Thinking About Fall Weddings

Even though the thermometer reads over 80 degrees, there is a sense that autumn is just around the corner. As people start thinking about coming home more for the holidays and such, to spend more time with their families, it's a romantic time for a wedding. Fall is a time of cool nights and warm days, with brilliant changes in color in many parts of the U.S. It's the time to appreciate the ripeness of the harvest and enjoy the fruits of summer.


Invite your guests to a storybook fall setting such as an inn, meeting house, old mill, or even a barn. A fall wedding can be casual yet elegant when set in a beautiful old barn. You might also look at an apple orchard, a vineyard, or any place that will have a view of fall foliage. If you live in a climate where the leaves don’t change, look for a venue with lots of rich dark wood and warmth such as a gentleman’s club or university club.

Establish the theme for your fall wedding with sheaths of wheat or corn at the entrance. Fall wedding decorations in rich jewel tones or traditional fall color schemes that include reds, oranges, browns, and yellows set the tone beautifully. One modern fall wedding decoration scheme uses only chocolate brown with light-blue accents.

Fill the room with the bounty of the season - pumpkins, cornucopias, acorns, and gourds. Make jack-o-lanterns with decorative patterns rather than scary faces, or use paper bag luminaria for a similar effect.

Remember that weather in the fall can be tricky. In many areas of the country it will be hard to know long in advance whether your wedding day will be warm or chilly. I was at a fall wedding where the bride had counted on a warm day and evening, so had everyone wearing strapless and inappropriate bridesmaids' dresses. She didn't plan for a 30-degree night and everyone ended up wearing the groomsmen's tuxedo jackets - even indoors. If they had boleros, sleeves or wraps, the temperature problems would have been eliminated!

Give your guests a wedding favor in keeping with the season such as a beautiful apple tied with a gold ribbon, or a bottle of maple syrup. If you have a sweet tooth, give guests caramel apples wrapped in cellophane, or give a DIY kit of a caramel apple recipe with all the ingredients they’ll need - a perfect apple, some caramels, a Popsicle stick and recipe card.

Help your guests decorate for the season by giving them mini pumpkins, or an ear of ornamental corn tied with some wheat and a pretty fall ribbon. Marzipan fruit is also a wonderful fall wedding favor.

Fall is a wonderful time of year to have a wedding. You miss the rush of summer and even some of the expense, and can provide your guests with a unique and fun experience.

A Mid Summer Night's Dream Theme

A Mid-Summer Night's Dream.

Okay, it's my favorite play in the whole world. It's romantic, funny, set in a fantasy forest and everyone is paired off perfectly at the end. All the lovers are united each to the right person and the King and Queen of the Faerie bless each union. What's not to like?

It's also a perfect theme for a wedding reception.

Your wedding invitations should be less traditional and more personal in their approach. Perhaps a touch of gold and silver fairy dust (confetti) in the envelopes will add a touch of glamour to the theme.

As the bride you should wear either a Elizabethan wedding gown or a floor-length white chiffon dress with a long, delicate train. Choose a silver tiara for a headpiece. Make a bouquet of bell-shaped white flowers that cascades, accented with ivy or fern.

As the play takes place in the woods, take that as your main color scheme: plums, creams, muted greens and blues, pastels, silver and gold accents.

Bridesmaids should wear diaphanous chiffon dresses in these colors. Those with long hair should wear it down and entwine ribbons throughout hair while short haired bridesmaids can wear a ivy head wreath. Ballerina style slippers would be more appropriate instead of regular shoes.

The men should wear suits that would blend in with a forest setting. Try dark suits or tuxedos with brown or dark green accent pieces such as ties or vests.

Create a fairyland of your reception venue with live potted plants, grapevine leaves and muted colors. Place large bare branches wrapped in grapevine leaves in the plant pots. String small twinkle lights throughout the branches for a fairy light effect.

Create several small water features throughout the room. Buy or rent some tabletop fountains or place several containers, camouflaged by potted plants filled with water. Float some lily pads across the surfaces. Add some water-loving plants in pots around edges, and have them near the food stations for a relaxing sound of water trickling.

For your tables, cover them with white cloths and add a pastel topper. Sprinkle some of the gold and silver confetti on top of each table. Fill silver or crystal bowls with water and float rose petals and floating candles on top.

At each place setting have miniature scrolls with Shakespearean quotes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Also have some silk potpourri sachets to carry out the flower theme as a party favor.

As this is a light and airy sort of reception, you may want to have food stations set up between the large lit branches and near the water features. Lighter fare is recommended. Try a carving station for small sandwiches, a shrimp station, fruits and dip, breads, cheeses, veggies and dip, and a host of hors d'oeuvres.

Have an open bar, but include some Shakespearean favorites such as honey mead, fruit wines, beers, ales and lagers - along with the regular spirits!

Have a variety of small tarts and cakes for dessert on the table surrounding the wedding cake.

For the cocktail hour, hire musicians that can play the harp, flutes, lyre, and other instruments that were used in Shakespeare's era. Create that atmosphere.

You've earned your trip into the faerie woods, have a grand time playing there!