Tips For Planning a Backyard Wedding | New England Wedding Photographer

A backyard wedding can be an incredibly intimate and special event that you and your family will treasure for years to come. The planning process is a lot of work, but there are so many advantages in the end! Here are some helpful tips for planning a backyard wedding. 

There are so many advantages that come with hosting a backyard wedding. The first, is it can save you thousands of dollars because you won’t have to book a venue! You will have to rent more supplies and hire more vendors, but that cost will not outweigh the cost a traditional venue. It also gives you so much more flexibility with dates. Popular weddings dates are often booked at venues years in advance. Lastly, there are far less restrictions you’ll have to follow. Traditional venues have a curfew, where all your guests have to leave by and even charge a fee if you stay too late. At a backyard wedding you can keep the party going so much later! If it is legal in your state you also could take advantage of having a sparkler exit or fireworks at the end of the night! Many venues have strict policies against those fun affairs.

The first and most important aspect to consider when planning a backyard wedding is the space. Starting with your ceremony location, what do you want as the background that will live forever in your wedding photos? Perhaps a scenic view of mountains, marshland by the ocean, or maybe even a flowering garden. Is there a large flat space behind that scenic spot where enough chairs can be set up for all the guests you plan to invite? The next area to consider is the reception space. You need another large open space to accommodate tables and chairs, serving areas for food, a bar, a dance floor and space for a DJ or band. If you have the space for all that, then you can absolutely host a backyard wedding! 

When planning your backyard wedding, the whole day will revolve around the time of your ceremony. Since this is most likely the first time a wedding has taken place at this location, you will want to consider the lighting of your ceremony spot and the time of day the ceremony will take place. This is for both the enjoyment of your guests and the quality of your photos! More than likely you will start planning the wedding more than a year in advance. If so, you have the perfect opportunity to see how the light will look in your ceremony location during the month and time of day of your ceremony. Try to get a good idea of how the sun will be shining on your ceremony site. If you are thinking of having the ceremony at 3 pm in June, go out to the ceremony location around 3 pm in June the year prior. Put yourself in the position your guests will be sitting and where you and your partner will be standing. Make sure your guests aren’t staring directly into the sun and the same goes for you two. You don’t want to be squinting in all your ceremony photos. You also want your guests to have a clear view of you. Sometimes all it takes is moving your ceremony time a couple hours earlier or later in the day. Maybe 4 pm in June is a better time to host the ceremony and then build the timeline from there! 

When hosting a backyard wedding, rentals are a must. Renting a tent always a great idea. This provides a backup plan incase of rain. If it ends up being a beautiful day then you can dine outside under the stars! But if not, you have a safe comfortable place for your guests that can be somewhat temperature controlled. For hotter dates you can have fans in the tent, and for colder days you can have heaters. A tent also allows for your photographer to get quality pictures of your reception after dark. No one likes a flash pointed directly at their face. With a white tent, your photographer can bounce their flash off the ceiling of the tent, giving a sharp clean look to the images, without blinding anyone. 

More rentals you will have to consider is tables and place settings for the reception. You will need enough tables for all your guests, as well as tables for caterers, a desert table, gift table, and perhaps even some standing tables for mingling. Then of course, you need enough chairs. To save money the same chairs can be used for both the ceremony and the reception. You will need to rent dinner plates, dessert plates, silverware, and serving utensils. Don’t forget a knife and server for the cake! See if the catering company you choose includes serving plates in their packages. You will want a variety of glassware, water glasses, wine glasses, champagne flutes, rocks glasses, highball glasses, and even coffee mugs. Talk to the bartending service you higher beforehand and see if they include any glassware in their packages. Linens and napkins will be another rental you might want to consider. There are a variety of price and color options available. Another great perk of hosting a backyard wedding is that you can choose any color scheme or aesthetic you want for your table settings without having to worry about matching the colors or look of the venue! 

Other rentals you may not have considered include lighting, a generator, and even bathrooms. More likely than not, your reception is going last far past sunset. You will want to make sure you have ample lighting for the reception. Some options include string lights, fairy lights, led candles on tables, or even lanterns. You will also be using so much extra power to host the event (caterers, lighting, DJ, etc) that you may want to consider renting an event generator for extra power so you don’t blow a fuse. One of the less glamorous aspects, but a very important one to consider, is the bathroom set up. Renting a portable bathroom is the best option. You want all your guests to have easy access, and you want to limit foot traffic into the house on the property. There are many portable bathrooms that are specifically designed for events like weddings. Many include multiple stalls, flushing toilets, hot and cold water sinks, and are even quite spacious. 

Since you are hosting your own event, food vendors are a must. You will not want any family members to be worrying about cooking or serving food on your wedding day. The most common choice is to hire a catering company. A cheaper and unique alternative is to hire food trucks! A bartender is also important. You can hire a single bar tender or a bartending service. When hiring a single bar tender you must supply all the equipment, coolers, mixers, and glassware. When hiring a full service bartending company they supply both the bartenders and all the mixing equipment, ice, coolers, glassware, and drink mixers. A fun wedding bar service I loved was The Roaming Speakeasy, a vintage style mobile bar available in the New England area! 

The last thing to consider when planning a backyard wedding parking. Another large grassy area for guests to park is ideal. But if you don’t have one, there are other options. If you aren’t having a large guest count and street parking is accessible in your area, that is an option. If there is a nearby public lot, you can have guests park there and hire busses or trolleys to shuttle guests to and from those lots. You will want to make sure you have multiple rounds of shuttles to accommodate both your guests that would like to leave the celebration a little early and the ones who want to stay late. Or you can hire a valet service to park the cars for your guests at a nearby lot. This is a bit more pricey, but allows guests to leave at their own convenience. 

Planning a backyard wedding is a lot of work, but it is so worth it! You have the freedom and flexibility to create a magically intimate and special day that is uniquely your own.