backyard weddings

[ddzlilangel]

its been a while since i have been on. since i have, we have changed our date 2 times.. lost half the funds (my mom was going to sell her old truck that just sits there) well that hasnt happened and the date we have chosen is july23 ( sunday evening wedding). the location i wanted turned out to be more than my mom could afford. and my so called dad hasnt offered anything except to bring the "keg". so far we are down to a backyard wedding ( which i am not thrilled to be doing.. ) that cut our guest down to only being able to have 100. i mean how do you tell family and friends that they are not close and oh dont bring your kids?? my dad insists that his little girl isnt going to get married in a backyard but yet isnt offering to pay for anything. he says let me do some looking but time is slippng away. we have to know now.. and then i found out that my mom went and bought all the flowers to decorate the backyard.. so im on her bad side if my dad finds something that he will pay for and i like better...WHAT DO I DO??? how do you make a backyard look elegant and nice???

[rainbowtreat]

Sorry to hear all this is going on. But I am having a backyard wedding. I am headed to my sisters in Maine in a couple of days. My sister is decorating her yard and her deck for the ceremony. You can make it look very beautiful with very little. If it rains we will get married at the hall where the reception will be held. It can work and it can be very very nice. Wait a week or too and I will show you some pictures of my wedding that is happening this Saturday. It can work.

[Twigler]

Sorry to hear about your wedding problems. Sounds like you have your hands full of stress and worries. I wanted to let you know that I am having an outdoor wedding at my parents house and I think with a little bit of planning, it is going to be beautiful! I have a really strick budget to work with so I am really trying to use the natural area as aide to the decorations. We have about 1/6 of a square acre lot of grass which is bordered with tall pine trees. We are going to stand on a cement platform (part of an old grain bin that was never finished) with the trees as out backdrop. On the cement platform, I am going to try to have some type of fabric draped over it so it will look nice and elegant. We are going to use a lot of fresh flowers in pots wrapped in cloth of our wedding colors. We have decided to have a solo violinist play all of the music at the wedding also (she is a student of my dad's Ag class that he teaches). It is just going to be small and very personal to my fiance and I. We are still in the beginning planning stages of our wedding, but if you have more questions, feel free to ask!! I hope your wedding planning goes better from now on!

[CindySue]

My wedding was held outside at the lake, we had our reception in our front yard. I loved it. The thing is Mother Nature will provide most of the decorations.
Good Luck!!

[Kacie_bride]

Don't worry. I'm sorry you are having some problems, but a backyard wedding can be beautiful too! I'm sure your wedding will be very special and beautiful.

[MOB Karen]

Don't worry. I'm sorry you are having some problems, but a backyard wedding can be beautiful too! I'm sure your wedding will be very special and beautiful.

I agree, Kacie!! I think you work with what you've got. We thought about having Amber's wedding in my mother's backyard. It turned out that we didn't have to do that, but we would have made sure it was as beautiful as we could possibly make it.

[CindySue]

I know this sounds soooo sappy, but my outdoor wedding seemed more romantic, more spiritual, more.....well everything. I was more relaxed being outside than I think I would have been inside somewhere, no matter how spectacluar the place. Thats just me and I understand not everyone will feel that way.
I too had a VERY strict budget and had to cut corners EVERYWHERE. I just made the absolute best of what I had to work with.

[MOB Karen]

I know this sounds soooo sappy, but my outdoor wedding seemed more romantic, more spiritual, more.....well everything. I was more relaxed being outside than I think I would have been inside somewhere, no matter how spectacluar the place. Thats just me and I understand not everyone will feel that way.
I too had a VERY strict budget and had to cut corners EVERYWHERE. I just made the absolute best of what I had to work with.

I can definitely understand that, Cindy!! That's why I can't wait to see your pictures!!!! lol

[Cwpri]

Having a backyard wedding isn't always a bad thing (unless weather prevents it) You can make your wedding simple and elegant with a few personal touches. Depending upon what you have already done, you can rent an arch decorate it with some roses, carnations, etc. If you have a small table to place under the arch way, take a elegant small table cloth place over the table with a candle on each side and there is your homemade alter.

Depending upon what kind of decorations that your mother has already bought to decorate with, add special touches to that.

As far as the children are concerned, it may help with it being a backyard wedding and apologize for the inconvienence to please find a babysitter. Or if you know someone who took a babysitting course to see if they would babysit the kids on that day.

[WhiskeyGirl]

We were GOING to have an outdoor wedding, but the weather didn't permit it. BUT I thought I would share with you our arch. If we had gotten married outside this is what would have been our decoartion other then our flower (aisle) arrangements and the front two pillar arrangements. You can make an outdoor wedding as beautiful as you want it, or you can roll over and die and let it be run of the mill and bug you for the rest of your life! Its your call reallY!! :)

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/CanadianBride/00280020.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/CanadianBride/00280019.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/CanadianBride/00280004.jpg

These were all taken inside an old FARM building. So as you can see, you make it what you want! The building is generally VERY ugly, but we did what we could and look how it turned out!!! Good luck!!

[Cwpri]

VERY BEAUTIFUL Canadianbride

[WhiskeyGirl]

VERY BEAUTIFUL Canadianbride

Thank you!

[ddzlilangel]

thank you girls soo much.. i will take all these ideas into consideration. does anyone have any ideas how much it is to rent chairs and dancefloors?? thats my next quest.

[Kacie_bride]

I just realized you are from Texas. I am half way in between Houston and Beaumont. Yay! Another Texan girl! Sorry I don't know about the cost of renting chairs or a dance floor.

[ddzlilangel]

i know you dont see many texans on here..lol... i am almost at the point of just saying ok.. i want a jp wedding.. i didnt realize it was this stressful. the only thing that i know will be what i want is the cakes , my dress and headpiece... i dont know about anything else.. we havent even agreed on a minister...and he hasnt got off his butt so we can go get our rings.. he has been married before so he could care less about all this hype of a wedding.im trying really hard to keep my cool.and just deal with one thing at a time.. but time is getting shorter and its to where i cant deal with one thing at a time. you would think that with 7 weeks left i would have more done.. but my mom who is the funds for this lives 2 hours away from me which makes it even more stressful and hard. where do you take your frustrations out at??? like i said i am really trying not to snap...

[Kacie_bride]

Oh hun, I feel your pain. Men just don't get as excited as we do. Don't worry you can come here to vent your frustrations. You can vent all you want to us.

As for the Texans, right now there 3 of us with you. CindySue is from Texas, actually not far from Dallas I think. There is another girl, LavenderNuptials (Carrie) and she is from San Antonio. She just got married on Saturday and she will be back to show us pics hopefully soon.

[Twigler]

thank you girls soo much.. i will take all these ideas into consideration. does anyone have any ideas how much it is to rent chairs and dancefloors?? thats my next quest.

As far as dance floors are concerned, I am not sure. However, the price of the chairs depends a lot upon how nice you are wanting to go and what places you look at (and probably where you live too). I am planning on buying the cheapest chairs because I only care that they are not ratty and run down and brown. I found beige folding chairs for $0.65 per chair. The prices went all of the way up to about three dollers at this one place.

I will try to post a picture of the chairs I am getting when I figure out exactly how to do so on here. I suggest that you go online and just look up local rental places in your area to find out the prices and availability of chairs and dance floors.

[CindySue]

Im only maybe an hour away from you and I priced some stuff from http://www.unitedpartyrental.com/ and they had some really good pricing. I didnt use them because I needed something a little closer so I could have help picking them up and getting them returned. Hope this helps!
This was a response from there....
Hi Cindy,

Thank you for your recent inquiry. Listed below are the prices for the items you requested:

6' Banquet Table 8.25 each
8' Banquet Table 8.50 each
Dance Floor 16.00 per 3' x 3' square
Samsonite Chair 1.40 each
White Wooden Lattice Arch 50.50

We require a 50% non-refundable deposit in order to reserve the items. Just let me know what you need and I'll get it taken care of for you.

[darkangel090260]

check out my jurnal from time to time we are doing a out doors wedding at my aunts home

[usahgrad]

While I didn't do a backyard wedding, I had intended on an outdoor wedding (but, like Shawna, weather didn't permit). I had my wedding at a park and we were inside the lodge. If we had been outside we'd have only had the rose petals in the aisle and the unity candle table. When we moved inside, we had to dress it up a bit more, so we put up an arch like thing on the wall behind us. My cousin had her reception in her backyard and it was REALLY nice (of course, they had the money...but it's still proof that you can dress up a backyard).

The only downfall I can see, is that you're probably going to need a tent, unless you have room in the house in case it rains. If you're renting a tent, you're going to be paying the same amount as if you were renting a community hall of some sort...so I would suggest looking into a community hall. Ours was $150 for the day, so we had enough left over to rent it the day before too so we could decorate. $300 for two full days (9a - 12pm) of the lodge we rented is pretty good. I know the Natatorium in our city rents out for the same price and it's WAY nicer looking too! I would suggest maybe looking into something like that. And don't worry about bothering your mother:

1. It's your wedding.
2. Flowers are flexible; you can decorate whatever you choose with them! :)

Good luck!

Oh and here's some pictures to show you what I was talking about:

The ceremony set up:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d123/usahgrad/Wedding%20Pics/831%20Pictures/CRW_8786.jpg

The effect of the rose petals (pretty even when inside and INSANELY inexpensive!):

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d123/usahgrad/Wedding%20Pics/831%20Pictures/CRW_8713.jpg

Maybe that will give you some ideas. (Sorry about the pics, I just LOVE them! I'm so happy with the way EVERYTHING turned out!)

Oh, one last tip; if you can spring it and you aren't renting nice chairs (ie you're just using folding chairs) get chair covers. Everyone agrees that those were what made everything pop at my wedding! Even me! :)