Fall in Love with These Fall Wedding Ideas
Image by SiamlianNgaihte courtesy of Pixabay.
While there’s never a bad time of year to celebrate your love, fall weddings have a special kind of magic. Even the sunlight has a unique quality that photographers and artists have attempted to capture for centuries. Whether you’re planning an elopement with just you and your partner or a grand wedding with hundreds of guests, there are plenty of ways to incorporate the magic of fall into your special day.
Fall Color Palettes
Image by StockSnap courtesy of Pixabay.
One of the best ways to unify the look of your wedding is to choose a small palette of colors to incorporate into multiple aspects of your event. The brilliant oranges, reds, and yellows of fall leaves and complimentary rich jewel tones are a wonderful place to draw inspiration as you choose colors for your wedding. Websites like colorpalettes.net and colorhunt.co offer premade color palettes designed to compliment each other and evoke a particular season. Both include hex codes and colorpalettes.net pulls colors directly from beautiful photographs that are a great source of inspiration in and of themselves.
Your chosen colors can be incorporated into everything from your flowers (more on those below) to your place settings to your pocket square and accessories. If you’re having a small elopement, your fall colors can be incorporated into your clothing, makeup, or any accessories you might wear. For a larger wedding, your colors can help guide your in your invitations, flowers, linens, or even your cake!
Fall Flowers
Image by NoName_13 courtesy of Pixabay.
Fall flowers are a great way to both bring the season’s colors into your wedding and save money. Out-of-season flowers need to be grown in special facilities or even imported and can be quite expensive. Floral arrangements are also easy to scale based on the size of your wedding and budget. They can be as minimal as a few flowers in your hair or lapel or a simple bouquet for a small elopement to dramatic wedding arches decked out with hundreds of blooms for a larger ceremony.
Popular autumn flowers include:
Asiatic Lily
Celosia
Dahlia
Gerbera Daisy
Purple Alstroemeria
Calla Lily
Chrysanthemum
Leucadendron
Rose
Yarrow
Queen Anne’s Lace
Solidago
Waxflower
Limonium
Montecasino Aster
Statice Sinuata
Gypsophila
Hypericum
Autumn also offers a unique opportunity to incorporate seasonal fruits, brilliantly colored fall leaves, and grasses into your floral arrangements. Pampas grass, dried hops, eucalyptus, fallen leaves, or even crab apples and miniature pumpkins can add a unique fall twist to your bouquet, boutonniere, or center piece.
Embrace the Season with a Fall Theme
Image by kunanesenanauk courtesy of Pixabay.
Choosing a theme or aesthetic for your wedding can help guide your choices for decor, locations, and even your clothes. Not everyone needs a theme nor does it need to guide every aspect of your event planning, but it can serve as a creative jumping-off point if you find yourself struggling to envision your big day.
Possible fall themes include
Halloween: This could be as minimal as a few jack-o-lanterns carved with hearts or other romantic patterns to a dark gothic ceremony to a full on costume party.
Boho: While the boho aesthetic isn’t exclusive to any particular season, the way this style incorporates natural elements makes it easy to add seasonal touches to your event.
Harvest/Rustic: Celebrate the bounty of the season with a harvest theme by incorporating ripe fruits, rich colors, and stalks of wheat or other grasses into your decor. For a more rustic twist, you might add elements like mason jars, hay bales, or burlap into your design.
Woodsy/Natural: Colorful leaves, acorns, and other natural elements will anchor your event in the season and create a whimsical setting for your big day. As an added bonus, you may be able to obtain most of your decor for free by doing some thoughtful foraging; just make sure to check the laws in your area regarding foraging and protected species and places.
Celebrate with a Fall Feast
Image by Terri Cnudde courtesy of Pixabay.
Fall is harvest season for a reason; the change in the weather brings ripe fruit, gourds, mushrooms, and grains. If your wedding celebration includes a meal, choosing recipes that incorporate seasonal ingredients is an excellent way to incorporate fall into your wedding and save your budget.
While pumpkin spice has, for better or worse, become the quintessential taste of the season, it’s far from the only autumn flavor profile out there. Dishes with apples, from cakes to pork, are great way to use fresh, seasonal produce. Mushrooms bring an earthy umami element to soups, sauces, and appetizers. Grain-based recipes like farro salad evoke harvest vibes without ever touching a jar of cinnamon.
Of course, there’s no shame in loving pumpkin spice. If you’re one of the many people (this author included) who anxiously await the return of the PSL each year, this is your chance to celebrate your favorite flavor while celebrating spending your life with your favorite person.
If you can’t stand the flavors of fall but still want to bring the season to your dining table, your table and cake decorations are a great way to bring autumn elements to your meal without sacrificing taste. Consider incorporating seasonal flowers into your cake or dessert decoration. Autumn leaves or decorative gourds can spice up a buffet table or dessert display without impacting taste.
Embrace the Outdoors…
Image by Carissa Rogers courtesy of Pixabay.
At least in Tennessee, autumn is arguably of the best times of year to be outdoors. Maybe that’s why it’s the most popular time of year for weddings. According to The Knot, 43% of weddings in 2022 happened between the months of September and November, with October being the most popular month.
Holding your autumn wedding outdoors allows nature to do the decorating for you. The colorful seasonal foliage creates a dramatic backdrop for any celebration, regardless of your budget. This is an ideal time of year for an elopement or micro-wedding in a state or city park or forest. Metro Davidson County residents can book half a day in a picnic shelter for as little as $30 ($50 for the Warner Park shelters) while the Sunken Garden in Centennial Park can be reserved for just $250 for a wedding with up to 150 guests. Nearby state parks like The Cedars of Lebanon offer dramatic natural backdrops for under $500 - a drop in the bucket compared to the average $11,000 spent by U.S. couples on venues.
…But Keep the Weather In Mind
Image by mlkbnl courtesy of Pixabay.
If you do decide to take advantage of the season’s glory with an outdoor event, make sure to keep the weather in mind. According to the East Tennessee State University Tennessee Climate Office, the state sees less rain in the fall than in any other season. However less rain doesn’t mean no rain. It’s important to have a back-up plan in case of inclement weather anytime you plan an outdoor wedding.
Even if it’s a perfectly dry, sunny day, fall is starting to get into sweater season. The October average temperature in Nashville is 61°. While that’s not exactly frigid, you may find a sleeveless or strapless wedding dress isn’t enough coverage to keep the cold at bay. Even if you opt for a long-sleeved gown; a shawl, shrug, or topper is the perfect accessory to add to your wedding ensemble to ensure you’re not shivering through your vows. This could be something as elegant and sentimental as an heirloom shawl knit by a family member or as glamorous as a faux-fur shrug. Some brides and grooms even opt for leather jackets for a playful, edgy take on traditional wedding attire.
It’s also worth considering your guests’ comfort. Give out-of-town guests a heads-up about the average fall weather for the area you’re planning your wedding. You may want to include a recommendation for any additional layers in your dress code. For example: “Semi-formal, light sweater or jacket recommended.” If you’re able, you may consider providing blankets or similar warm layers for guests if you’re having an outdoor ceremony or reception; or you may want to invite your guests to bring their own cosy throw blanket with them to the wedding - another budget stretching and planet-saving idea.
Send Your Guests Home with Fall Favors
Image by InspireCreateCelebrate courtesy of Pixabay.
Wedding favors are a chance to thank your guests for celebrating with you and send them home with something personal as a memento of your wedding day. Favors can be anything from a small, tangible item to a charitable donation, but gifts that have some practical use are generally the best received. Depending on the scale of your wedding and budget, favors are one of the easiest elements of your wedding to DIY.
Consumable gifts like candy are a great option (nothing says “wedding” like an organza bag full of Jordan almonds, after all) both due to their affordability and how easy they are to customize. Seasonal spices and flavors can add an autumn touch to your sweets or other edible treats. Customized spice jars with the couple’s very own home-blended spice, matchboxes or even candles are a great way to leave your guests feeling cozy as they head home. Leaning into fall’s hygge vibes, customized tea bags or mulling spices are consumable, biodegradable, and easy to DIY yourself.
Start Planning Your Fall Wedding Today!
We hope your fall wedding is amazing, whether you choose to plan an epic, autumn-themed event or simply take advantage of the season’s great light and fall foliage as the perfect backdrop for your elopement. At the end of the day, the decor, food, and venue don’t really matter; the most important thing is the love you share with your partner and the people you choose to celebrate with.
Booking an officiant is one of the most important steps in planning your wedding during any season. Get in touch with Zelda - one of Nashville’s most in-demand wedding officiants for a chat about what you have in mind for your wedding, for more info on packages, or to book your elopement or any size wedding.