A Rustic Country Wedding

Some of you might recall that my family and I were out of town for a few weeks to visit family and celebrate my cousin’s wedding. It was great being back home in Florida and taking my little man to see all of the things I loved growing up!

From the beginning my cousin had her heart set on having a rustic country wedding with “peacock colors” {royal purple and turquoise}. I was all too happy to start pinning as soon as I found out the theme!  The ceremony was beautiful. It was held outside on the grounds of a historical mansion downtown, and the bride looked stunning! After the ceremony, the reception was held in the backyard of my childhood home {my mom’s house}. Since we arrived several days before the wedding, I tried to help out where I could, and the whole family chipped in as well. Everything turned out great, so I wanted to share a few of the details with you!

As I mentioned above, the wedding party was decked out in the colors of a peacock…purple and turquoise. Each girl got to pick out the dress style of her choice, but they were all in the same turquoise color. Except for the maid of honor of course, who was in purple.

When arriving at the reception, guests were greeted with this saying painted on a pallet: “Come as you are, stay as long as you can, we are all family now – so no seating plan!” There was also a table set up next to an old tree stump where friends and family could sign the guestbook.

Shameless plug here…I made the guestbook using Shutterfly, and it turned out beautifully if I do say so myself! I would highly recommend them to anyone in the future.

The head table was decked out in black and burlap tablecloths. A large tree branch was perched on the center of the table with holes drilled in it for candles. As you can see, the bride and groom had “redneck wine glasses” made out of mason jars, and I made them some “Mr.” & “Mrs.” wine glasses.

I found the genuine slate chalkboards at Hobby Lobby for a steal, and wrote “Mr.” & “Mrs.” on them. The original plan was to have chair signs for the bride and groom, but since the table was up against the house, no one would have seen them. The chalkboards were a fun, rustic way to bring their vision to life.

My mom’s backyard is great and has several large trees in it. We decided to use one of the trees to cover the “dance floor” (which was made out of four large rugs and more affordable than a dance floor rental).

The fort was transformed using white tablecloths and candles in mason jars; then we hung candles, poms, and Christmas lights throughout the lower tree branches.

It was beautiful during the day, but at night the space was nothing short of magical, and provided the perfect dancing backdrop!

Picnic tables were set up for everyone to eat and relax at. Each one was covered with a white tablecloth and a burlap runner. I arranged large branches, wood slices, pecans, and mason jars for the centerpieces. Some of my vintage jars were used to hold pictures of the couple, and the others held candles.

*WARNING: Don’t put pecans outside for decor the night before an event. You will end up with pecan shells everywhere because of hungry squirrels/racoons…we learned the hard way!

In true country fashion, we had a BBQ buffet with pork sliders, a baked potato bar, baked beans, etc. Mmm!

There’s my precious cousin modeling the “He POPPED the question – she said yes” bar! You can’t see it in the photo, but there was a popcorn machine off to the side. When the corn was done popping, it was scooped into large containers, and guests could sprinkle their favorite flavors on top. So much fun – especially for the kids!

And the piece de resistance was the gorgeous rustic wedding cake! A friend of the bride and groom made the cake. The feathers were made out of sugar paper – how awesome is that?!

Since the guests were “so sweet for coming,” they each got a jar of local honey as a favor. I absolutely loved this idea, and the setup was great!

The pallet backer said “Thank you! You’re so sweet for coming!” and we made a table out of a vintage door on some wooden sawhorses. It fit in perfectly with the decor!

All-in-all, the wedding was gorgeous, and we had SO much fun! I hope if you’re planning a rustic country wedding you’ve gotten a few good ideas here!

And of course I can’t leave you without a picture of the GORGEOUS bride! :-) Love her!

*the images without the Atkinson Drive watermark are courtesy of Lauren Rita Photography

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