Woodland-Inspired Wedding

My good friend Liv got married at her family's farm in May 2019. I was hired as the wedding decorator. The farm has tons of character but it hasn't been inhabited for many years and needed some love and decorations to make it all come together. When planning with Liv it was very important to her that natural elements such as trees and plants were the focus. Her colours were dark green, sage green, and yellow.

There was a clearing of trees where they would have fires. They cleared the firepit and leveled the ground so she could get married in this area. Her brother built a hexagon arbor and I decorated it with pine branches, eucalyptus, and sunflowers. Liv comes from a religious background so I found pews to bring the feeling of the church to nature. Her father and his friends repurposed old trees to make stumps to line the aisles so I could display thrifted vases of baby’s breath.

We set up a gift and guest book table right before the clearing so when people arrived they could sign in. I painted thrifted frames and attached branches to them to make a whimsical backdrop.


The farm had so many cool old vintage pieces, one of which was this old garage door. I decided to use it as a photo background for the guests. I made a banner with their wedding date and attached some greenery to it. Such an easy but effective DIY.


The reception took place in the loft of their barn. We used a piece of glass from the frames I had used at the gift table and wrote out the seating chart. I found an old milk jug in one of the sheds and added yellow flowers to it at the base of the stairs.


The loft, after many hours of cleaning and decorating, turned out beautifully. Liv wanted three long tables down the length of the barn which we decorated with branches, wood cookies, and thrifted vases. We strung lights along the top and added some decorations to the walls. I found an antique bench that had been painted yellow for Liv and her now-husband to sit on at the head of the middle table. I used embroidery hoops, twine, and faux greenery from the thrift store to make a wall hanging behind them. They had old crates around the farm so I stacked them for the speech podium.


They had many of their family members make pie and we set up a table with some wood cookies to create layers.

Liv had given me so much creative freedom and we were both thrilled with how it turned out. We did it all with recycled, borrowed, thrifted, and natural materials.


Author:Anna