Your Wedding, Your Way: Outdoor Wedding Theme Ideas for 2022 & Beyond
Looking to plan your perfect outdoor wedding? Using real life examples from our wonderful 2021 weddings, we have included a roundup of our favourite outdoor wedding theme ideas. Feel free to pick n’ mix these ideas to create your wedding, your way – after all, that’s what getting married in the great outdoors is all about!
Choose Your Theme
As with any other wedding, it’s important to pick a theme and stick to this throughout the planning process. Your theme can be anything you like, ranging from laid back affairs with bouncy castles and bubbles to formal occasions with string quartets and sit-down meals. Your theme should reflect your personality – so have fun with it!
Last year, our wedding couples mostly opted for the following: festival themed events, fun family-friendly occasions, or formal affairs. The décor, food and activities chosen helped to reinforce the theme and made for some truly fantastic celebrations.
Festival theme example: Lauren & Oliver opted for a festival style wedding that they named ‘Stoke Fest’. Daytime touches included a festival-themed seating plan, fancy dress, cake, goody bags and props; with a fun glitter station and pop-up photo booth in the evening. We found ourselves chomping at the bit to get involved in the festivities!
Family-friendly theme example: David & Joanne’s mid-week wedding featured a fun music playlist in the daytime and a DJ set in the evening, with local recommended caterers including The Hungry Place Van, Molly Moos Ice Cream and Hoggits. They hired a bouncy castle for the kids (and the adults!) to enjoy and swapped traditional confetti for a bubble machine.
Formal theme example: Tara & Jack’s wedding was much more traditional and formal, with a sit-down wedding breakfast, Pimms reception and a beautiful string quartet. They used flowers from our farm’s poly tunnel for the decorations, which looked oh so romantic and elegant.
Decorations that Dazzle
Your outdoor wedding decorations should demonstrate a laid back yet luxurious feel. We recommend choosing a couple of bold colours and fusing these with neutral favourites. You could jazz up your outdoor venue with crazy blue bunting and bright pink flowers or use fun props and festival flags. The only limit is your imagination!
Tantalise the Tastebuds
Outdoor wedding food can typically be less formal. Think informal food trucks and laid-back bars – popular options include sharing style BBQ platters, rustic pizzas, hog roasts and ice cream trucks. Food trucks and venders are usually less expensive than formal catering options, so your bank account will certainly thank you.
However, we are also seeing more formal sit-down meals which work perfectly in the tipis and marquee at our venues. With beautiful stylised sharing platters, canapes that tantalise your tastebuds and towers of cheese for a wedding cake, we love seeing our guests’ creative catering options! Enjoy sitting down to a seating plan and catching up with friends over a delicious set menu, whilst drinking lovely wine and getting ready for the speeches.
Check out our wonderful recommended suppliers here.
Enjoyable Entertainment
It wouldn’t be an outdoor wedding without some fun games and activities to enjoy! In our experience, photo booths that are kitted out with fancy dress costumes and props always go down a treat. Outdoor lawn games are also a fun option, as guests can enjoy the wonderful venue surroundings and spend some quality time together.
Our wedding venues here in Essex are extremely flexible and we encourage our couples to be as imaginative as possible. We have plenty of lawn and woodland space for activities and love seeing couples make it their own. Some of our favourite entertainment choices in the past have included: giant mirrors around the lake with signs to “check yourself before you wreck yourself”; a “Club Tropicana” pagoda bar; vintage doors as a secret garden entrance; an old school tea party; all sorts of motor vehicles including double decker buses; and stunning hanging flower installations down the aisle. We’ve seen it all!
Our Wonderful Wedding Venue in the Heart of Essex
Chalkney Water Meadows is our picturesque lakeside venue, welcoming parties of up to 150 guests. The venue is popular with larger parties who require more space, but it can also host small intimate weddings; featuring three linked giant tipis as the reception space, with ceremonies taking place on the lakeside willow pontoon. Chalkney Water Meadows features 20 luxurious Nomadic bell tents, as well as two lakeside cabins.
Teybrook Orchard is our intimate woodland venue, welcoming wedding parties of up to 100 guests. The venue features a beautiful marquee as the reception space, with magical ceremonies taking place under the trees. Teybrook Orchard boasts 10 quirky glamping dwellings, providing onsite accommodation for up to 40 guests.
So, if you’re searching for an outdoor wedding venue in the heart of Essex, look no further than Browning Bros! Get in touch today to discuss your wedding plans and arrange a visit.
