5 Garden Wedding Decoration Ideas & Trends

One of my friends—who chose to get married in a heritage venue with gorgeous dusty pink walls—gave me a piece advice that I’ll never forget.

“Choose a venue that you don’t need to do anything to,” she said. [This is something one of my friends told me—but no one needs to know that this wasn’t said to you. However, I can edit this is you’re not happy with this introduction. ]

Maybe that’s exactly why gardens make for the perfect wedding venue—they speak for themselves and look beautiful even when a wedding isn’t taking place within them.

With that being said, it’s impossible to avoid doing nothing to a venue—even if you’re just planning a small back garden wedding at home. (You’re also going to be at the mercy of Mother Nature. Some of the items on your garden wedding checklist to consider: Do you have a rain or a wind plan? How will you prevent bugs from getting into food? Are there toilets on-site? Is the surface even enough for dancing on?)

Here are five ideas for backyard or garden weddings—and some of the biggest garden wedding décor trends you can expect to encounter this year:

1. Welcome signs

Unlike a traditional indoor venue, there may be no natural entry or exit points for your garden wedding ceremony or reception, which is why you’ll want to create a welcome sign of some sort. While the classic wooden sign with your names and an arrow might do the trick, we prefer signs that can be incorporated into the garden itself, such as a hanging banner that swings from the trees.

2. Flower bars

Candy bars might be passé, but do you know what’s not? Flower bars.

This is one our favourite ideas for garden or backyard weddings. Set up a table near the entrance of the wedding with buds, greenery and ribbons, so that guests can create their own floral arrangements to take home, or to tuck in their hair or lapels during the celebration.

3. Unconventional seating arrangements

If you’re hosting your ceremony or reception in a garden, don’t restrict your wedding guests to conventional seating arrangements. Hay bales with throw blankets make for idea seating during a ceremony, while guests can be assigned to a picnic blanket rather than a table.

4. Hanging floral arrangements

There’s nothing worse than sharing a table with someone, and desperately trying to talk over a large floral arrangement in the centre of the table. The solution? Take a cue from the Grounds of Alexandria in Sydney, and hang your arrangements from the ceiling instead. If you’re trying to figure out how to light an outdoor wedding, you could even string fairy lights through these hanging arrangements to create a real-life Midsummer’s Night Dream.

5. Outdoor pianos

Setting up a piano in the garden has been named one of the top trends for outdoor weddings this year, but we think you should take it one step further: Hire us to join you for your big day, instead, and we’ll bring all the instruments outdoors.