One of the first dates you enjoyed with your now-fiancé involved going on a scenic hike. You stopped along the way to admire the tall trees around you and the blue sky above.
While enveloped in the great outdoors, you quickly realize your sweetie loves the outdoors as much as you do. And since you became an official couple, you have gone on more and more nature walks, camping trips, and vacations to national parks and forests.
Now that you’re engaged and planning your big day, you both immediately agreed on having a magical wedding in the forest. You know it might take a bit more planning than one that’s held at a church, but your fiancé is totally on board and ready to help plan an incredible wedding with Mother Nature as the guest of honor.
To pull off this incredible wedding al fresco, consider the following tips:
1. Choose Your Venue
When it comes to selecting a venue for a forest wedding, elect to get married at either a national park or a national forest. Most national parks require a fee of around $200 to reserve a permit for your wedding spot, and each park has rules and about how many guests you can have and other regulations to consider.
On the other hand, national forests can be just as scenic but with far fewer rules to follow. They also tend to be less developed, but there are often lovely spots for a wedding near a lake or in a meadow. If you live in Los Angeles, you may know that roughly half of California is made up of national forest land, so it shouldn’t be a problem to find the perfect spot.
Use Google to look up national parks and forests, or check out the suggestions at VenueReport.com, which include a log cabin in a redwood grove, a vintage summer camp in the woods or a glass greenhouse under the trees.
2. Give Your Guests a Heads Up
You want to let your guests know as soon as possible that you’re planning a forest wedding. This way, your dear aunt Clara will know to shop for sturdy-yet-stylish hiking boots instead of high heels. To get the word out, shop for a save-the-date card, and when selecting a photo, choose one of the two of you under the redwoods or on a hike, and add “forest wedding” in the text.
3. Use Nature-Inspired Decorations
To really bring home the forest theme for your wedding, try to incorporate as many natural and woodsy decorations as possible. For instance, you can use real or faux moss for table runners and tuck in small wildflowers here and there for a beautiful look. You can go here to order custom Wedding guest books. Speaking of flowers, instead of a formal bouquet, you might go for a variety of your favorite blossoms, loosely tied with a ribbon that matches the color of the bridesmaids’ dresses.
Since your fiancé is on board with all the planning, ask him to find a log he can cut up into tree stumps for your guests to sit on during the ceremony. He can inquire at a lumberyard or maybe you have a neighbor who is cutting down an old tree. However, you might still want to have regular chairs for those who prefer and need more comfort.
Additionally, hang battery-operated fairy lights from the trees to help create a canopy and/or make a bunch of beautiful paper hearts together and string them up from low branches. Then, when the ceremony and reception are over, ask your guests to help you clean up and leave the spot better than you found it, with only your footprints as memories.
Enjoy Your Special Nature-Themed Day
One thing is for certain: your guests will always remember your incredibly scenic and meaningful wedding. By letting them know well in advance your plans to be married in the woods — and then sharing in the forest-themed decorating — your wedding day will be one in which Mother Nature will be proud to be a guest.
