Hi Bridal Babes! With 100 days until the wedding from today {!!!} I’m glad to be back and sharing some insight of what it’s been like to plan a backyard wedding. While our wedding isn’t at our home, it is an at-home wedding. Our ceremony and reception will all be held at our {super amazing} family friend’s gorgeous home on the lake. We’re planning to have a sweet front porch ceremony and twinkle-lit reception in the back {insert mullet joke here}! As I’ve mentioned previously, we knew we wanted to not have a too traditional venue and wanted both our ceremony and reception to be at one location, cutting out travel time and keeping it easy. While there are many, many perks {hello, budget friendly space to decorate and set-up to our hearts desire!} to having a wedding at a home location, there are many things to think about that can be easily overlooked {hello…porta-potty?!}!
There are many perks to having a backyard, at-home wedding! Restrictions on decor, catering, beverages or, in our case, pets? Nope. Can we hang this eucalyptus garland from your front porch for the ceremony? Yes! With our pup sitting beside us? Yes again! It’s been really fun to have no limitations on how we set-up the wedding, decorate it or what food and drinks we want to have. No cake cutting or corkage fees or restrictions on which vendor to use which have let us truly layout and build exactly the look and feel we hope to achieve.
While choosing our venue was one of the best/easiest planning decisions we’ve made, there are some aspects of planning an at-home wedding that you might happen to overlook as we did early on and throughout the planning process. As homes, unlike wedding venues are unlikely to have enough items to host a large party and with less limitation comes rental items. From chairs, tables and linens to sound equipment, dance floors, dining utensils, parking and so on. One rental item also to consider when having a wedding at a house is a porta-potty. 100 guests trecking in and out of someone’s home is probably not the best idea, nor is a back-up in the middle of the twinkle-lit dance floor!
What You’ll Need When Planning an At-Home Wedding:
- Parking
- Signage
- Lighting {Extension cords galore!}
- Sound Equipment {Speakers & microphone}
- Chair, Tables, Linen Rentals & dining utensil rentals
- Dance Floor rental
- Porta-Potty rental
- Food & beverage
- Ceremony & Reception Set-up
- Getting Ready Area
- Decor
- Clean-up {before & after}
Thankfully, there are some really great rental providers that can take care of all of your rental needs with drop-off and pick-up, as well as some posh restroom trailers that will still keep with the look of your day. Below you’ll find a few of my favorite at-home wedding inspo photos.
At-Home Wedding Inspiration
What planning run in’s have you had planning your wedding? I’ll be back in 3 weeks rounding up my favorite Etsy wedding purchases! Thanks babes!
Shea DeForest is a stylish DIY bride who is busy designing her dream wedding with a dreamy mix of classic + boho style. She will say “I Do” to Joseph, the love of her life, on October 3rd, 2015 with their pup Knox by their side. Shea will be gracing our blog with her monthly wedding planning updates right up until her October wedding. Want to know more? You can personally find + follow her on these social channels:
Pinterest // Instagram // Twitter
