5 Ideas for your Relaxed and Seasonal Wedding
This week I've put together ideas to help you choose and plan a wedding that represents the relaxed and seasonal day you’d love to have. I also talk about ways to help you connect your colours and theme with the time of year you’re getting married in. Connecting with the seasons works to your advantage because you have the added benefit of all the seasonal colours and flowers outside. You’re not fighting against the weather and the colours and instead, you can link and thread the season throughout your wedding styling and theme. Whether you're having a summer, autumn, winter or spring wedding, these ideas will help you plan a day to match the seasonal colours and feel around your wedding date. In this wedding photo-shoot pictured below, I got to work with loads of great suppliers and you can find all their details at the bottom of this post.
If you'd like to steer away from having a formal wedding day and choose more of a laid back one instead, below are 5 ideas to help you plan your relaxed and seasonal wedding.
Photo by IC Photographics
1. Match with nature
Matching with nature allows you to extend your colour theme from the outside in. For an Autumnal wedding, you can link your theme to the burnt amber, rich yellows and crisp dark leaves which are turning on the trees outside. During Autumn, the low sun casts longer shadows adding a stunning and dramatic feel to the light and tone of the wedding day. You’ll also find there’s a cosier feeling indoors so you could choose to have garlands and more bushy foliage pieces to create a banquet style indoors. You can also link your bouquet ribbon colours, bridesmaid dresses, and table settings to the colours of the leaves and flowers, and the beautiful tones of nature at the time of year of your wedding. The same goes for summer, spring or winter weddings. Work with the colours around you to carry on the natural and seasonal look of your wedding and save yourself time and energy thinking up colour themes and styling ideas.
Photo by IC Photographics
2. Choose a venue full of characteristics
When you choose a venue with beautiful characteristics, there will be so many little details you can work with to save you decorating the whole space. You can accentuate certain parts of the venue that are steeped in personality and history. Kingscote Estate, which is the venue photographed here, has beautiful wine racks and wine barrels with gorgeous old wood. Your photographer can play around, using your bouquet in these areas and capture moments of people celebrating your wedding in these special spaces. Places with oak beams, low ceilings, twisting staircases, and grand archways are all great features to draw attention to.
Photo by IC Photographics
Photo by IC Photographics
3. Get ready with friends
On the morning of your wedding, it can sometimes take up to 3 hours to get your hair and makeup done (I know!). Organise the morning so that your bridesmaids and close friends can keep you company, feed you breakfast and laugh about the hen party with you. It’s also worth considering having a hair and makeup trial before your big day so you know who’ll be doing your hair on the morning of your wedding. You can bond with them before you meet them on the wedding day, it’s a helpful way to allow you to relax that little bit more whilst prepping for the day ahead.
Photo by IC Photographics
4. Wear a flower crown
You can go big, juicy and bright or more ethereal and delicate. For this Autumn wedding crown I used cymbidium orchids, feathers, achillea, astrantia, echinacea seedheads and olive leaves. In Winter you can choose berries and ranunculus, in Spring perhaps go ethereal with white gypsophila. For a Summer wedding, gorgeous country garden roses and eucalyptus would be perfect in a crown. Wearing a flower crown not only connects your look with the season, it’s also a relaxed way to have flowers on your day, making your wedding flowers that little bit more fun. I’m always a big fan of flower crowns because they’ll be in all the photos of you. Even if you put your bouquet down whilst you’re having canapés and bubbles, you’ve still got flowers in your hair that you don’t need to think about.
Photo by IC Photographics
Photo by IC Photographics
5. Spend time outside (if it's not blowing a hooley!)
At this wedding photoshoot, Gastro Catering put together beautiful food for the season, including this smokey box of canapés which looked amazing outside whilst everyone helped themselves to nibbles. Photos outside are stunning even for an Autumn or Winter wedding. It’s a chance to capture the dramatic clouds, long shadows, or the crisp wintery-ness of the day. You can wear a cute jacket if it does feel chilly and if it’s drizzling you can make sure you’ve got a posh umbrella to hand.
Photo by IC Photographics
Photo by IC Photographics
There you have it, 5 ideas to help you plan your relaxed and seasonal wedding. To help guide you on your wedding planning path, the ideas to think about are:
Match your wedding colour theme and style with the season. Working with the colours at that time of year makes life a lot easier.
Book a venue with loads of beautiful characteristics and personality. This means you don’t have to decorate the whole space because it’s already beautiful as it is.
Choose to wear flowers in your hair because a wedding is the perfect opportunity for a flower crown and instantly adds relaxed glamour to your day.
If you can, spend some of the day outside so you and your guests can enjoy the beautiful light outside, and your photographer can capture lovely photos.
Get ready with your friends to help you feel relaxed before your ceremony starts. Laughter is always the best cure for a bout of wedding nerves!
A big thank you to the team:
Kingscote Estate - Venue
Place Setting - Catering & Equipment Hire
Bower Events - Wedding Planner & Stylist
IC Photographics - Photographer
Bubble Squeak Films - Videographer
Webb and Farrer - Florist/ Me
To Have & To Hire - Prop Hire
Gastro Catering - Caterer
Your Event Stylist - Hair
Opulence & Grace - Dress
Astrid - Model
