecloths, you could just do runners if you have nice tables. We had plain brown picnic tables, so I got some gingham fabric from walmart to cut into runners, a blue remnant for the sweetheart table, and a long chunk of sale fabric for the buffet tables. I think I spent about $25 for 14 guest tables, a 15ft buffet table, and the sweetheart table. It took more work, but it was a lot nicer and cheaper than plastic.
If you want to use disposable plates and flatware, Sams has some really nice clear plastic plates. They're sturdier and look more sophisticated than regular paper plates. We got "like silver" flatware from Smartyhadaparty, and it does look very real. It's also pretty sturdy. We just used clear plastic cups from Walmart.
I would use fewer flowers if you are trying to save on your budget, or maybe make the centerpieces yourself. A few candles can go a long way.
No balloons. No streamers. No paper hanging bells. Buy real linens, (try smartyhadaparty.com or linentablecloth.com for reasonably priced picnic table sized linens) have a pretty floral centerpiece on each table.
We did our reception at a park. It also had an indoor space, but the majority of the seating was outside.
This is an example of what our picnic tables looked like with the ceremony set up in the background, and and a closeup of one of our centerpieces.
Websites/blogs where our wedding has been featured:
http://www.dapperq.com/2013/11/a-very-dapper-wedding/
http://www.onabicyclebuiltfortwo.com/2013/10/wedding-christina-g.html
http://4realequalityweddings.com/2014/05/16/g-christina/

We are going for vintage modern, we are a really laid back couple( more him than I really