Along with the popular vintage style weddings, rustic themed weddings are becoming a more sought-after choice when it comes to a wedding theme choice. It’s becoming more popular among couples who want a cool, relaxed vibe on their big day, with a laid-back, authentic touch.
But where do you start when it comes to planning a rustic wedding? First of all, it’s best to fully understand the actual definition of ‘Rustic’ in terms of the wedding industry.
Rustic relates to the great outdoors, bringing that country vibe to your wedding. It has connotations of everything from wildflowers and beautiful views to country chic, wooden finishings and textured fabrics.
It’s a great theme to choose because your options are endless. It’s a creative theme, that lets you be as imaginative as you like. A rustic wedding ideally will be filled with organic textures, personalized details and heart-warming momentous, with each one being as individual and unique to you, the couple.
Read on for our tips on how to get the rustic look for your wedding, and how to get the elements of a country theme wedding right.
A rustic venue
Weddings which take on the rustic theme tend to deliver a country style, in which you have a few options. The most popular option is to take on a barn style wedding, and luckily there are a lot of beautiful barn locations designed to host weddings.
Barn weddings have all sorts of advantages. They naturally look picturesque and are usually situated in attractive settings, surrounded by woodlands, quaint farmyards, or nestled into the quiet countryside. They also tend to have a fair amount of parking nearby, which is a bonus!
Barns are an ideal venue choice for any season you wish to host your wedding. In the depths of winter, you can create a real cozy barn vibe, styling it up as a wintery wonderland with all the lanterns lit for dim, warming light. In summer, you can open the windows and large barn doors and let in the natural sunlight.
Barns lend themselves to be decorated in a rustic way without too much effort. Wooden tables and chairs with bunting, twinkling lights and a few of your own personal touches are all it needs – the venue speaks volumes on its own!
Another option for a rustic venue is to look at tipi weddings. If you are a couple that loves breaking the rules, then look at some more untraditional wedding venues such as yurts and tipis.
These can feature crackling fire pits with marshmallow toasting as a central point, long-running wooden tables, personalized signs decorating the walls and streams of fairy lights running up the sides.
Tipis always give off the wow factor due to how unique you can dress them up. Plus, they can be situated in the middle of our favorite countryside or farm spot (with permission!) placing your wedding in the center of a rustic location.
Rustic style flowers
The beauty of a rustic themed wedding is that everything can be a little shabby and wild – including the flowers. Here, you don’t want to be thinking of anything too formal and structured. Think about old-fashioned cottage flowers, roses, hollyhocks and delphiniums in the summer. Think about the bouquets that can be hand-picked from the wild and put together in a messy yet cute way.
In spring you can opt for daffodils, hyacinths and primroses. In autumn, you can incorporate using sprays of autumn berries and autumn produce like apples, pumpkins and squash. You can utilise these flowers into hair slides or flower bands for your hair, bringing that real country chic style to you and your bridal party.
A rustic food and drink offering
You can be slightly adventurous with your wedding food and drink when you take on that rustic vibe. For example, for the beer or cider drinkers, you can have these served directly from old barrels, or even barrels in which guests can serve themselves.
For the ladies, and for the toast drink, look at bringing in an element of country themed cocktails. You can keep with the tradition of champagne, but with a touch of elderflower, or a slice of peach muddled into the glass. Or why not look at a fun cider punch?
For a real rustic feel, look at mobile cocktail suppliers, which have their own little ‘gin van’ or quirky cocktail hut. Cocktails created with sprigs of thyme and berries would give guests a taster of your theme.
As for food, a rustic themed wedding lends itself beautifully to a country themed buffet or a hog roast. Homemade pies, roasted vegetables, Caesar salads, and even BBQ meats. Large picnic style sharing platters on each table is also a great idea, including a selection of meats, vegetables, cheeses, fruits and artisan breads.
For desserts, why not look at hiring an ice cream van for the outside grounds?
Rustic seating arrangements
To keep with the traditional rustic theme, the best way to arrange your seating is with long trestle tables which work in hay bales. These also fit perfectly in barns and run the length of most tipis too. Keeping to a plain wood will give that authentic, traditional feel, but if you do want to inject some color and print into the seating décor, you could have chair backs with hessian ties, which gives a very attractive rural feel.
Just remember to forget the table cloths – these instantly give that vintage, tea party feel, which isn’t quite the same as rustic.
Entertainment, rustic style
The usual entertainment at weddings is to have a DJ, which is fine for your theme. However, if you really want to have that rustic feel, what about organizing a band who play live music, and incorporate having a barn dance, complete with a caller?
This is one way to make sure that all the generations feel involved in the dancing, plus it is a sure fire way to get everyone up on their feet!
Barn dances are fun and bring that unique touch to your wedding. They perfectly go hand in hand with a barn style venue, and work as a great way to get your guests mingling with each other. Inclusive.
Color choice and DIY touches
Once you have agreed on the type of venue you want, the next step is to bring it to life. You can easily do this by selecting the appropriate color themes and adding some cute DIY touches.
For color inspiration, you’ll be wanting to take inspiration from the season your wedding falls under. How about fresh yellows and greens, or why not mix pretty pastels for an elegant yet whimsical look? Alternatively, you can’t go wrong with a romantic blush or fresh cream and whites’ shades to add a touch of class.
Some rustic weddings – especially those in Winter – work well will a stripped back color scheme of nudes, muted earthy colors and wood shades, pairing well with wildflowers and foliage.
For those other unique touches, remember that your wedding cake is usually a talking point of your wedding too. How do you make this rustic themed? A current cake trend for rustic weddings is to keep the cake ‘naked’, with the sponge layers on the show and a light decoration of colored buttercream and wild flower cake toppers.
You could also hire a photo booth that is also a DIY theme. Fire an old, polaroid camera, set up a curtain backdrop and make a few fun props. You can keep the props and a ‘rules card’ on a large hay stack, and let your guests have the freedom to snap away!
Whatever path you take with creating your rustic wedding, remember that if you have a great selection of guests, enough food and drink to go around, and a happy attitude throughout the day, you’re wedding will go down brilliantly.
