As a reply to a discussion topic about outdoor weddings as requested by Brieen z2 SK, I thought I would post pictures of my daughter's wedding in our yard from last summer, in the gallery section of FN.

First, we did a lot of preparations to the yard last summer, including trimming tree branches.

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The day before the wedding, at the rehearsal, we strung out electrical cords and set up all the music equipment. We had them set up under the trees, to the front and left of the wedding ceremony.

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The morning of the wedding, my sister came and helped me put out the tulle and decorate the side of the 'room'. We did not put it out the night before in case of rain which would make the tulle look soggy.

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We put tulle on the 2 arbours I had that were providing the backdrop for the ceremony. Also we made a tulle bow for each chair and put some on the ground around the pedestal that held the colored bath crystals.

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At the guest table there was a bouquet of fresh red gladiolas (from Marg...thanks).

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The colored bath crystals were used instead of lighted candles and a unity candle. We thought that the candles may have a tendency towards blowing out and so the bath crystals were used.

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The table and chairs were decorated simply. After all we wanted to focus on the bride and groom and not the decorations.

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Note my daughter's bouquet. Simple and elegant. Note her 'shoes' or actually lack there of. She wanted to get married in our yard, in bare feet. So, she did.

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We served homemade raspberry iced tea (a red color) and had plenty of bottles of water available for the guests.

We dropped off the dogs at a nearby kennel for the day also, so that they wouldn't be in the way. We just left the cat in the house that day.

Garden weddings get great wedding pictures.

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Playing around a tree looks like fun.

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The next day we had the gift opening here at the yard. We served hamburgers and hotdogs and sat around in a semicircle to view the new couple open their gifts. The guest book attendant brought the gifts over for them to open and then, once opened, they were placed on two bluejean blankets in the middle of the grass/mulch area.

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Hope this helps and gives some ideas.

Brenda