Popular wedding trends come and go, but one thing is for sure: a natural wedding will never go out of style! We’ve put together some tips that are guaranteed to make your big day more memorable, beautiful and enjoyable, and they’re definitely worth a try!
Whether you’re saying your vows at Daalarna Garden’s Barn, in the beautiful lavender field or in the forest of sycamore trees, if you’re planning a wedding in a natural setting, it’s worth considering how you can incorporate the organic beauty of nature into other elements outside of the wedding ceremony venue! As wedding experts, we’ve got some ideas to make your natural wedding a dream. Let’s take a look!
Have your natural wedding outdoors
The key to a natural wedding is that there’s nothing over the top, outrageous or flashy, not even in terms of the colours or the materials. The best way to blend in with your surroundings is to choose the main colours for your wedding that are found in nature and in your outdoor wedding location as well. These usually range from blues, browns, beiges, reds, oranges and lemon yellows to thousands of shades of green, but this can vary seasonally.
It is common to find reddish, purple and pinkish flowers and plants in the spring and summer wedding seasons, while deep orange and burgundy take over in the late autumn season. For winter weddings, brown, beige, grey, mauve and white are also common choices, as many people plan their wedding ceremony in a snowy landscape!
Did you know? Daalarna Garden is located in Szentendre, Hungary – just 40 minutes from the airport. Check it out here!
Choose natural colours and shades for your wedding
In addition to choosing a wedding venue, there are thousands of possibilities for where to have your wedding ceremony. It could be at a lovely little bush, a dramatic big tree, a lavender field, a quiet little brookside or even a walkway between plane trees. All these (and more) can be arranged at Daalarna Garden in Szentendre! We recommend you get a personalized price quote as soon as possible if you dream of having a natural wedding!
Unless bad weather interferes, almost all natural weddings are organised outdoors. The important thing is that you and your partner choose a wedding location where you are not only relaxed and comfortable but also feel happy! It is a perfect wedding location where you can relax on your big day and not worry about whether everything is going to be perfect on your wedding day. Because this day is all about you!
Let your invitations reflect your natural wedding
Once you’ve chosen the main colours for your natural wedding, it’s a good idea to design your invitations in these shades. But you don’t have to stick to print hundreds of cards in the same colour, you can make them all yourself! For example, hand-written paper sheets of recycled paper are great, and you can not only fold them up if you like, but you can also hand-paint them and glue pressed dried plants on top of them!
It also looks very unique if you wrap your wedding invitation in a big leaf! But if that’s too organic for you, you can also wrap your cards with a printed leaf template and string them. This wedding invitation is a popular choice for natural weddings all over the world! You may also want to consider having your wedding invitations embossed, stamped and decorated with wooden leaves and white flowers. It’s a perfect way to connect and set the tone for your natural wedding. Also, you and your husband can enjoy this super craft session together, as you don’t have to leave everything to the professionals!
Let the path to the ceremony be accompanied by flowers, leaves, trees, bushes
The path leading to the wedding ceremony can be lined with flower petals (even dried ones), but a flower or plant petal tied to the guests’ chairs also looks great. While pampas plants can make a floral gateway look incredibly elegant and bohemian, potted plants, small lemon trees, as well as palm trees, pineapples and banana trees also work well. These can add a touch of exoticism to your wedding ceremony! It’s worth considering taking a trip to a large nursery and having a look around, as you never know which flowers and plants might catch your eye!
Try to get as many natural decorations as possible
The choice of nature-themed decorations is incredibly wide: it depends on your taste, style, personal preferences and, of course, budget as to how much you want to be close to nature. It is safe to say that for similar-themed weddings, couples tend to avoid plastic decorations (such as balloons) as much as possible.
However, you also have a lot of options and many other questions to decide with your partner. Do you want to cut flowers? If so, how many and what type? Perhaps you want to go in the direction of a more sustainable wedding and think about potted plants and dried flowers, as well as a variety of bushes and leafy greens. All of these are good choices, but you should know that not all plants and flowers will bloom (and therefore will be available) in every single month and season. It is always a good idea to consult with a florist or gardener about your flower arrangements, as it may not be possible to choose the decorative elements you want for your wedding.
Have your meals and dinners outdoors
There’s nothing more beautiful than saying “I do” with your partner in nature, but it can be even more special if you take the reception and the wedding dinner outdoors! Of course, there’s no guarantee that the weather won’t go bad, even on a hot day in the summer. However, there are options to have your wedding close to nature while still having the big day in an easily accessible, protected indoor space!
Daalarna Garden’s Winter Garden, for example, is surrounded on both sides by the beautiful English Garden, which is an eye-catching backdrop. The space is covered on the top and opened on the sides but can be covered and closed at any time with transparent tent windows that give a perfect view of the scenery outside. In fact, it’s like being in nature even when the space is completely closed off. Also, you don’t even have to worry about the cold and hot weather because you can turn on the heating, the air conditioning and the cooling immediately when using the transparent tent windows!
Feel free to place your food and drinks close to nature
Although traditional catering will never go out of fashion, the modern buffet style of serving food, where the most delicious dishes are prepared separately on the tables, is becoming increasingly popular. It’s a cost-effective and spectacular method that saves money, but it’s also sustainable, as each guest can eat exactly what they want and exactly what they want. It is a common experience that guests also love such meals, especially if they are served in a tasteful way.
There’s a reason why buffet dinners are so common at the great majority of natural weddings: they look really good and create opportunities for conversation and networking. We recommend that you don’t neglect to decorate these buffet tables with flowers and plants during your natural wedding, as these decorations give the buffet tables the soul of the service. Silver and metallic bowls look their best with cooler shades of plants (e.g. ivy, moss), while lemonades and alcoholic drinks can be paired boldly with more colourful floral decorations.
Create dreamy, natural drinks for your wedding
Everyone loves a good meal, but it’s the drinks that will always be in the hands of your guests: that’s why it’s worth trying to offer not just the usual supermarket variety but also the speciality drinks that you can’t just buy in the supermarket. We are thinking of the theme drinks, which are very popular at natural weddings and are closely linked to the theme of the wedding. For example, lavender teas and lemonades in lilac and pink tones, as well as classic sorbets and juices in orange and yellowish shades, look amazing.
However, these beverages are loved not only by guests for their unique colour and fantastic taste but also because they can be easily combined with flower petals, plant arrangements, fruits, or even a lavender stem. With a little extra care, a unique cocktail or drink can always impress the guests, and if you line them up in harmony with the natural theme of the wedding, they will certainly be impressed by one of these extraordinary drinks.
Decorate your desserts with flowers and fruits
Once you’ve got the natural feel of the wedding back in the drinks, it’s worth having a little experimentation with the desserts! There’s so much to do with the cakes; there are hardly any ideas that can’t be created! Of course, you can also hire a professional cake decorator to do the job, as the cakes must be served fresh and you won’t have enough time to decorate them on your big day, but you can have your choice of exactly how they should look!
For example, if you prefer wildflowers picked from the field, you can use them to decorate small cakes, while lemon and orange preserves will make a delicious addition to muffins. Lavenders are usually used on creamy sponge cakes and iced biscuits, but they are also worth trying on cupcakes, as their long stems make them impressive on their own. One thing’s for sure: these delicious treats will match amazingly to the surroundings of your natural wedding, as they can make for a memorable experience for the guests.
Pick a cake inspired by your natural wedding
It’s fun to choose a wedding cake that’s customised to suit your natural wedding instead of a traditional wedding cake. This can be as simple as a flower shape, a floral design or a leaflet design (something that will be used at your wedding), but it can be almost anything from a brilliant dessert in the main colours of the occasion to a cake decorated with different motives and patterns of your natural wedding elements. Use your imagination!
It’s a fantastic opportunity to create a unique and personalized cake for your natural wedding, which you’ve never seen before among your relatives and friends. If you add a little bit of personal touch to it, you’re almost 100% guaranteed to be remembered by your guests for a very long time. Social media platforms offer a wealth of inspirational photos to choose from, which will help you easily find the perfect wedding cake or dessert for your natural wedding.
Photos by Éva Papp and Zoltán Schneider, Gréta Gerencsér, Pinewood Weddings, Bella Rose Photography, Hanna Schuster, Location: Daalarna Garden, Dresses by Daalarna
Daalarna Garden is the perfect wedding venue for a natural wedding and an environmentally conscious outdoor ceremony. Take a look around the website and request a personalised enquire here!