Backyard Wedding Landscaping Ideas

Backyard or home weddings are a wonderful way to cut wedding expenses and they provide a comfortable and personal touch to your wedding day. Imagine being married next to the giant oak tree where you and your playmates swung on the tire swing. So many cherished childhood memories and to have your wedding just adds to the many memories shared with family and friends at your home.

There are some unique ways you can spruce up the backyard and provide splashes of your wedding colors in the general landscape. First, decide where the bride and groom will stand before the preacher. Then decide where the guest seating will be arranged. Choose a stunning entry point for the bride and where she will walk to meet her groom.

If the reception is to also be held at the family home, choose where the food, drink and cake tables will be located. Map these out. Walk the yard and place string where the all items will be set up. This will help give you a better visual of space and how the areas will flow together on the big day.

Now you are ready to add landscaping that will add splashes of your wedding colors throughout all areas. Try the ideas below to create a dreamy, natural wedding landscape theme.

TIERED WEDDING CAKES:

You can create a tiered wedding cake of any size. One large one or several smaller ones. It’s up to you. They wedding cakes can be square or round shaped. Both are simple to build and take very little time to complete. You may paint the sides any color you wish, wrap them with large ribbons and bows or paint detailed wedding cake designs on the tiered sides of the floral cakes. Let your imagination blossom.

First build a wooden frame using four boards of equal length and width. Use 12″ wide boards for large tiered wedding cakes and perhaps a 6″ wide board for smaller floral cakes. Nail the corners together. Place the frame where you want it for the wedding. Place a sheet of plastic in the bottom to prevent the soil from washing out and to act as a weed barrier later. Then add soil to the top edge of your first frame.

Next, cut the boards for the next frame, which will be placed on the soil of the first raised layer of your floral wedding cake. This frame should be made 1 foot smaller than the base frame. Again fill the second frame with soil.

Then cut the final frame of the 3-tiered floral wedding cake. Again, cut it one foot smaller than the second layer frame. Then fill with soil.

Using your wedding colors or other colors which compliment them or the surrounding backyard landscape, choose flowers to be planted in the 1 foot border of each layer and the top of the tiered floral wedding cake. You may also want to add mini bride and groom statues among the flowers on the top of each tiered flower bed or wrap and tie ribbons and bows around each layer. The boards could be painted solid colors or if you are feeling especially talented you could stencil or hand-paint delicate designs on the sides of the boards. String large beads of pearls on fishing line and drape them over the edges and meandering through the flowers.

HANGING BRIDAL BOUQUETS:

Hanging baskets are gorgeous and add a lot of color to backyard gazebos, porches, decks and more. You could purchase wrought iron posts in which to hang these bridal bouquets to line driveways, walkways, sidewalks or even the bridal aisle. If an evening event is planned, the bridal bouquets could be hung underneath candlelit metal lamps hanging from metal rods or posts for a very romantic atmosphere.

Purchase the small orange cones similar to the large cones used in construction zones. You can often find these in the sports section at stores where they are sold for kids and used to create racetracks and such for play.

First trim off the bottom square edge. Then paint the entire exterior and lip of the cone in the color of your choice–something to match your wedding colors. Use a nail and hammer to punch a hole on two sides of the cone. Add a piece of wire to make a handle for the bridal bouquet. You may paint the wire if you wish or wrap it with ribbon and tie large bows on each side where the wire goes through the side of the cone. Do not add the ribbon until after planting or it will get quite dirty. It is best to add the ribbon as close to the wedding day as possible to avoid it getting wet from rain or watering of the flowers.

Next add a handful of moss in the bottom of the cone–inside and push down into the pointy part of the cone. This will help hold the soil in the cone and provide drainage. Add soil, not quite filling the cone to the top. Plant mixed flowers of your choice and colors to match your wedding theme. Add the ribbon later. You may also tie ribbon around the cone if you like.

COUNTRY THEMED WEDDING IDEAS:

Carnations and bachelor buttons are perfect flowers for weddings. They smell wonderful and can even be used in a pinch to replace a lost boutonniere. Place them in old, rusty buckets among the flower beds and other landscaping.

Wagons and wagon wheels. Nothing says farm country like an old wagon filled with country flowers as a backdrop for large open grassy fields or lawns. Wagon wheels with climbing ivy or clematis can make a flower bed charming as well.

Country weddings in the summer should not be without the sweet smell of freshly cut hay bales. If you’ve ever helped buck hay on a farm it is a smell you would not ever forget. Wonderfully refreshing and relaxing. Set up an outdoor hay bale sitting area. You can build so many designs and different types of lounging chairs with hay bales. Make it comfortable for guests by placing quilts over some of the bales so it isn’t quite so poky. Be sure to use hay. Straw and alfalfa are very poky. Hay works much better.

Fall weddings in the country should include mammoth sunflowers. Grow your own in preparation for the big day or find a local farm willing to grow them for you. You can use fresh cut or dried sunflowers. Place them in shocks–large bundles and tye them together with wire first, then either ribbon or large hemp type rope. Raffia looks nice as a country style ribbon as well. Or place the sunflowers in old cream cans. Be sure to place rocks in the bottoms of the cans so they won’t tip over.

Blue wide mouth pint-sized canning jars make for wonderful table decorations. Fill them with pebbles and candles or even dried beans. Canned peaches, vegetables, pickles and other canned goods make for a gorgeous country-style table decoration on the food tables and you can even put them in your pantry to eat at a later date.

Weddings shouldn’t be a time for stress. Planning weddings should be relaxing and fun for the groom, bride and both sides of the family. Keep it simple. Choose the things you love and forget about trying to out do or impress your guests. Make your wedding day your own and you will forever look back on it with great pride and memories.