The romance and charm of a bucolic country wedding is something many couples dream of. Holding your special day in rustic surroundings with birdsong and laughter in the summer breeze as a backdrop, is pretty hard to beat. Fortunately, rustic nuptial celebrations are a popular choice right now which ensures plenty of scope for your plans, however wild and back-to- nature they may be.
Where will it be?
Summer is the busiest period for weddings, so if you have your heart set on a particular date, plan well ahead. Typical bucolic wedding venues such as country house hotels and ancient barns adapted for hospitality offer wonderful settings. For greater flexibility in terms of location and capacity, a marquee is ideal. Pitching a marquee along a river bank, in the back garden of your parents’ family home, a vineyard, lakeside or simply in open fields casts the wedding atmosphere in a fresh-air and fun light. For wedding marquee hire Warwickshire is a great place to start looking. In the heartland of the British countryside, where literary giants Shakespeare and George Eliot were born, the wide open spaces and rolling landscape provides the perfect backdrop for a memorable event. With small celebrations and large scale events, for wedding marquee hire Warwickshire leads the pack.
How will it look?
The décor and style of your wedding event will be dictated largely by the surroundings. An elegant country house ballroom suggests a certain grandeur reflected in extravagant floral centrepieces on linen clothed tables, gleaming silverware, candelabras and a sumptuous sit down banquet.
An ancient barn setting demands more rustic treatment, lots of magical candlelight and fairy-lights and bunting suspended from the beams, hay bale seating and plenty of informal country flowers everywhere to underline the sense of place.
With a marquee hosted event you really have the best of all worlds because it’s rather like a blank canvas. Choosing the layout, flooring, dance-floor, lighting and interior linings from a range of tried and tested options, means you end up with something close to your perfect set up. Customising a marquee with the colours and styles of your choice is so much easier as there are fewer boundaries to work within.
Popular country theme shades at the moment include pastel blues, creams and greens. These soft colours combine beautifully with most backdrops and inject a summery, fresh feel into a scheme. Sourcing floral decorations to compliment and work with these colours will not be a problem. For blues, select nigella, lavender, hydrangea and cornflowers, for creams go for daisies, tea roses, lilies and cow-parsley and for greens try alchemilla mollis and attractive foliage sprigs. To underline a ‘down-on-the farm’ theme, imaginative use of wheat sheaves as chair and table decorations can look effective.
Choosing table runners in pretty gingham, ticking or rough Hessian will set the tone for a rustic meal. Glass jars with flickering night-lights, colour co-ordinated petals scattered over the tabletop and informal place name markers written in ink on handmade petal infused paper look charming.
What will you eat?
If you are a fan of outdoor feasts such as barbecues and hog roasts, then a rustic country wedding is time to indulge yourself. A buffet featuring light summer menu or a sit down multi-course blow out – it all works for a country theme. A traditional roast beef with seasonal vegetables followed by pretty summer pudding, washed down with elderflower champagne makes for a simple but stunning repast. The world of the wedding cake has shifted in recent years with a fondness for cupcakes emerging. For a rustic wedding a traditional, simple cake strewn with edible flowers works better. The most recent trend is for wedding cakes to go nude, ie, without icing. Whatever next!?
What will you wear?
Country weddings can suit brides in relaxed bridal outfits or more formal wear. Strolling down the aisle barefoot in a vintage boho dress with flowers in your hair is totally fine, or you could channel a busty farm wench or tiara sporting country house lady. Whatever you feel comfortable with.
What entertainment will there be?
Rustic weddings call for rough and ready entertainment. Lawn games are usually a hit with revellers as it allows them to relax after the formalities of the ceremony. Traditional skittles, croquet and boules make popular choices. For musical entertainment consider hiring a ceilidh band for a barn dance with a professional caller to direct proceedings. Alternatively, a country and western band with line dancing or a traditional English folk music band would work equally well.
Whatever you choose for your special day, spending it in rustic themed splendour will ensure it’s a day that will live long in your memories. And that’s just how a wedding should be…
