The average cost of a wedding in the United States is just under $35,000, a little less than what most Americans pay for a new vehicle. It’s a staggering sum of money and a lot of that cash is spent on the venue, with establishments seemingly raising their prices as soon as they hear wedding bells.
One of the best ways to save is to host the event in your own backyard. If you have the space, it’s the perfect opportunity to bring the wedding close to home and save yourself thousands of dollars in the process.
If you’ve decided to host your own wedding—or the wedding of a friend or family member—then take a look at the following tips and tricks, all of which will ensure that the event runs smoothly and is just as memorable as any beach, castle, or church affair.
Plan
The first step is to plan, plot, and prepare. Decide what you want your outdoor space to look like, how much time you will have, and what sort of budget you’re working with. Write everything down, be realistic, and give yourself plenty of time.
If money is tight, ask around and see if your friends and family members can help. Be upfront with them. Let them know that you’re hosting the wedding in your garden and need a little support, both financially and physically.
You could even ask them to provide some cash or materials in lieu of a wedding gift. They’ll still be helping the couple, but instead of toasters and dinnerware, they’ll be assisting with the big day itself.
Start with the Grass
When you picture the perfect outdoor wedding, you probably envision beautiful green grass. It’s short, it’s vibrant—it’s like the neatly manicured grass on a putting green or a tennis court.
What you’re not picturing is overgrown, patchy grass that’s spotted with weeds.
As soon as the wedding is announced, it’s time to start working on the grass. If you have a lot of time to prepare, simply seed, fertilize, cut, and nurture until the big day. If your time is limited but your budget is not, consider replacing all the turf or focusing on the most problematic areas.
Build a Dance Floor
Your guests are going to be wearing high heels and loafers. Those polished and pristine shoes are not known for their ability to grip mud or traverse grass, and if you’re expecting them to walk and dance over your lawn, you’re going to be in for a very messy and accident-prone afternoon.
Keep your guests happy and clean by building dancefloors and walkaways. Give them somewhere stable to tread and to strut their stuff.
You have a few options here. The first is to use what you already have, such as a patio. If there are gaps and divots, cover them; if there is furniture in the way, clear it. Alternatively, you can build a dance floor on the grass using wooden planks.
Recycled pallets are perfect for this purpose. They are cheap, easy to find, and you won’t be creating a lot of excess waste for no reason. What’s more, you won’t feel bad when it comes time to rip up that dancefloor and discard the materials.
Clean Thoroughly
The little stains and discoloration that you barely notice will stand out to your guests. You live with them. They’re just part of the scenery, but your guests will see those imperfections with fresh eyes, and it might dull the overall image.
Try to see your garden as if you’re seeing it for the first time. Should those hedges really be that thick? Should the patio really be that color?
A pressure wash can bring out the original color of any stone and concrete, restoring its shine and making it look brand new. A string trimmer will help to clear those rough edges while some tactfully placed weedkiller will remove any unwanted growths between slabs of paving.
It’s the little things that make all the difference—a weed here, a stain there. Get your family to help you and treat your garden with the same care and consideration that you reserve for your home.
Of course, you don’t want to do this too far away from the big day, otherwise, those hedges/weeds will regrow, and those stains will return. A week or two before the wedding is fine, but if there is a lot of work to do, it’s best to start early and then focus on maintenance.
Prepare the Lighting
Lighting can make or break a wedding. That might sound like an exaggeration, but just imagine how different an outdoor wedding will look with cozy orange string lights as opposed to bright white fluorescent lights.
The lights will also come into their own as the sun goes away and the party continues.
You can get creative by reusing some old Christmas lights and lamps from inside the house or you can buy new string lights, floor lights, and standing lights. It can get expensive very quickly if you’re not careful, but if you limit your shopping to thrift stores and marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, and Facebook, you can find some bargains.
Rent a Generator
The bigger the wedding is, the more power it will need. There will be lights, DJ equipment, musical equipment, audio equipment, and whatever the caterer needs to keep the food and drinks flowing.
That power may exceed what your home is able to provide. You also don’t want cables traipsing around and tripping your guests. A generator can supply the power that you need, and you don’t even need to buy it outright. You can rent generators for a reasonable price—your friends or family members may even have one that you can borrow.
Consider the Bathroom Situation
There are a few bathroom-related conundrums that need to be addressed before the big day.
Firstly, do you have enough bathrooms in your home to cater to all the guests? If you have 30 or 40 people showing up to a house with just 1 bathroom, the answer is a firm “no”. After all, those guests will be there for several hours. They will be drinking, eating, and dancing. You’ll have lots of people who need to relieve themselves, some who feel sick—a single bathroom won’t suffice.
Secondly, do you want those guests in your home? The wedding is being held on your property, so you’re probably okay with the idea of lots of people popping in and out of your house, but do you want those muddy shoes walking across your living room carpet and up your stairs?
In such cases, you may want to consider renting a bathroom for the wedding. You can place it outside and it should be large enough and clean enough to cater to the needs of your guests.
When you say, “rented bathrooms”, people immediately think about dirty festival toilets. They think about unclean Porta-Potties, and they dread the idea of subjecting their guests—dressed in suits and evening dresses—to such an ordeal. But there is a wide range of options and some of the better ones come with two or three toilets combined into a single trailer-type unit.
They are clean. They are convenient, and they’re also surprisingly affordable, costing anywhere from $150 to $500 a day.
Create Some Pest Control
Bugs can ruin your wedding day, and if you live in an area that is particularly prone to them, you’ll need to take the necessary precautions.
Spray pesticides, use lots of citronella oil, and do everything you can to keep those flying, crawling, creeping little pests away from your wedding! Just make sure you don’t poison your guests in the process. There are lots of essential oils that work as natural bug repellants and while they can still harm humans in large doses, they are safe to use when burning or spraying small amounts.
Create a Backup Plan for the Weather
Unless you’re throwing caution to the wind, there’s a good chance that you’re arranging the wedding during the height of summer. The sun is shining, the weather is calm, and you can party long into the night. But what happens if that weather turns on you and you are suddenly hit with showers?
Outdoor weddings need a contingency plan, something that you can turn to when things don’t go your way. Don’t simply crumble and bemoan your bad luck when it starts to rain. Do something about it!
Many professionally organized outdoor weddings legislate for this issue by erecting tents over the seating areas. They can shade the guests when the sun is shining and protect them when the rain starts to fall.
Just make sure the tent covers the area where the guests will be seated. It doesn’t need to extend beyond that. Your guests can wander and mingle outside of the tent when the weather is nice and then congregate underneath it if it turns bad.