Your Backyard Can Be a Wedding Venue!
September 14, 2010 by Wedding Gal
Filed under Featured, Wedding Planning
For those with backyards, they can make that space an excellent venue for their special day. And a backyard wedding can vary in size and complexity – a lot depends, of course, on just how large your backyard is. There’s another advantage to using your own property for a wedding – you can have a large amount of hard earned money. But there are a lot of factors you have to weigh in when you hold a wedding in your backyard, and this article will help you understand all the things you’ll need to have on hand when you have a backyard wedding.
1. Think Of How Much Room You Have
Consider space, because this is all important in a backyard wedding, especially if your space isn’t all that large. Allocate a certain amount of space per guest, and calculate how many guests can fit into your yard, then edit your guest list accordingly. Factor in waiters and other staff members as well.
2. Don’t Let It Rain On Your Wedding
Special arrangements need to be made in case of an unexpected change in the weather, as in an unexpected rain fall. Remember that if you set up some sort of marquee, the sort that you choose will depend on the amount of yard you need covered.
3. Theming Your Wedding Will Greatly Enhance It
A theme for your celebration is an excellent idea. Depending on the amount of funds you have on hand you can make your special day truly exceptional. And you can do it rather inexpensively – you’d be surprised at what you can accomplish with some paint, art materials and crepe-paper. Imagination is the key, obviously, and the magic and romance that surround any wedding will supply the rest. Involve the family – make refining the theme for your wedding a fun project for everyone – you’ll see that with everyone contributing ideas, you’ll have a crystallized them in no time at all.
4. Cover All The Minor Points To Make Your Event A Success
There’s a lot that goes into making a wedding a successful event, but the nice thing is that people are all willing to help you, so make sure you take advantage of that, and let people handle lesser details while you concentrate on more important ones. One of the most important of all details that need to be arranged is sufficient parking. The easiest way to arrange this is to hire the lot of a nearby community center or church – or almost anywhere with sufficient parking for your purposes. And of course you’ll have to arrange some transport that will bring people to your residence, but that will hardly be a problem. Make sure that you have a backup power supply to cover any failure of electricity. And, elementary though it may sound, ensure that you have enough toilets – you usually need at least four for every hundred people.
5. Improvements To The Yard Will Be Investments For The Future
There are a lot of things you can do to ensure that your backyard is the best place for your wedding, and the nicest part about all this is that you can continue to use these improvements (once you’re married). This is a distinct advantage to being married on your own property. So this is the time to level out the lawn, to fill in those places where water collects each year, to ensure that the patio is polished to look like new. You can even put in some lovely benches and plant a new rock garden – each thing that will do will accentuate both your wedding and the beginnings of your married life. Imagine, after your wedding, having a beautiful, level lawn that is perfectly mowed, with a lovely rock-garden and some beautiful flowering plants. Imagine a beautifully polished patio, with perhaps an interesting swing, and some truly ornamental benches scattered here and there that allow you to enjoy the quiet beauty of your lawn and garden.
6. Work On Improving The Garden
One thing that can truly contribute to the ambiance of your wedding is to have wonderful plants in full bloom around the yard – they can be planted as part of a permanent garden, just ensure that you choose plants that will bloom at the time of your wedding, and they will add so much joy and beauty to the event. And don’t forget to get some best selling cedar porch swings for an aesthetic touch.
7. Music And Lights Set The Mood For Romance
Lighting at a wedding can make such a difference to everything. Not only should you have aesthetics in mind, but also ensure that the house and grounds are adequately lit. Bright lights on the borders of the grounds will ensure that moths don’t enter the grounds themselves. Then some soft yellow lamps around the grounds should add an aura of romance. Put in solar lamps around the walks, to ensure that no area of the grounds is in total darkness. Add to that just the right musical score and you have a wedding that contains all the magic of romance and timeless harmony.
8. Save On Glassware
Buying things like glassware for your wedding from a good discount store can save you a lot of money, but it might even save you more than you realize, if you donate the purchased items to a recognized charity. That counts as a tax-deductible amount, which means you’ll get it back.
9. Cooling Systems Are Important
Remember, if you plan a summer wedding that hot and sweaty people can get irritable, and that’s hardly the tone you want to set for your wedding. So invest in some efficient cooling – there are a lot of good systems available these days.
10. Make Your Wedding Memorable
It’s important to create a video or to take plenty of photographs of your special day. Because you’re having your wedding in your own backyard, each photograph will call up memories of your special day, and each picture will help you remember things that made your day special, moments that made you smile, or even cry, and the people who shared this wonderful day with you. This is something you don’t want to lose, so make sure you hire a professional to record all this for you – you should ideally call in both a photographer and a videographer, to give you a complete record.
About The Man Who Wrote This…
Jay Chua is the publisher of PorchSwingSets.com. He is also a laid-back resident of Vancouver, Canada, and with his wife Deisy, takes a great interest in following trends in gardening and wedding arrangement. He owns a wonderful hatteras hammocks garden swing at his backyard, and enjoyed writing & reviewing hammocks & swings such as the polyester rope hammock.
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What Not To Do The Night Before Your Wedding
October 5, 2009 by Wedding Gal's Snarky Cousin
Filed under Featured, Wedding Planning
Out here in Internetland you’ll find all sorts of advice on how to prepare for your wedding. What beauty regimen to follow, what rules of conduct are important, and even how to mentally and physically prepare yourself for the big day. What people don’t want to cover is what NOT to do the night or day before your wedding. My cousin, Wedding Gal, doesn’t want you to think about such unpleasant things the day before you walk down the aisle. Aren’t you lucky I hijack her blog every now and again?
Rule #1: Don’t. I repeat DO NOT get your eyebrows waxed or attempt to wax your own eyebrows the day before your wedding. Don’t do it. I’m serious.
photo by ladybug_3777
Do this, and any other drastic hair removal, a good week before the big day. If you have a straggler or two, remove them CAREFULLY with tweezers. If you forget altogether (like I did), for all that is sacred and holy LET YOUR BROWS BE BUSHY. Do not try to tweeze off a few months worth of eyebrow growth the day before the wedding and DON’T wax or even go to a salon to get waxed. Trust me, a few stray eyebrow hairs beats the heck out of burned eyelids, bumpy forehead, or, in extreme cases, the loss of a part of your eyebrow.
Same goes for leg waxing, bikini waxing, getting a haircut, changing your hair color, getting a spray tan, getting a facial, exfoliating vigorously, and any type of plastic surgery. Don’t go all crazy and end up looking like a freakazoid in your wedding pictures. You’ll thank me for this one day.
Rule #2: Don’t get plastered. Don’t get drizzunk. Don’t get hammered. Trust me.
photo by chairman moneko
It’s natural to feel nervous about your big day. A lot of folks calm their nerves with a drink or two. A drink or two is just fine. A drink or twelve is not. Not only does getting drunk the night before your wedding lead to things like drunk dialing, vomiting, bad decisions and hangovers, it also dehydrates your body, making you look all bloated and puffy the next day. So even if you think you can keep your head about you, think about how your head will look the next day with puffy, bloodshot eyes and bad breath. Don’t do it.
Rule #3: Don’t sleep with the best man, your friend from high school, your ex boyfriend, your second cousin (ew!) or anybody you don’t plan to walk down the aisle with the next day.
photo by Pere Nadal
It happens all the time in movies. It’s the person’s “last night of freedom” and they decide to have a “final hurrah” before the big day. Notice that in movies it never works out in the favor of the people who are getting married. There’s a reason for that. If you’re inclined to do it with somebody else, you shouldn’t be getting married. No matter how badly you broke Rule #2. Keep it in your pants until the honeymoon.
There. Don’t you feel better now that you have some guidelines? Here are a few more. Also do not:
- Eat Taco Bell
- Borrow a large sum of money (it’s bad to start a marriage with debt)
- Gamble your honeymoon money away
- Decide to confess all your dirty secrets to your fiance (you should have done that months ago, yo)
- Go do “Amateur Night” at the local strip joint
- Do hallucinogenic drugs
- Kill anybody
- Drag race
- Skydive
- Swim with sharks
Common sense is key in any situation. If you don’t have any of your own, you can borrow mine. If you have any doubt about what you should or should not do before your wedding, leave a comment and I’ll answer it. Hey, I’m a people person!
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