5 Rustic Wedding Ideas

My experience with rustic weddings, particularly the burlap side of things, has led to a surprising amount of knowledge with respect to what goes into a rustic wedding. Here I hope to give you some good ideas of things you can add to your event to really make your guests go "wow!". As with everything, the proverbial devil is in the details and making a detailed themed wedding can really set it apart from the "competition".

You can read more about using Burlap at a rustic wedding on my (rather long and extensive) look at burlap's vast array of uses at a rustic wedding. At present, this list has 5 great rustic wedding ideas, but I will be adding more soon (all the way up to 10), so please check back for updates.

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Find a Great Rustic Wedding Venue

Since you could be reading this lens from anywhere in the country (or the world for that matter) it would be futile to list a whole bunch of wedding venues that are probably not going to be anywhere near you. A great venue is key to making a fantastic rustic wedding, since you don't want to end up in a barn that smells like a barn.

If you live in the USA, the best resource site for find a rustic wedding venue would be RusticWeddingChic.com , which has a short list of potential venues. While the list is not as comprehensive as the UK list below, it is a great staring point. You can also contact them for more info.

If you live in the UK the best place to find a great rustic wedding venue is at WeddingVenues.com, where they have a huge list of potential locations. Each venue has details, including directions, capacity and a big picture of what it actually looks like.

Use Burlap Tablecloths

Burlap tablecloths will have a large visual impact on your theme. Not only are they a repeated theme (on every table) they are ever present and part of the actual wedding dinner. Here, burlap smell (hop over to my lens on how to clean burlap) is a bigger issue than with some of the other burlap items on this list. There are a wide variety of burlap tablecloths you can purchase.

If you are really on a budget, you can always make a tablecloth yourself. Since the event is rustic anyway, you don't have to go for the professional finish of some of the Etsy products listed below. However, if you really want that "wow" factor, you will probably have to enlist one of the handcrafted Etsy tablecloths. If you aren't up for making one yourself, there are a couple of sources of burlap tablecloths that are more generic (one in Canada, one in the US of A) that supply affordable burlap tablecloths. I think the one in the USA is the retail arm of the actual factory that produces it, so the prices should be really good, though not as fancy as Etsy.

Please hop on over to my Burlap Tablecloth buyer's guide for a list of the best places on the web to buy a burlap tablecloth, including some factories and featured Etsy artisans.

Ride away in a Horse & Buggy

Who needs a limousine when you can have a horse carry you away from the wedding venue? There is almost nothing more romantic then riding away in a horse and buggy carriage. Not only will it make everyone else envious, it's a great way to show off that you're "just married", making everyone who watches you go buy quite envious that they didn't think of it for their wedding.

Finding a horse and buggy operator shouldn't be too difficult, since it is a very very niche service. Similar to the problem for listing appropriate rustic wedding venues, these services are extremely local, making it impossible to make a comprehensive list in a one-page article. At present I do not know of any websites that are dedicated to listing this particular service, but if I come across any (as the RusticWeddingGuy I'm sure I will) I will add it here.

Use your cottage (or a friend's cottage)

I once attended a wedding hosted at the family's cottage and I must say, it was quite a nice wedding. The reception had a far more romantic feel than an ordinary wedding at a fancy wedding hall. There is something very symbolic about doing a wedding ceremony at a cottage home, as it draws an allegory to having a warm and happy home.

Using your cottage or a friend's cottage is also a tremendous way to cut down the cost of the wedding. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars on a wedding venue (some of the venues I linked to above can be quite expensive) and can actually have a better venue to host the wedding. You will also have the advantage of being able to house out of town guests who would otherwise have to pay for a hotel room.

Use Rustic Invitations

There are numerous options that you have for making a rustic wedding invitation. In many ways, the invitation sets the tone and feel for how your guests will perceive your wedding. An absolutely unique invitation will pique the interest of your guests and leave them wondering just what you are planning for your (possibly rustic) wedding.

I found a great lens from franstan on scroll wedding invitations that is really quite neat.