Are You Planning To Have A Backyard Wedding?

Wedding is an extremely intimate affair. From the choice of venue to your guest list, and from your attire to the delicacies, everything is planned out, chosen, and curated by you according to your personal preferences. 

If you’re planning to get hitched soon, and want a personalized experience on the big day, an at-home-wedding might be a smart option. Backyard weddings have been on the rise in the past few years.

With a unique urban charm offered by SoHo, an experience tailored to your choices, a cost effective venue, flexibility and convenience, as well as an aesthetic appeal, your backyard makes for an absolutely perfect choice for all your wedding day needs. 

Tips For A Stress-Free Backyard Wedding

If you want an intimate wedding in the comfort of your home, but want to remain stress free, here are a few tips that can help make your backyard wedding a success:

Make Plans In Accordance With The Weather

Preparing for the weather well in advance is one of the most important things that you can do to avoid stress during the most important day of your life. The rule of thumb is to choose the weather in which you want to get married, whether it’s a summer backyard wedding, or a spring soiree.

Once you’ve chosen the weather and month to get married in, you can focus on other key aspects such as avoiding the extremely hot or cold hours, or shifting the wedding inside the house in case of changes in weather.

You can also choose to celebrate the wedding ceremony outside, and then take the party inside the house. However, if you’re planning to do this, or want to keep the inside of the house open as an option number 2 in case of weather discrepancies, then you must focus on matching the interior styling with the theme of your wedding to give it a more cohesive look.

Allocate A Budget

To have a truly successful wedding day that brings you more joy than stress, your finances must be in order. The benefit of organizing a backyard wedding with your boo is that you have more control over your finances, you can cut back costs, and tailor your wedding experience to match your budget and your needs.

To create a budget for your backyard wedding, determine the overall amount that you’re willing to spend. Once you’ve decided on an amount, start prioritizing your needs, and how much you want to spend on them. For instance, if you want an exquisite wedding cake and decorations, but entertainment isn’t that important to you, you can allocate your budget accordingly.

To make a budget that covers all your costs including external vendors such as catering and photography, you must have a guest list or atleast a fair idea of how many people you plan to invite on your special day. You should also include the costs, if any, for any legal documentation for a backyard wedding, decorations, renting items, your wedding attire, invitation and wedding favors, an officiant’s fee, as well as a little extra to cover any miscellaneous costs.

Keeping track of your expenses as and when they happen, negotiating costs with vendors, and doing things yourself, wherever possible, will help you keep a close eye on your budget, spend carefully, and help you create a beautiful backyard wedding, even with a tight budget.

Define Your Theme

Having a clear vision for your special day can help make your backyard wedding even more intimate. Ofcourse, a backyard wedding is cost effective and more intimate, but that’s no reason for it to be treated casually.

If anything, the personal vibe of getting hitched in your backyard offers you more of a chance to create an exquisite outdoor wedding theme that matches your aesthetic. The presence of a backyard automatically opens you up to some frequently used themes.

Depending on the size of your backyard, you can create a beautiful garden theme wedding with fairy lights, specify a lounge area for a more urban approach, add chic elements to give off a more formal vibe, use the greenery all around you as decoration, and use the flowers from your garden to decorate the aisle.

You can also decorate the front porch, and utilize the front yard for seating arrangements. All of these will add significant value to your outdoor wedding. Just remember to experiment and make the most of the items at your disposal.

Enlist The Help Of Friends And Family

For an intimate and stress free wedding, who better to trust than your loved ones? Enlisting the help of your loved ones to execute your backyard wedding is probably the best decision that you can ever make.

Since you’re aware of which one of your friends can help with seating arrangements, and which family member is a pro at decoration, you can play to their strengths, delegate your tasks, and enjoy a stress free wedding day in the comfort of your home.

This ensures that not only you make your wedding cost efficient, but also make beautiful memories with your loved ones, as they become a part of your special day, and play a role in making it a huge success. This might also be a great opportunity to play around with some DIY decor ideas to add a touch of personality to your wedding.

You can use old pictures, love letters, and gifts that you and your significant other gave each other during the courtship to add a touch of nostalgia to your wedding day.

However, if you don’t want to burden your friends and family with the execution duties for your nuptials, and you can afford a wedding planner, you must invest in one. To find the right wedding planner, make sure you research various websites, social media, and magazines. Find someone who matches your aesthetic, has expertise in backyard wedding planning, and understands your vision for the big day.

Get The Legalities In Order

Depending on whether the property is yours, or you’ve leased it/rented it, running everything by a lawyer is essential. Whether you’re planning a wedding in your hometown or in the place you reside currently, the documentation and legal requirements for your area can differ widely, that you’ll have to address promptly, and months in advance before the big day to avoid any stressful situations.

To get permits, you must get in touch with the city council or town hall, get everything in order, and seek permission from other necessary authorities. If it’s your own house, doing this is enough to get started on a backyard wedding.

However, if you’re a tenant, and wish to get married in your current residence, you’ll need permission from your landlord to host an event as big as a wedding there, ask them regarding all the legal requirements, and only move ahead with the planning after that.

Once your legal matters are sorted, never forget to get a wedding insurance that can cover all your expenses in case of any untimely issues. This will not only help you cover the ceremony but will also keep you stress free, both emotionally and financially.

Notify Your Neighbors

Let your neighbors know about your arrangements for the wedding day in advance, and smooth out any details. You can request them to keep the volume down during the ceremony hour, bring them a small gift as a form of request, and let them know that it’s a family only event.

If they know in advance that there’s going to be a party, they’re more likely to be considerate rather than calling cops on you for partying until too late or blasting the music too loud.

While it is important to enjoy your day to the fullest, it’s equally important to be a responsible member of your society. Be respectful of the timings, try to keep the voice down during the later hours of the night, and avoid coming across as a snob by disrespecting your neighbors space, especially the lawns and gardens that are adjoining your home.

You must also inform your neighbors about any rough parking situations, and if you’re on good terms with them, and they’re invited, you could ask to use their parking space for the day so that your guests can avoid jamming the entire road with their cars. Prior informing and planning with the neighbors can save you stress during or just before your wedding, a day you wouldn’t want to get spoiled.

Focus On The Guest Experience

It can be so easy to get swept away in making it your day, that you can forget about certain key aspects that can help make the experience better for your guests. If you want to share such an intimate and important event of your life with your loved ones, then focus on creating an experience that you all can enjoy.

You can achieve this by providing ample arrangements for your guests based on the weather. Keep cool drinks handy for a summer wedding. Keep the seating arrangements such that no guest is left out in the heat, and have your caterer offer snacks and food through servers.

Make use of portable toilets in case your house can’t accommodate too many guests at once, and place lawn protection mats in your lawn so that the guests can park their vehicles there. It will also protect your grass from so much foot traffic that it’s about to endure.

Final Thoughts

Planning a wedding can be a fun experience, albeit tiring. By choosing your backyard as your wedding venue, you can not only make the experience more intimate but also a hundred times more enjoyable and stress free. By following the tips given above, whether it’s focusing on the legal or the aesthetic aspects of your wedding, you can ensure that your wedding day will become the most special day of your life, with just a little bit of planning beforehand.