Wedding Plan B: What If It Rains?

One of the things we've had to discuss with putting the backyard wedding plan in place is what we'll do if it rains. It's not a nice topic of conversation, but it's a necessary one. After all, the only thing worse than having to have a wedding in the rain (which doesn't even have to be that bad, really) is not having a backup plan in place if it happens.

First of all, we're strongly considering renting a tent or marquee. We haven't finalized the details for this, but having one will solve a variety of weather problems, such as providing shade and, of course, a limited amount of rain protection. You can also use your own tent, if you have one, or purchase one specifically for your event. However, in my experience, the ones you can buy tend to be low quality unless you spend a ton of money, difficult to put up, and prone to breakage.

Update On Growing Wedding Flowers

I mentioned in an earlier post that we were planning on using homegrown flowers for at least some of the wedding decorating. We planted the seeds about a month or so ago, and we're hoping that (at least some of them) will end up blooming within a little more than a month when we have the wedding ceremony. And that we'll manage to save a bit on flower costs, with an eclectic mix of blossoming plants to boot.

I don't know if someone should necessarily plan on planting all the flowers for a backyard wedding (or any wedding, for that matter) unless they really know what they're doing and have a lot of experience with making flowers grow. I've been known to have a bit of a black thumb myself, although I've managed to improve it somewhat over the past couple of years. Not to mention the fact that the end of September isn't exactly known for it's display of brilliantly blooming flora (at least not in our neck of the woods). In our case, if the flowers grow, that's great; if they don't, well, I'm sure we'll still have plenty of options for making the wedding just about as floral as we want it to be.

Deciding on the Backyard Wedding Bridal Shoes

Here are our conundrums with picking bridal shoes for the backyard wedding: first of all, we have to worry about the bride navigating in a long dress over grass and dirt. Second, she's never been one for high heels. Third, no matter how good they look, we want to minimize the worry that the bride (who is likely to be too wrapped up in everything going on to think much about her feet) will trip and fall on her big day!

Personally, I'm thinking that a nice shiny pair of flats will do the trick. Or, possibly, wedges; but I think that's stretching it a bit. Of course, the final decision is up to her, and we'll all just have to wait and see what direction she eventually decides to go in.

On a related note, I hope that the guests realize that they should make smart shoe choices. We did mention that it was going to be a backyard wedding, but you never know if people think about things like this... luckily, they're all close enough to us that we'll probably discuss it with them at some point. But maybe we should have some extra shoes on hand just in case someone gets a poorly chosen stiletto heel mired in the dirt.

Got any ideas for how to choose shoes for a backyard wedding? Share them here!

Image source: Flickr.

Backyard Wedding Drinks: The Basics

An important part of wedding planning is deciding what kind of drinks you're going to offer. Even if you decide to serve little in the way of food, you'll still need to serve something in the way of beverages to sate the thirsts of your guests and to make sure that they stay hydrated. When you're still early in the planning phase, it's a good idea to run through a basic list of questions to determine the nature of the libations you will provide.

• Is the wedding going to be dry, or are alcoholic drinks going to be served?
• If you do plan to serve alcohol, what precautions will you take to ensure that your guests consume safely?
• Will there be many different types of drinks to choose from, or are you sticking with one or two theme beverages?
• How will drinks be stored and distributed?
• How will you get rid of the waste, be it bottles, cans, or cups?

Fun Wedding Cupcakes: Beach-Themed Shower Treats

While searching the internet for wedding-y things, I came across these adorable beach-themed wedding shower cupcakes. We've been trying to figure out the best way to make and decorate our own cupcakes for my sister's wedding, so we definitely have cupcakes on the brain.

The cupcakes pictured are by user clevercupcakes on Flickr. Unfortunately, the bakery is a little far away to provide cupcakes for the wedding that I'm helping to plan, being in Montreal and all - a little more than a hop, skip and a jump from Maryland. But if you're in the vicinity it definitely looks like it would be a cool place to check out.

After our recent experiments with trying to make cupcakes look fancy, I have a great appreciation for all the work that went into these. I hope we'll be able to discover some sort of a frosting recipe that will be able to hold that kind of a shape, although I don't think we're going to go so far as to try and create decorations out of fondant or modeling chocolate or whatever it is that went into those too-cute sunglasses and palm trees.

Making Your Marriage Legit: The Marriage License

Obtaining your marriage license isn't necessarily the funnest thing to think about when you're planning your backyard wedding, but it is an administrative task that needs to be dealt with at some point before the ceremony. That is, if you're planning on having your marriage legally recognized, you know, which is kind of the point.

The licensing process varies from place to place. For example, in Baltimore, Maryland, you can obtain a license on weekdays from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM, although it looks like you can also receive the license by mail. After that, you need to wait at least 48 hours, and no longer than six months to get married. And it's only valid if you're getting married in Baltimore County (although you don't necessarily need to be living in Baltimore County). The fee for the marriage license, as of August, 2011, is $35.

Backyard Wedding Cake: The First Attempt

I've been super excited to try out cake frosting ever since we went to Joann's and got some Wilton cake frosting decorating tips (although, in retrospect, it might have been better getting a cake decorating kit with instructions and piping bags from Amazon). So I was thrilled when my mom made some cupcakes, and decided to ice them with homemade butter-lemon frosting (made with butter, lemon zest, and powdered sugar).

Here's what the tip looks after we've screwed it onto the plastic bag using some handy accessories that I later learned were called "couplers"...