Forever + Ever | Fall Mountain Wedding
This will be a small series showcasing wedding decor that I have helped with as well as some DIY options you can do to create the perfect day!
First, I want to point out at the end of the blog is a link to my video showing more behind the scenes leading up to the big day! I love having the video option so that you can see how everything came together, and see how the professional pictures turned out. In this section, I want to give a quick summary of all the different ways we decorated for this wedding and then will do more detailed “how-to” blogs explaining how to do the swags for the archway for example. So stay tuned and let me know in the comments if there was something you wanted to know more about. :)
Wedding Mood Board
The design style for this wedding was rustic boho. Since the wedding was going to take place in the mountains of Gallatin Valley, we wanted to compliment that in our look. If you have ever been in the mountains at the beginning of the fall/colder season in late September, you know that it is still very much green with the pine trees (pine trees are always green) and lush grass. To compliment that, we wanted to add rich fall colors using dried seasonal grasses, flowers, and wood. We also wanted specific textures to come through in the overall look: again, lots of dried grasses, greenery (mostly eucalyptus), subtle reflections like in the bubbles, and soft textures using different fabrics and linens.
I think a mood board to begin planning your wedding is a great idea to start! From the ideas you gather on your board, you will be able to determine 1. Where you want to get married, 2. The types of venues to tour and select for your wedding, 3. Overall color scheme to help choose wedding attire, floral color selection and tablecloth selection, 4. Decorations you absolutely want to invest in.
Wedding Ceremony Decorations
Personally, I love to begin the design and tone of the wedding in the ceremony area. This is where all of your important candid photos you will cherish for a lifetime are taken and special moments captured. I love all the natural elements in this look. It is so simple and does not take away from the fact you are getting married in the mountains. My favorite is the focal point of the ceremony, the archway.
The Boho Swags
I cannot wait to show you how to recreate these arch swags. If you are a boho style fan, I hope you find these to be so simple to create on your own! I will point out that even though simple to create they are time consuming… Each swag took me just over an hour to create. Mostly because I wanted the second one to almost exactly match the first one. And not to mention planning out how many grasses, greenery, and flowers needed for each swag as well as how much variety I wanted to include in the swags and the size.
The boho style is very forgiving, though. So even if you do not know how many grasses or what kinds of grasses to incorporate, no one will know either! Boho style is a free-spirited look that mixes different cultures and artistic expression into one eclectic style with the emphasis of using nature and organic elements. As long as you keep that in mind, you will have the look you are going for.
Ceremony Isle
When it comes to decorating the isle to walk down, I prefer the look of odd numbered decorations on either side or adding a decor item at each row of chairs or benches. This is more pleasing to look down and allows the eyes to follow each decor item down to the focal point of the ceremony.
Mountain Archway
At first we had thought the arch was going to be stacked one in front of the other since they were built as two separate pieces. But then we got the idea to stagger the two arches to look like a mountain range. Something different, unexpected and emphasized the fact we were in the mountains for this wedding.
Then to ground the area for the ceremony and compliment the warm tones from the dried grasses in the swags, we added a rug in front. I love how the rug pulled the red and browns from some of the pampas grasses in the swags and in the wood grain. The rug also came in handy as something dry for the bride, groom and officiant to stand on since it had been raining for days leading up to the big day! You cannot tell in the pictures, but the ground was definitely wet under your shoes.
Bridal Bouquet
The next important decoration in a wedding, the bridal bouquet. The bridal bouquet is important just because of the fact that it will be in almost every photo taken that day. You could even design the whole wedding around how you want your bouquet to look. And I won’t lie to you… this one I struggled with just due to the fact that I wanted it to look perfect and flow well with our overall theme. My biggest tip here would be to gab an element from each part of the wedding and include that in the bouquet. For instance, I used almost all of the same grasses in the bouquet that were also used in the swags, boutonnieres, corsages, gift table, etc. I also matched the groom’s bow tie with the velvet ribbon to wrap around and hang from the base of the bridal bouquet. We also used real flowers and touch more white to create a more bridal look.
My favorite part would be the velvet burnt orange ribbon with raw edging. Again we are adding more fall colors from our mood board as well as drawing out those warmer tones peeking out from the rest of the decorations. Everything the bride with stand next to for photos, will all compliment one another in bouquet.
Bridal Party: Boutonnieres and Corsages
Instead of doing traditional bridesmaid bouquets, we decided to do something different and create bridesmaid corsages. We loved how simple they were and you save a bit on buying more flowers and dried grasses. Also, this wedding had nine total bridesmaids…
Again, here we wanted to compliment the them of the ceremony swags and the bridal bouquets, but now we are adding more a new subtle color, yellow. You can see how the boutonnieres also share this same yellow flowers.
Since the boutonnieres are too small in scale to include a large white daisy flower, we wanted to bring in all the different fall colors from the mood board into the look. Plus a nice pop of color against a neutral groomsmen attire looks great in photos!
Card Table | Family History of Weddings
This table was unique and very special to showcase for the guests. It was a great opportunity to use what ever grasses, flowers, greenery we had left over and use in random vases and spread across the table. Such a cute way to include the parents, grandparents and anything sentimental to be a part of your special day.
Macrame Cake Table
This part of decorating for the wedding could arguable be my favorite! I wish I would have taken more photos right when we finished decorating the table.
Basically the macrame wall was handtied and the support arch was custom built. We also did a fun eucalyptus garland around the top and added a custom neon sign with newlyweds last name. Such a striking piece for your guests to look at and fun for your cake pictures!
Be sure to watch my video showing all the behind the scenes and how the pictures of the beautiful fall mountain wedding turned out here. In the next blog, I will break down step-by-step how I created the large swags for the mountain archway.
If you want to read more into my life as an interior designer working in Montana, click to read more. All of your support is amazing, and I am so thankful you are here! :)I really hope this has helped you with your projects or future ideas. Please follow along for a deeper look into wedding decor how-to’s and what I’ve learned to be successful planning out your big day. Send me projects you are currently working on in the comments below!
Happy Styling! :)
