Wedding in the Garden - Best Garden, Home And DIY Tips

This is your special day, it’s about you, and the memories you will create with friends and family forever. Having a wedding in a garden is a beautiful, intimate, and surprisingly cheap way for a couple to be bond in matrimony.

Now, I know you’re a little worried and you want to be perfect, to be the most memorable moment of your life – this is exactly why we wrote this. This will be a comprehensive but easy to understand the list of everything you need to have the perfect wedding in your garden or backyard, we will cover:

How do you decorate the garden?
The guest list, keeping children entertained
Drinks, foods, music, gifts, games
Should you hire a professional photographer
What flowers to use and many, many more…

Complete Guide on How to Arrange a Wedding in the Garden

Table of Contents

Planning the Guest List

Now, if your parents are paying for the wedding, please note that the venue that you rent (unless you’re on a private estate) will usually have limited sitting, and with your parents (both sides) paying – they’ll usually take half of the guest list meaning if your venue’s capacity is 200 then your parents get 50 guests and so does your special one’s parents.

It is crucial for you to create a Rolodex (or something similar) of guests or use a more modern software or an app, to keep everything organized. Fill it with every name that you can think of. Start categorizing each name into tiers.

Tier A: is for the family such as sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents, in-laws niece, nephews, and so on
Tier B: is for bridesmaids, groom’s men, close friends, best friends
Tier C: is for workmates, old friends that you haven’t talked to for years.

And then, once you’ve gathered all of the names, simply remove the names that you don’t want from your Rolodex. You can colorize each tier to make them easier to spot and remember some of them will have kids.

Remember, to be realistic about of al this – each guest will add additional plates for your caterer, chair rentals, favors, and how big the cake should be. If you’ve rented a venue and confirm with your coordinate how many can they accommodate then simply choose a slightly, conservative number as rarely will all guests come.

Golden Rule: stick to your list. Do not have any last-minute guests, and especially random strangers from parents, in-laws, or even people that you interact with at work, church, clubs, and so on.

What Drinks Should You Serve

Besides water always available, this will depend entirely on your family’s traditions and/or religious beliefs; as we don’t know your tradition nor religion, we’ll give you three general ways you can go about doing this.

1st Way: nothing heavy, you can serve light wine just enough to pass the time.

2nd Way: serve heavy, not so much win but lots of alcohol. It’s a party, has fun, makes memories.

3rd Way: non-alcoholic, serve water, soda, and juices such as grape, orange, and lemonade.

You can also apply these in regard to food. Now some of your guests will children with them, so whether you go with the 1st way or the 2nd way, it’s best to have soda or juices available for the children.

6 Ways To Keep Children Busy

The best way to keep children busy is to have an experienced sitter(s) supervise them. This will allow parents to drop off their children just before the cocktail hour and simply pick them up afterward. If your sitter has first aid certification better but if the sitter is energetic, creative, enthusiastic, and has lots of experience then it’s fine. Otherwise, these are the best ways to keep children busy:

Treasure Hunt: your sitter will guide the children through a maze of interactions whether that’s having the kids delivering a rose to every guest, finding specific objects, or finding Easter eggs (even if it isn’t really springtime)
Kid’s Menu: children want spaghetti, hot dogs, chicken, grilled cheese, burger, tacos not your delicious catered food. Oh, and don’t forget about cookies, frozen smoothies, milk, juices, and even Shirley Temples.
Arts and Crafts: the table where the children sit can play, color, build, miniature toys, puzzle, books, plastic lightsabers, and bubbles. Bubbles are very, very, very important.
Mini Camp: you’ll need an experienced and creative sitter for this. The sitter will host a mini camping trip within the wedding, coordinating with the event organizer, your sitter will create trails, paths filled with treasure, hidden treats, puzzles to solve, and even sleeping bags for storytime.
Camera Curious: kids are naturally curious, give them cheap disposable cameras. Tell them there’ll be a price for the best photo of the couple, parents, guests, friends, food, drinks, anything and everything you can think of. They’re essentially you’re additional, free, photographers.
Movie Room: now, this will depend on how much space you have. If you have access to multiple rooms each with its own TV but if you can only have 1 space, with a TV – usually, that’s all kids want.

Tip: call up your local daycare and ask if they can recommend anyone or if they know someone who’s great with kids.

Are There Any Special Party Games?

There are a lot of party games that you and your guests can take part in; your family’s traditions and religious belief play a big role here so to keep it neutral, we’ve narrowed down the best party games for almost all people:

High Striker: is an all-time favorite across the world. You will often find these at carnivals or certain arcades. It’s a very simple game, you wield a mallet, you whack a lever that has a little puck on it and the goal is for the puck to hit the bell.
Life-Size Jenga: Jenga is a classic, fun tabletop game. Turn up the scale to life-size and your whole guest list will have a very fun time. Have your friends and/or groomsmen create these life-size blocks of fun.
Note: players may have to wear hard hats for protection.
Life-Size Chess/Checkers: imagine seeing, a massive life-sized cheese piece move. Think tennis but with chess or checker pieces.
Wheel of Fun: this is fantastic if you want to interact with your guests. Put goofy, silly, or intimate activities there such as ‘Show Your Best Dance Moves’, ‘Sing’, or even ‘Couple’s Kiss.’
Themed Photo Booths: setup different themed photo booths, there are a lot of ways you or a talented friend can dress this up without having to cost a fortune.
Drinking Game: every country has its own drinking game, if you’re in the United States, one of those drinking games is the good old’ beer pong and flip cup.
Water balloon toss: the game is simple, it’s a process of elimination. Each contestant has a partner to who they toss a water balloon (or an egg), after each toss, the thrower takes 1 step back. Whoever breaks the water balloon loses.

Honestly, depending on how big your space is – there are more games we can recommend such as charades, badminton, cornhole, ring toss, bingo, croquet, poker, kissing game, life-sized scrabble, musical chairs, I spy, dominoes, lawn bowling, piñata, a dance-off, you can even set up a game room where guests play Mario party games, Mario kart, or racing games such as Gran Turismo.

While we cannot accommodate everyone, our best tip for you is to scale up a game. Take, for example, Jenga and chess, turn the pieces into massive, life-sized, objects and you can be sure, everyone’s inner child will come out.

Best Gifts for Guests

A wedding party favor doesn’t necessarily mean the most expensive gift ever for your guests. It can be simple but intimate. Think creative gifts that speak your heart or your personality. It can be a simple, personalized hand sanitizer or a pair of chocolate donuts wrapped in customized packaging.

Here’s a list of the best wedding party favors:

Personalized Handwritten Cards: there are two ways you can approach this; (1) personally handwrite each card for each specific person or (2) you handwrite only a few and the rest, make templates for each person. Not printed, still handwritten.
Go to a Church or a School, and say for each card, you’ll pay $1-$5.
Champagne with Customized Packing: this may get a bit expensive but you love wine and champagne, this is a fantastic gift as you can customize even the corks or wine stoppers.
Personalized Food Packaging: honestly, we love this one. It’s simple but creative. Imagine, receiving a gift that’s a customized paper bag filled with donuts. Simple but creative. Some have used popcorn, lollipops, bottle openers, playing cards, matches, and even cute, little mini lanterns.
Personalized Accessories: these can be pins, buttons, hats, bracelets, sunglasses, magnets, hand fans, photo frames, t-shirts, mason jars, wine glasses, and so much more.
Personalized Calander: each month is a different theme or photo of your wedding.
Tiny Suitcase: this is a tiny suitcase that will involve all the intimate moments of your relationship you want to share.
Theme Candle: is a candle with beautiful artwork. This artwork can be one of your most special moments as a couple. Think of a frozen image/moment in your life, where it was, or is the most special moment ever.

Again, this doesn’t have to be expensive. Anything and everything you can think of to personalized, if it means something to you and you know it’ll help your guest remember your special day, go for it.

Should You Hair Service Personel or Should I Do All Myself?

While you can do it all on our own, unless you’ve been an event organizer before or you have the experience to controlling, guiding, and assisting a massive group of people; everything from a guest needed a single piece of paper, looking for the bathroom, aunt May’s gonna cold, the photographer’s late, something’s wrong with the cooking equipment, someone’s missing their ring, rowdy guests or kids – there are a lot of things that can happen during a wedding and it’s best left to a professional.

So unless you’re willing to carry that burden, we highly recommend that you hire a professional to help you, not just an event organizer or a wedding planner but attendants, servers, waiters, photographer, or videographer. Anything and everything that can take a burden from you, go for it.

But if you are tight on budget, we understand. What you can do is ask your bridesmaid or groomsmen if they know anyone who’s looking for work or people who will work in exchange. Ask, ask, ask. Someone will know someone, who will know someone.

How to Design the Area for the Wedding Couple

Garden weddings are beautiful, intimate, celebrations that are often focused on a core experience. Most of today’s couples tend to like a less formal wedding landscape, where the natural landscape gives a unique, personal style to their wedding event.

Garden venues have been formal and sophisticated as a wedding venue. These gardens have patios made from bricks; hedgerows are manicured and trellises are used as decorative accents. Other garden venues are rustic, more free-flowing with less of the structure of formal gardens.

For garden weddings, you and your wedding planner can take advantage of the natural terrain, and model the decor, following the contours of the surrounding landscape. If you plan to have a backyard wedding, have at least a preparation time of 8 weeks’, to prepare the backyard. Nature will cover most of your cute decorating costs. You just need to help it along. So plant your gardens ahead, guided by the design and layout of your event.

Essential Features of your Garden Wedding Setting

The ceremony altar must have a beautiful backdrop view during the wedding.

The backdrop can be a flower wall, an arch, or a man-made structure such as a pavilion or deck. The design will have no limits. Your creative imagination will guide the backdrop design.

For a backyard wedding

Reception is a grand entrance. If you choose to use a tent for the reception, attach drapes that can be pulled back, creating an inviting entryway. You can pull back curtains with foliage; candles will give an accent.
As an accent to the garden wedding space, multiple arches can be put over the aisle. The arches can be decorated with flowers, grapevine, ivy, tulle.
You can create “outdoor rooms” and furnish this space with modern furniture, put lattice partitions, or line the rooms with potted plants. Make sure to groom the adjoining pathways so guests can comfortably walk the paths and plants will not be an obstacle.

A Flower bar

You can put a flower bar, a table which has fresh flowers for the guests to delight in the flowering blooms, and even create a corsage or a bouquet to take home. Guests can also use petals of the flowers as confetti. The flower bar can also offer to the wedding guests, gifts that carry the garden wedding theme. Gifts to guests may include mini terrariums, succulents, or mini cactus in pots.

The mood you want to create sets your personal choice on how to design the area.

Spring and summer garden weddings can have a magical setting. Instead of the white tablecloth and centerpieces of flowers, you can put vintage décor in subtle colors. Use an off-white tablecloth. In the center of each table, place a meter of artificial grass and decorate the grass with antique candle holders and flower buds. This will create a fairyland décor.

You can design a garden path in your wedding garden as a memory lane, where wedding guests can walk the path and see memorable moments shared by the wedding couple

For wedding celebrations that start during the day but stretch until evening, white paper lanterns of varied sizes can decorate your garden, evoking a romantic atmosphere. These lanterns can be scattered among the tree branches to lend a star-like effect. The dance floor can also be decorated with lanterns to give an intimate ambiance.

What Belongs to the Perfect Decor

Your creativity and the choice of theme will guide you, as you draw inspiration from the elegant looks of formal gardens or the romantic garden scapes and nature’s decor.

The wedding theme blends with the garden surroundings with the overall effect of garden elegance. Garden wedding decor does not overwhelm the beauty of nature.

Match the flower arrangements, which include your bridal bouquet, the flowers carried by the bridesmaid, and table arrangements to the color and shape of the garden blooms. It is important to connect the wedding accents with the garden surroundings.
Remember to keep the wedding cake decoration simple and adorned with fresh flowers that blend with the garden colors.
The centerpieces on tables have garden themes. Examples are vases shaped like watering cans, jar vases, pots made of terra cotta, small birdbaths, and birdhouses.
The focal points of the garden area must be decorated to match the wedding theme. Focal points include gazebos, arches, and benches.
You can also rent a fountain and floral planters to lend a look of sophistication to the garden setting.
Most of all, the ceremony altar must have a beautiful backdrop of the natural setting, for the wedding. Photo sessions after the wedding will also need this backdrop.

Seasonal Garden Decor Guides

The season of your wedding has an impact on your garden decoration.

Spring season: white chairs and tablecloths are normally used for the wedding ceremony and reception, with an accent of pastel colors and gentle fabrics. Favorite spring flowers are daisies, buttercups, tulips.
Summer season: wicker chairs are used, with bolder colors to give accent to summer’s sunny days. Summer accents include roses, citrus fruits, berries. Tents or other shade material to give protection from the summer heat will keep guests comfortable.
Autumn season: Richer colors on darker woods stress the appeal of seasonal changes during fall. Autumnal weddings are matched with rustic tones and colorful leaves. Prepare for the cold evenings of autumn.

Backyard Garden Wedding

If you are having a backyard garden wedding, you can add a personal touch with memorabilia showing your memorable moments like photos of your engagement hanging from the tent, wedding photos of your parents framed, and put on a table. Decorate the tent, garden trees, and tables with memorabilia of your special moments. You can also decorate the inside of your house, have memorabilia of you and your fiancee in the living room and kitchen. or in the bathroom, have photos of you and your fiancee along with bathroom toiletries, perfume, cologne.

Which Flowers to Choose

There are no rules that wedding flowers have to be roses. You are free to use plants, botanicals, other alternatives.
Choose the flowers you like. Before you discuss arrangements with the florist, know basic info on flowers, their season.
Aim to hire a florist, six months to one year before the wedding.
5 and 8 percent of your budget is allotted to floral arrangements.

Flower Bouquets

For the wedding bouquets, the best choice is the varieties that are bred for their long stems, to provide for the bride’s grip. Choose plants with the label “tall”.
Popular options for wedding bouquets include roses, lilies, hydrangeas, sunflowers, peonies, freesias, ranunculus.
If the floral bouquet is sparse, you can add foliage. Magnolia or camellias with attractive foliage are evergreens. Succulents with their texture and strong form are another option.

Floral arrangements

Flower arrangements must blend with the venue, whether the venue is formal, rustic, free-flowing; if the venue is a vineyard, or a park, inquire what flowers go with this venue.
Centerpieces on the tables: consider the shape of the tables: are they round or long? How are the tables arranged?
Look at the style of the centerpieces. What is the shape of the main centerpiece, on the wedding couple’s table? Consult your florist on the best arrangement.

Seasonal and All Year Round Flowers

There are flowers in bloom all year round, and seasonal flowers. Be sure that the flowers you choose are in season for the wedding. If your flowers are not in season or are too expensive, you can substitute flowers that evoke the same mood. For example, garden roses are available all year-round and can be a substitute for peonies. Consult your florist on other substitute floral pairs .

Flowers evoke particular styles

A Classic appeal is evoked by traditional bridal flowers as roses or peonies. A Romantic appeal is given by soft, larger flowers. A rustic appeal is given by loose arrangements of vibrant flowers with greens. Work with your florist to choose the best style to match the wedding theme. You can also experiment with flower alternatives such as fruits or feathers.

Arranging garden wedding flowers

Suspended arrangement: suspending flowers is an optimum way to use few flowers. The wind in your garden venue will make them sway like chimes.
Grapevines arch arrangement: although garden venues do not need a lot of flowers, setting up cut blooms in a grapevine arch evokes a rustic tone.

You can put meaning to your flowers and bouquet wraps.

Different flowers have special meanings or symbols. For instance, red tulips symbolize love and passion; a lily of the valley means happiness and purity. You can give personal meanings to your flowers.

Planning the Party After the Wedding

A wedding reception is a party held after a marriage ceremony as a gesture of appreciation for the guests who attended the wedding. For the first time, the married couple receives society, in the form of family and friends.

Bringing the indoors out into the garden setting can be done by providing a lounge area for the wedding reception and cocktails. You can do this with outdoor furniture that’s available or creatively modify the use of indoor furniture. Or group furniture of varied textures and color tones for a mixed effect. If there is not enough outdoor lighting to create the mood for a backyard wedding, you can provide lighting for a dinner setting with some overhead bistro lights or wrap the lights around the tent beams as a structural highlight.

You can also rent reception tables and chairs from a rental company-or you can ask your catering team for the best styles, according to your budget. Equipment to control temperature is also needed. The catering team can rent the equipment needed to cool down the outdoor area so your guests won’t be uncomfortable in the outdoor heat of summer. Or to heat up your outdoor venue, if it’s an autumn wedding.

A dessert bar can be an outdoor bar serving gelato, a station serving sweets to delight your guests. Or it can serve ice cream instead of gelato. This dessert bar in your backyard garden venue can also offer a baked pie for dessert, like in grandma’s kitchen. As well as homemade cookies and cupcakes.

A drinking bar outdoors. A bar cart with self-serve beverages on ice, for a stylish and quick refreshment.

Yard Games

Entertain your guests with lawn games, from lawn bowls, to ring toss, or croquet to keep them occupied, during your photo sessions.

A garden wedding can offer games and entertainment while it is still daytime and dance-music is still in the offing. Set up a couple of lawn games. Guests can play while they wait for you to finish your photos or while they drink cocktails.

The Dancing floor

A backyard wedding party always has a dance floor. Be sure to rent a dance floor for the wedding guests. Grass is uneven, with holes in the grass in which women guests can slip. A flat and smooth floor surface is safer and better than the uneven soil under the grass, or a deck or patio.

Music for the Wedding

Should you Hire a DJ or Hire a Band for the Party After the Wedding?

There are different styles of wedding entertainment and entertainment services so a proper wedding band and DJ would need experience in wedding gigs, entertaining different age groups and must have experience in managing the smooth flow of the entertainment. Your selection of the entertainment style depends on the effect that you want the music to have on your event and guests. Here are some choices of music styles for you.

Musicians for the Wedding

Acoustic instruments need no electric plug sockets and need no amplification so acoustic instruments are the easiest to play in a garden setting. They sound and look beautiful, and are a proper setting for wedding photos.

For a large venue, you can add to the number of musicians or use an amplified option for outdoor performance.

A solo guitarist will sing and play special music for you and your partner, especially if you have special songs you want to hear
A String quartet: the 4 players can sing classy or pop tunes to entertain your guests. Their musical instruments are acoustic and their voices will be projected in the large outdoors.
A harpist can play traditional music for a wedding ceremony. The 47 strings of the beautiful harp will project outdoors.A Classical Duo, either a harp and cello duo or a flutist and harpist duo, will render classical music or your favorite songs in special musical arrangements
A choir can magically render music in an inspiring way, with their voices in harmony. Their voices are a choir’s instrument and is the easiest to perform in an outdoor setting.
A string duo is your option when a quartet is too big for the available space. Two players perform, one doing the melody and the other, rendering bass

Musical Bands for the Party After the Wedding

A Brass band plays loud musical instruments and can lead guests to the dance floor as they listen to their favorite songs in a unique arrangement for brass players with portable drums.
A Strolling band plays upbeat music. This band is mobile so they can be in any place during the ceremony and reception. There are no cables or plugs used by a normal band. They have a full line-up that includes vocals, guitars, and one other instrument like a violin. These groups are well suited to include folk or jazz songs with their instruments.
Acoustic duos: render light musical accompaniment for a laid-back garden party, as your guests enjoy cocktails
A classical harpist: provides elegant background music for drinks receptions
A different musical style: can be Caribbean steel drum bands, traditional or vintage jazz bands, or an acoustic act like the modern mariachi band that brings the fiesta color to the party.

Should You Hire a Professional Photographer?

Your wedding photographs are memorable photos that you will keep for a lifetime. Your wedding day must be captured in a special way by a professional photographer. When you have a core of choices for a photographer, study closely their portfolios – you’re looking for someone that matches your taste.

Professional photographer’s criteria:

Inquire if they are licensed, registered, or affiliate.
A professional photographer must have the proper equipment, not merely a basic compact camera. Many professional photographers undergo a minimum of 1 year of study in areas of photography, editing, exposure.
They also know what shots to take. The combination of their skill and equipment means you will get better, more memorable photos compared to photos taken by an amateur.
Use a wide-angle lens to capture the entire wedding venue
As Back-up equipment, the photographer must have at least 2 main camera bodies and several hi-quality lenses; a backup camera that is not more than 3 years old; backups for lenses

Approaches to capturing a wedding day in photographs

Think about what you would really like :

Combine candid photographs, where you capture emotions and the actual moments that happen, with beautiful, natural portraits and an editorial style in rendering details.
Record the wedding day moments in a purely documentary way; that means no couples photos and family shots.
A storytelling approach, as well as family photos and relaxed couples photos
A traditional way of shooting photos, i.e. more formal, posed photos and less of candid photographs.
Challenges on outdoor wedding photography: include uneven lighting, bright sun, dark shadows, and the weather. The photographer must be aware of the time of day or location that will work best for outdoor photos

Your photography budget

It is good to set aside 10-15% of your wedding budget for photography.
When you look at the packages, study what is included and what is not.
What are the extras or add-ons that the package offers: Basic offers include the photography coverage of the day, an online gallery, and its digital files. Optional extras may include a second photographer, an engagement shoot, thank you cards, prints of the photographs, albums.
How do they protect your wedding photo files? They must have stored backups. They must keep your original and retouched images on many external storages; Have a portable hard drive with all shoots of 6 previous months; store images in an online gallery and another copy online with Google gallery
If the photographer loses the wedding photo files, he must have liability insurance

WEDDING SPEECH

Wedding speeches are given at every wedding. The groom’s acceptance speech is indispensable and is eagerly awaited by the wedding guests. A speech by the bride’s father is also usually expected. Here we show you what you should pay attention to when giving your speech and how you can contribute significantly to the entertainment at the wedding with your wedding speech. You will also find examples of wedding speeches to inspire you for your own speech.

Examples of wedding speeches:
The bride’s father is almost obliged to give a short speech. Likewise, the groom and a best man should address a few words to the wedding guests. To give you a few suggestions, we have put together some wedding speeches for the bride and groom, the bride’s father and the groomsmen. Please click on the picture and you will be redirected to our partner site where you will find a lot of interesting tips for wedding speeches.

Tips for a successful wedding speech

Tip: Present a real gold-plated horseshoe as a good luck charm during your speech. When you hand over the horseshoe at the end of your speech, you have found the perfect ending at the same time.

Remember: When giving a wedding speech, you should look authentic. Therefore structure your speech with rhetorical questions and do not use hackneyed quotations and verses. The wedding speech should last about two to five minutes. The examples of wedding speeches are of course only suggestions. Your speech is best received by the audience when it is natural. The most beautiful empty words are ineffective if they don’t sound authentic.

The wedding speech can be given by the bride’s father as well as the groom or the bride and groom. These are the most common variants, although a speech by the mother of the bride or friends of the bride and groom cannot be ruled out.

Most of the time, the bride and groom want a certain person to give a speech at the wedding and respond directly to it. It can also be that the bride and groom want a wedding speech from the bride’s father as well as that they want to take over the speech themselves. Some also use it so that first the bride’s parents give a short speech, then the parents of the groom and finally the bride and groom themselves.

If you only want to entrust a very specific person with this task, it should be the one who is closest to the bride and groom and, for example, knows about the story of getting to know each other up to the wedding.

If you want several wedding speeches to be held, the timing must be agreed.

Wedding speeches are undisputedly one of the highlights of any wedding celebration. But it is not always easy for those who are supposed to give the wedding speech. On the one hand you would like to give a very personal speech, on the other hand you have to be careful not to mention anything that could make the groom or bride look ridiculous in front of the guests.

With these tips you can write a great wedding speech

Wedding speeches are only good when they are written with the heart. It is of no use to anyone if you copy a stylistically perfect speech from others. The meaning and purpose of a speech at the wedding is not to appear as a particularly stylish word acrobat, but to tell the guests something about the bride and groom and to give the bride and groom their own wishes.

So you should make sure to include as many personal details as possible in the speech, but at the same time make sure that the speech does not become too long and the guests and the bride and groom are bored. It is important to find the right length.

A good wedding speech begins with greeting the bride and groom and the wedding guests. Then you can tell anecdotes about getting to know the bride and groom, followed by a general paragraph on love, happiness, marriage and everyday interaction. If you want, you can use famous quotes as examples. So you can either find a perfect introduction to this topic or loosen up the wedding speech.

Just as important is the motto “The spice is in the brevity”. At the end you should address your wishes to the bride and groom.

Not everyone is creative and stage fright is an additional problem. It can take a while to formulate the “perfect” wedding speech. If you can’t think of anything, you should talk to friends, acquaintances and relatives of the bride and groom. So you can get a closer look at the life of the newlyweds.

Or just use our pre-made wedding speech blueprint. There you will find the perfect wedding speech, guaranteed!

Don’t put yourself under any pressure and plan your speech a few weeks before the wedding!

Just no stage fright

Pretty much everyone knows stage fright. Especially with the wedding speech you don’t want to go wrong and give the bridal couple the best speech possible as a gift.

So it is only natural to be excited and worry about the fact that the text is not right at the crucial moment. It is therefore important to prepare as well as possible for the moment of the wedding speech.

Practice in front of relatives, friends and acquaintances and also in front of the mirror. Ask someone to record you rehearsing your wedding speech with the camera and check afterwards what they could do better and where. Think of a simple opening phrase that you say a few times before the speech. This gives you a lot of security.

It is essential that you adhere to the order of address. First the bridal couple is greeted. Then you devote yourself to your parents, siblings and other family members, then friends and acquaintances come. If the pastor is present, they should also be greeted.

It is best to know the speech by heart and not need the slip of paper with the key words. Nevertheless, the wedding speech should be delivered lively. So that all wedding guests can follow, you shouldn’t talk too quickly and should stick to your given time.

The right time for the wedding speech should be agreed with the bridal couple in advance. If you have to interrupt the speech for a few seconds or minutes because you are moved to tears or if you interrupt the flow of speech for a moment, this is not a problem. That is what makes a wedding speech special and personal!

How to give an entertaining wedding speech

A wedding speech should by no means be lengthy or even boring. Short, relaxed, but meaningful and with a certain depth. Combining all these aspects does not always seem easy.

For this reason, between all the congratulations and thanks, it is a good idea to include a few loose passages. It is advisable to quote a funny anecdote. There are several sources on the Internet related to the topic of weddings. There are also numerous books with poems, sayings, stories and anecdotes on the subject of weddings.

Another possibility is to refer the speech directly to the bride and groom (if it is a speech for the bride and groom of the family, best man, etc.). Of course, not only the heroic but also a few outrageous deeds can be gallantly incorporated. Such interjections are always very well received by the rest of the audience.

Also found on the Internet or in books, jokes that can be incorporated into a wedding speech. A small example of this:

“Men are like computers. If the bride had waited a little longer, she would have got a better one. “

The speaker can of course also be recommended to implement numerous funny sayings, either spontaneously or prepared, in the wedding speech. These can be just fun or a little thought-provoking. In any case, it always depends on the way in which these are positioned or formulated by the speaker in the address. An example of this from Arthur Schoppenhauer:

“To marry means to halve one’s rights and double one’s duties.”

Finally there is still the possibility to communicate directly with the bride and groom. Spontaneous interjections, short-term ideas and idioms always loosen up a wedding speech. After all, this is a wedding – a celebration that is definitely associated with a lot of joy and serenity. It is not appropriate to read a fixed and rigid speech from the sheet. Since there is generally a good mood, you don’t have to pay too much attention to every detail. It is important to exude a little sympathy, looseness, charm. The speaker should smile and maintain eye contact with the bride and groom. This is the only way for him to allow a certain looseness to flow into the wedding speech.

The sequence of speakers during the wedding

It is the task of the bride’s father to address the first speech to the bride and groom and to greet the wedding guests. Then the groom has their say, later the groomsmen. If the father of the groom also wants to give a speech, it is best to do so at the beginning, right after the father of the bride.

A good time to give your first speech is after the starter or before dinner. The other wedding speeches then take place between the other courses. The acceptance speech is traditionally given by the groom, but nowadays the bride and groom also speak alternately.

When organizing a wedding, be sure to speak to all of the guests who are eligible to deliver a speech. Determine the order of the speakers and roughly how long each speech should be.

Ideally, you appoint a moderator who announces the respective speakers and guides them through the evening. At the same time, this creates a relaxed atmosphere and ensures that the schedule is adhered to. It also makes it easier for the speakers to get started.

How long can a wedding speech last?

As the wedding speeches take place between courses, they should not exceed 5 minutes. However, the speech should not be kept too short either.

Tip: It is advantageous if a list of speakers is drawn up. This task is usually done by the witnesses. In this way, the sequence of the speeches can be determined and the content of the speeches can also be coordinated.

No food will be served during a speech, the service staff should be aware of this. However, guests’ glasses should be refilled in good time for toasting.

Preparing the wedding speech

It takes time for a successful wedding speech. Once you know you are about to deliver a wedding speech, it is time to start brainstorming its content. Only when you know what you want to talk about, formulate a text for it.

Getting started is the alpha and omega of a successful wedding speech. The bride and groom must appear equally in the speech. The bride’s father can of course mention his daughter a little more, but shouldn’t ignore his son-in-law.

Practice giving the speech in good time, preferably in front of an audience. Pay attention to the time – it is not easy to correctly estimate the length of a speech. Often one speaks in front of an audience a little faster than usual.

How Much Does a Garden Wedding Cost?

The average rates of a garden wedding are

Low average rates of $500 to $3,500
Medium average rates of $5,000 to $15,000
High average rates of $15,000 to $60,000

Typical cost items:

The cost of an outdoor wedding depends on practically the same factors as an indoor wedding — the number of guests, the size of the wedding party and the wedding dress ($250 to $6,000), the tuxedo of the groom ($60 to $2,500), flowers ($750average price for a traditional wedding), the wedding minister ($60 to $500), marriage license and more.

A simple outdoor wedding can be less expensive than a traditional indoor wedding. If it is an elaborate outdoor wedding with a lot of guests, the cost may even exceed that of an indoor wedding. The costly items include the need to rent chairs, tables, tents, a dance floor, portable restrooms, other items.

A backyard wedding ceremony and reception on private land that is owned by family or friends of the bride and groom or in a public park is estimated to cost $600 to $3,000. A low-cost range is possible when the reception menu is “pot-luck”. However, the cost can increase from $4,000 up to $15,000, depending on the menu items. Rental of chairs cost more or less, $2 to $9 per chair, with a minimum charge of $45 to $130, to cover delivery and set up.
A simple wedding arch decorated with fabric and flowers costs $30 to $150. A larger wooden trellis or arbor costs $100 to $500. The rental cost of a wedding arch ranges from $3 to $600,depending on its materials and size, and the number of posts. The rental cost of an outdoor dance floor for 100 guests is estimated at $350.

A large outdoor wedding and reception that is catered, with the splendor of a traditional indoor wedding — such as many bridesmaids and groomsmen, live music, floral arrangements — held at a hotel, resort or a similar grand venue can cost $15,000 to as much as $60,000.

You can save money by not having to book separate locations. There are spacious outdoor venues where you only make 1 reservation – this includes rehearsal dinner, the wedding ceremony, and reception.

Married couples are now choosing a destination wedding, at an exclusive site for both the ceremony and honeymoon. A destination wedding often has an outdoor ceremony estimated to cost from $7,000 to $50,000. The price range depends on the period of the couple’s stay, on what the wedding included, the number of guests, and if the resort includes all meals and activities with the cost of the lodging.

Conclusion

Now, as we end this complete guide, we’d like to leave you with our best advice, please, please set boundaries especially with parents and in-laws. There will come a point where favors, pressuring, persuasion, little sweet words, and other little tactics will be used on you.

Whether it’s your mother wanting to invite her entire choir group or your stepfather wanting to invite his old buddies – remember that for each name, your cost increases, compromise your own guest list (those who you do want to come or worse, your wedding will be a disaster due to so many random strangers that the mystic, intimate beauty of it all gets lost.

It is crucial that you do not give in to any of their demands, otherwise, you’ll keep getting more and more requests in the future. You will need to have a heart to heart talk with them, set limits, boundaries, and expectations – if you’re having a hard time because costs will increase, have them pay for their guest(s) but at all times, keeping a limit. Always, always remember this is your wedding, not some random event.

If you have questions or you want clarification on certain details, please contact us and we’ll gladly help you.