The Ultimate Rustic Wedding Ideas Guide
Below are a few thoughts, ideas for a Rustic or Vintage styled wedding. I love the feel and fun of these types of weddings.
Let’s face facts – a lot of wedding planning is pretty stressful. Choosing a theme for your big day is, thankfully, one of the more enjoyable parts of your pretty intimidating looking to-do list.
In my upcoming blog articles I’ll be telling you all about some of the hottest wedding themes right now – from where we begin – with the charmingly rustic, to the decidedly, and beautifully, formal.
The Rustic Wedding: Theme overview
Rustic weddings have experienced a real surge in popularity over recent years – not least because they provide for plenty of unique ways in which a wedding can be made unique.
There can be beautifully bright bouquets of wildflowers, hay bales and quirky signage – not to mention page boys and flower girls who simply rock the relaxed country look. I thoroughly love the rustic / hippy / natural look and makes for a great relaxed atmosphere.
What’s not to love?
But wait – what if you don’t have a barn, have chosen a venue that’s beautiful, but set in an urban jungle, or have a serious aversion to hay bales?
Fear not – this is one seriously flexible theme. Let’s dive into the details and provide you with a little inspiration.
Plenty of rustic wedding ideas
The attire
Guys –For the guys think tweed, think pale or earthy colour palettes that are teamed with bright ties or go for a completely relaxed look with jeans teamed with waistcoats. Yes…jeans! Why not!! Your wedding is as unique as you are so throw out the normal expectations and go with what makes you who you are.
The Groom – Make a simple change on the Groom’s attire for a subtle note that he’s the bequeathed. Choose a bow tie, whilst the other guys choose a tie, opt for an oversized hanky or simply switch up his colours – shirt, tie or waist coat.
Girls – For the girls consider free flowing materials, rather than the inflexible satins of traditional dresses; consider Midi dresses for a wedding troupe with a difference and dress up relaxed hairstyles with the odd flower or two. Keep things easy, fun and comfortable.
The Flower Girl – Flower girl outfit ideas include tutus teamed with wellies, and typical materials include lace, cotton and ruffles upon ruffles of tulle.
There also seems to be a trend for the flower girls to be dressed in creams, or even whites (it seems that for these young ladies at least, the ‘no white to a wedding’ rule can be ignored!).
The Bride – One of the biggest concerns for the rustic bride can be whether she’ll be faced with restricted dress styles that ‘fit’ with the theme. Typically ‘rustic dresses’ include A-Line dresses, teamed with loose flowing locks that provide for a more relaxed look, as compared to the highly embellished traditional halter neck teamed with up-to.
However such dresses are far from the rule, and in fact choosing the most glamorous, longest tailed of dresses, or a dress with dramatic tulle, can often create contrast against what is a rustic, relaxed backdrop.
As a go-between however sweeping lace dresses can be the perfect option – and seem to be half way between maintaining the theme, and being wonderfully formal. Again, be yourselves. Dress to however you feel comfortable, elegant, fun and, above all beautiful.
The ideal venue
Of course the ideal venue for a rustic wedding would be one that comes complete with fully furnished barn (where timber, neutral colour palettes and typically rural settings all polish off a rustic feel).
But of course for many reasons such venues may not be suitable or available to you. Handily the rustic theme is one that comes with plenty of ideas for decor, including:
– Hemp string wrapped around glass tumblers, filled with baby’s breath, daisies & meadow flowers;
– Haystacks here and there; (if you can bring hay bales to an urban setting then full credit to you and your creativity.
– Plenty of hand written, framed signage;
– Hessian burlap that hangs from the ceiling;
– Wicker hearts hung in prime places;
– Coloured jars that hang from outside trees;
– Hemp table runners placed upon lace table cloths;
– A wishing well for a card collector;
– Vintage window frames for your seating plan;
– Branches and parts of trees used to create everything from rustic selfie photo op structures, to holding the table numbers of your seating plan.
– Fairy lights in warm colours. These make awesome backdrops, table decorations and ceiling lighting. They add real warmth and beauty as well as looking awesome in images.
Creating rustic wedding invitations
Fonts: Rustic wedding invitations have a heavy focus upon the fonts that are used – with multiple styles, sizes, font-weights and detailing (such as swirls, dots, banners and frames) used to break up the design and guide the eye.
Materials: It’s all about teaming rustic feeling materials up with one another – hemp, lace, string, cream or brown card are all up for grabs here, and you can even work pressed flowers, parcel tags or wooden hearts into the mix.
I have a number of Rustic, vintage styled weddings to shoot this year and I am really looking forward to them. The laid back vibe, natural feel, masses of personalisation and the huge fun element really make for a great day. If you can include a campsite with tepees for your guests to sleep over then there is no reason for the party to stop until the last man (or woman) drops.
If you are looking for a photographer to cover your Rustic and / or Vintage wedding then give me a call.
Feel free to leave any ideas, tips, comments below. Especially if you are planning a Rustic or Vintage styled wedding.