5 Fall Wedding Planning Tips
Becoming an event planner means anticipating everything that could happen, good or bad. The truth is, planning a fall wedding isn’t the same as a summer wedding (although it would be a heck of a lot easier if it was)!
Earning your event planning certification is the first step. You’ll learn all the details to keep in mind when planning an event of any scale. While the main components are the same, seasonal factors do come into play. The biggest consideration is the temperature change. With it, you’ll have to adjust your other wedding planning strategies.
Not sure where to begin? Read on for our 5 tips for planning a perfect fall wedding!
Book your vendors
Despite the changing scenery, wedding season doesn’t set until after October. More and more people fall in love with the idea of incorporating the vibrant colors of fall into their celebrations, so your clients aren’t going to be the only ones pining for beautiful autumn nuptials. Just as you would with your weddings in the summer, you’ll want to book your vendors and venue ahead of time.
And, while you’re at it, ensure you look at the daylight hours projections. Consider when daylight savings time ends and schedule the event programming accordingly. Your clients won’t appreciate getting caught in the dark without lanterns when it’s time for the ceremony!
Take advantage of natural scenery
While rustic weddings are popular in the summer, the theme is enhanced by the fall color palette. Dried flowers, plump pumpkins, and reclaimed wood all echo that vintage charm. Chances are, your clients probably don’t have a bright fuchsia and baby blue color scheme in mind if they want an autumn outdoor wedding.
Deep jewel tones and velvet and suede textiles work wonderfully to compliment and deepen the palette. Get inspired from the fall colors, and ensure that the other decor elements meld smoothly in with your scheme. We’re obsessed with using rich textures to compliment the rough bark and crisp fallen leaves!
Earthy, warm hues are popular, but don’t let your clients think they’re the only options. If they don’t want to be “on theme”, they can limit decor to seasonal details here and there.
Related articles:
- How to Create Gorgeous Event Decor for the Fall Wedding
- The Quick Guide to Floral Design for Event Planners
- Top 5 Places to Find Event Decor
But beware the cold
As a transitional season, the fall months can be warm and sunny during the day, and quickly turn brisk or frigid in the evening. Your job as a certified wedding planner is to ensure that your clients, guests, and vendor staff are taken care of. This means shielding them from the sometimes unforgiving weather!
From here, you have a few options. Your clients could have a celebration that’s outdoors during the day and then move indoors when dusk hits. You could also rent an indoor venue with floor to ceiling views outside. Once you decorate the outdoors and indoors, both spaces are fair game. People will be able to move between both spaces as they need to.
Ensure you inquire with venue owners ahead of time. Renting both indoor and outdoor premises will incur additional costs—the liquor permit is no exception.
And if your clients want to save on costs and rent an outdoor space, secure some tents! They’re great options to protect guests from the elements while offering a space that houses heating stations well. Does the location often receive rain? Then you should prepare for the worst! Advise your clients that it may be best to rent the outdoor site for the whole day to accommodate set-up and take down of the tent sites.
Create cozy spaces
Let’s stretch the bounds of what “coziness” entails. Take the Danish concept of hygge. If you’re planning a mid-November fall wedding, you’ll want to take notes. The contentment of coziness and well-being has been trending in recent years. It’s hard not to see the appeal! With the joy of togetherness and celebration at the center of a wedding, you’re already halfway there.
The next is to draw on decor to maximize the hygge. Warm, toasty fires are essential to the fall wedding. So are lanterns, pillar candles, and string lights. These latter decorating elements provide light and warmth. But more importantly, they imbue a mood of comfort and coziness. Beyond physical decorations, food and drinks like marshmallow-topped hot chocolate are crowd pleasers into the late evening.
Seasonal foods and catering
Nutty cheeses, warm cider, and pumpkin pie top the list of fall foods. Just as you’d save money on seasonal flowers for floral design, so you would, too, with foods. Shop local, seasonal ingredients for the budget-conscious client. Their wallets and their taste buds will thank you! With harvest and Thanksgiving imagery in mind, your clients may also spring for family-style service.
Opt for a naked cake decorated with seasonal fruits instead of the traditional buttercream. Seasonal foods could also make up the majority of the centerpiece design. If your clients are zero-waste, they can encourage guests to take a piece of the centerpiece home with them at the end of the event.
Any other pointers we missed? Let us know in a comment!
