Summer Wedding Ideas & Themes

It also heralds a vacation for most people so you can be a bit more flexible with the location of your wedding.

Some of the best summer wedding ideas require you to think outside the box.

People, especially those with children, will find it easier to get time off work during the summer months, so you could think about a destination wedding, where you take your guests away for the ceremony and reception.

A destination wedding can go abroad to the Caribbean or Pacific, but it can as easily go somewhere closer to home.

Destination summer wedding ideas include:

• Your local state park – Some state parks have houses and mansions that are available to rent or you could use their camping lodges for a smaller affair, or have the whole wedding under canopy. Try to find somewhere near water so your guests can cool off after the ceremony.
• The beach – Water and summer go hand in hand, and taking your wedding to a beach will give you a romantic feel as well as providing cool breezes for your guests. You could get married on a hill or cliff overlooking the ocean or find a suitably quiet beach.

Marriages traditionally take place during the afternoon with the reception held during the evening. However, the middle of the afternoon is possibly the hottest time of day.

This has an obvious impact if you are outside, but even indoors, the congregation can overheat on a hot day. You could choose to keep the ceremony short but if you want a proper dedication, try moving the wedding to the evening.

Evening summer wedding ideas are not difficult to implement, and in most places, the sun does not set until 8pm or later.

The timing does mean that you would take most of the photos before the ceremony and go straight from your wedding to the reception, but if you are holding the event outside, you could easily have the wedding on-site at the reception, or vice versa.

Themes for summer weddings will be all about the season and getting outdoors:

• Nautical - Have your wedding at a pier, a yacht club or rent a boat for the event
• Picnic - Find a park, inn or private land for a relaxed picnic or barbeque style event complete with lemonade, croquet, and sack races for the kids
• Pool party -- Relax even more into the season by holding your wedding by a pool. This can be as elegant or as casual as you like, with or without swimming.

Click Here to Find Out How They Did It

Tips for Planning a Summer Wedding

Summer weddings have the potential to be relaxed and exciting events, but they can also leave the wedding party and guests hot and flustered. The following is a few things to consider for your summer wedding themes:

• Choose the right flowers – Some traditional wedding flowers will wilt in the heat, so you’ll need some summer wedding flower ideas. Try getting hold of some roses, snapdragons and irises. All of these look pretty and flourish in the summer months.
• Provide fans – The still summer air can make you and your guests very uncomfortable, provide paper or fabric fans near the entrance of your venue, you can even decorate the fans and give them as wedding favors.
• Provide shade – At some point during your summer wedding, you will want to be outside, if only for the photographs. You should provide shade for your guests in the heat. These can be traditional picnic table umbrellas, tents, or you could provide individual paper parasols for those who need them.

The ceremony should happen at a fixed time so the guests have a deadline for arrival, but beyond that the day should move as quickly or as slowly as the weather will allow.

Return from the summer wedding ideas page to the wedding ideas main page

Go to the wedding planning home page