At Windows on the Water, we adore outdoor weddings. We believe that lush nature, sunsets, and stargazing make the perfect setting for celebrating love. For us, outdoor weddings are a no-brainer. We have 86 acres of open-air, lake views, and an abundance of color from flowers and trees. While the setting is important, how you decorate for your outdoor wedding is also key. You want your guests to feel like they are at your wedding, not just any wedding.
There are countless ways to add your personal touch to your outdoor wedding venue while saving on costs, and one of our favorites is a DIY outdoor wedding backdrop. A backdrop is a structure made of pretty much anything that can serve as a perfect background for your ceremony and for photos at your reception. Your backdrop could be incorporated throughout the entire event—the key is to be creative!
Your Outdoor Wedding Backdrop Should Match Your Theme
While there are a lot of pretty options for backdrops in wedding magazines and on Pinterest, you have to stick with what is best for your day. If the theme of your wedding is rustic charm, you might consider a backdrop made of leftover wood palettes and flowers from your florist. Or if your theme is beachy, you could consider a piece of white tulle and lots of seashells from your favorite beach spread throughout.
You want this backdrop to look cohesive with your theme so you can admire it in all of your pictures and never regret using it. Furthermore, being aligned with the theme will help the piece blend in as you use it throughout your wedding day.
Creating Your DIY Outdoor Wedding Backdrop
Once you have your idea ready, it is time to get crafting. If you aren’t the craftiest bride or groom, enlist help from the most creative members of your bridal party or family. All you need is a structure, and then you can decorate it however you want. You could drape fabric, hot glue artificial flowers, add sparkle, lights, etc.
If you want to go with a different option, you can repurpose wood pallets and stack them on hay bales for height. However, this does not automatically mean it’s a rustic backdrop. You can paint the wood your wedding colors and add accents that make sense for your day, even if it is just more flowers. You can’t go wrong when it comes to adding more flowers to a wedding!
However you chose to create it, your structure simply needs to be tall and eye-catching to function as a backdrop.
How to Get the Most Use of Your Outdoor Wedding Backdrop
You will be able to move your DIY backdrop if you construct it in a way that is sturdy but also lightweight. It should also be easy to change up so there is added excitement for guests when they see it again. To continue with the wood palette example, you could use it to hold table cards as guests enter the reception.
Alternatively, you could use your beachy backdrop from your ceremony as a photo booth for your reception. You could also create DIY props for the guests to use while they take pictures. They will have tons of fun while creating more photos for you to enjoy. However you use it, you will feel so accomplished with your DIY outdoor wedding backdrop!
Use Your DIY Wedding Backdrop at Windows on the Water
As the premier outdoor wedding venue in New Jersey, Windows on the Water takes great pride in being the perfect venue for your dream day. We encourage you to get creative with our space and bring your own DIY backdrop into it, or whatever else you can craft up! We know it will be the perfect addition to your ceremony and reception, whichever way you choose to use it. For more information on planning your outdoor wedding with us, call our wedding planning team at (609) 208-9475 or complete a contact form today!