A rustic style wedding embraces a natural, charming, and often nostalgic aesthetic inspired by countryside or rural settings. This theme is a bit rough around the edges, and is characterized by its simplicity, organic elements, and focus on creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Rustic weddings often incorporate natural textures, earthy tones, and vintage details. Whether held in a barn, garden, or open field, a rustic wedding is all about embracing the surrounding natural beauty. Here are some ideas to help you plan a rustic winter wedding celebration.
Inspiration for a Rustic Winter Wedding
The color palette for rustic weddings is usually inspired by nature, featuring earthy tones like browns, greens, soft yellows, blush pinks, and rustic oranges. Decorations are often kept simple and include elements from nature, such as greenery, wood, burlap, hay, twine, and wildflowers to create an organic and inviting ambiance. Candles, lanterns, string lights, and other forms of soft, warm lighting are often used to create a cozy and romantic ambiance, especially in the evening, and food choices may include locally sourced, seasonal, and farm-fresh ingredients.
Outdoor spaces, barnes, lodges, cabins or tented outdoor spaces lend themselves well to a rustic themed wedding. Once you establish your color scheme, you can start exploring textures like velvet and burlap, and everything from your wedding bouquet to your table decorations will start to take shape. Your venue will likely provide inspiration and elements to work with such as exposed beams in a barn, vintage farm equipment, a ski lodge or log cabin. You may be able to pull natural decorative elements like pine cones, red berries and evergreen boughs straight from your venue location, otherwise choose pieces that fit your theme and complement the existing structures and landscape.
Use recycled paper with different textures and twine for your invitations and stationary and consider a naked cake topped with berries or greenery that has a simple and rough look and fits perfectly with a rustic winter wedding. For attire, consider dresses with long sleeves or wear faux fur stoles, and tweed suits or woolen vests can give a rustic touch. Particularly if your event is outdoors, provide blankets, mittens or other warm and cozy keepsakes for your guests. Serve hearty dishes like pot pies, roast meats, and thick soups, and rustic pies, bread puddings, and a naked cake adorned with winter fruits and berries for dessert.
How to Decorate a Rustic Winter Wedding
A rustic winter wedding evokes feelings of coziness, warmth, and nostalgia. Natural elements like wood, pinecones, acorns, evergreen branches, cranberries, birchwood, and even twigs are beautiful decor pieces for a winter wedding. Place them on tables, incorporate them into aisle decorations, or use them as centerpieces. To add a little sparkle to your decorations, add hanging crystals, tinsel and other winter related adornments to the branches and twigs of your natural winter centerpieces.
Candles and lanterns mimic the warmth of a fireplace and feel very romantic for a winter affair. Use different sizes in mason jars, candlesticks and lanterns to create a cozy ambiance. Drape fairy lights for a dreamy atmosphere, reminiscent of stars on a clear winter night. Dress up your chairs with cozy knit covers or add evergreen wreaths with pine cones instead of the usual signage. Lay faux fur rugs or blankets on seating areas, and use thick, woven textiles for tablecloths or drapes. Make sure your guests don’t get cold by serving hot beverages like apple cider, mulled wine, and hot chocolate. You can even consider a hot chocolate bar for your dessert table and can make these beverage stations focal points in your decor.
Located on seven acres of rolling hills, Historic Acres of Hershey is a beautiful setting for a wedding any time of year, including winter months. We have a four-season pavilion and event spaces that can accommodate groups of all sizes. Give us a call to learn more about our venue.