Outdoor Wedding

Aubrey and Sam are getting married and the Beasts of the Southern Wild was their chosen inspiration. This means an outdoor wedding venue with plenty of unique aspects regarding every detail. Take a look for yourself and be inspired!

What to Look for in a Venue for an Outdoor Wedding

Outdoor weddings should be in open spaces, with plenty of natural light, a soft summer breeze, and the smell of grass and flowers. The wedding venue considerations should be around barns, farmlands, forests, open tents near the backwaters, tall oak trees, and more.

You can incorporate several outdoor elements even in the reception area, with plants, strings of lights on trees to illuminate the surrounding beauty, seating under tall trees, and having a tent for rainy days. When planning the wedding venue outdoors, you should consider all aspects to ensure your guests are comfortable and safe.

Color Palettes for an Outdoor Wedding

If you’re planning a southern wedding and considering Louisiana, we have the perfect wedding color palette. Navy and ink blue, moss green, stone, and nude, with pops of color from freshly cut dusty rose and white floral arrangements and native greens. This color palette is unmistakably outdoorsy, has an understated elegance, and screams nature and beauty.

If you want an outdoor wedding featuring water and mountains, you could opt for neutral tones like beige, tan, white, ivory, brown, and a profusion of flowers. You could also add olive green for the table decor at the ceremony and through indoor plants to liven up the place yet make it highly glamorous.

Details for an Outdoor Wedding

When you consider an outdoor wedding, you should think of plenty of sunshine, humidity, breeze, and the smell of a nearby waterbody. In short, think of the fantasy combined with real-life events of the Beasts of the Southern Wild like Aubrey and Sam did, with the simplicity and untouched beauty brought into being by the imagination of 6-year-old Hush Puppy.

When using these elements in the wedding, you can take inspiration from the ample water bodies of Louisiana, like the Isle de Jean Charles (the main scene of The Bathtub), sparklers from the celebration, the unfettered joy in the love that Hush Puppy shares with nature, and abundance of greenery and wildlife that is depicted throughout the movie.

Food for an Outdoor Wedding

Thinking Southern style? You should always consider the available local seafood and meat options, locally sourced veggies, and seasonal produce. Always think of blue crabs and saltwater fish when planning the menu. These delicacies can be included in the wedding food menu and can feature front and center. You can also serve fresh oysters with lime on ice, a lobster buffet, and a shrimp cocktail for starters.

Adding in plenty of healthy salads, coolers, and cold soups with hearty grilled meats will also be a welcome change from all the delicate foods usually served at weddings. For desserts, you could add colorful cupcakes with sparklers and a range of unique cookies in the shapes of the mythical aurochs, wildebeest, and other native herds.

Table Setting Style for an Outdoor Wedding

When planning the table setting style, you can take inspiration from Beasts of the Southern Wild and prepare a natural table with plenty of native green, florals, and beautiful delicate blue and white bone china. The cutlery should be golden, and the place cards can be spray painted with local animals' inspiration (or made of twine for an earthy natural feel).

For the table, you can think of rustic wooden tables, crushed fabric table runners, wrought iron chairs decked with floral wedding bouquets in white, dusty rose, and native greens, and table napkins in a shade of mossy green to tie everything together. You can also have a gorgeous floral centerpiece of dusty rose, white, and pale yellow blooms to add beauty.

Budget for an Outdoor Wedding

When you consider the overhead beams, tents, seating arrangements, and furniture rental, you may consider using rustic elements to reduce the overall expense. The wedding budget need not go out of hand if you plan everything in advance. For example, since the ceremony will be outdoors with the reception in a shaded area, you would not have to spend anything on the lighting and ventilation for the ceremony.

The majority of the wedding budget will have to be diverted towards the accommodation for guests, wedding cake, rings, and small decor items that fit your theme. If the reception and ceremony are at a distance, you may also have to factor in the cost of transporting your guests from one place to the other.

Wedding Invitations for an Outdoor Wedding

Wedding invitations should fit the theme perfectly. You could think of floral envelope liners of dusty rose stationery with thick moss green handmade paper. You can have the florals as part of the entire stationery set and have an embossed barn or forest as part of the invite.

When considering the script, go for something in calligraphy to set the tone for the glam of the occasion. The main invite can be on a neutral-colored paper, with moss green and dusty rose borders, flowers adorning the edges, and the script in cursive gold. If you plan to go paperless, these colors translate really well in digital invites.

Portrait Props for an Outdoor Wedding

The portrait props can all be part of the ceremony and reception decor. You could plan the outdoor theme with rubber boots as planters to set the tone for a bayou-style wedding or add hanging lamps with small electric tea lights to add a soft glow. These small touches are excellent props and look fabulous in photographs.

For added beauty during this outdoor event, you could think of attaching creepers and vines to the beams around chairs and having them as part of the ceiling decor for the reception to keep with the Beasts of the Southern Wild theme. For a dramatic effect, you should hand sparklers to all guests as they welcome you for your first dance together as lawfully wedded partners.

Wedding Cake Ideas for an Outdoor Wedding

When most people think of a wedding cake, they envision a detailed, glamorous French-style masterpiece. Instead, you can opt for a shabby chic vintage vibe with earthy tones, neutrals, and dusty rose as the main theme. For many couples, the wedding cake is usually the showstopper. Your cake doesn’t need to be anything different.

You can opt for a gorgeous berry-flavored cake with edible moss green icing vines creeping up towards the cake topper. You could also opt for a moss green slightly nude cake with edible roses in blush, topped with some gorgeous sparklers to add to the overall festive feel of the reception.

Favors and Gifts for an Outdoor Wedding

When it comes to welcome gifts for guests, you should think of items to make your loved ones feel comfortable. A fruity welcome soda, a vintage fan, and some candy will go fabulous as welcome gifts.

For wedding favors, consider personalized elements that add to the grace and beauty of your outdoor wedding. Small jars of apple jam with unique labels, a thank you note, various teas in lavender, rose, and peppermint, wildflower seeds, small pots of succulents, eucalyptus honey pots with dippers, and aromatherapy candles will make gorgeous wedding favors. Always ensure your guests understand that you are thankful to them for attending your big day.

Beasts of The Southern Wild (Reader Request)

This Beasts of the Southern Wild wedding inspiration board were created for Aubrey and Sam, who are getting married in Portland! Aubrey’s sister and maid of honor, Adrian, sent me her color palette (below) and said: “I’m planning my sister’s wedding and she fell absolutely in love with Beasts of the Southern Wild last year. We’re best friends and after she went to all the meetings with potential wedding planners nothing panned out, so she stopped by my house one night with a basket of cupcakes and a note that said ‘You’ve got the job!”

This is the type of reader request that really warms my heart. My brother and I are best friends so I totally love sibling stories! For a Beast of the Southern Wild themed wedding it’s important to capture the whimsy, fantasy, out-door environment, and incorporate some of the details from the movie that made it so unique then wrap it all into a vintage shabby vibe.

One thing about the movie that is really striking is how the characters made use of things and the haphazard construction of their homes. Look for vintage-shabby details to include in your wedding decor like the hanging lamps in this inspiration board and the place setting (which I adore because the blue detailing mimics water!). Include memorable elements from the movie like Hushpuppy’s rain boots, sparklers for a cake topper, and use spray painted animal place cards to remind everyone of the Aurochs!

Congrats to Aubrey & Sam and thank you Adrian for requesting this inspiration board for your sister! Looking for more movie themed weddings? See them all here & brides-to-be: don’t forget that you can request your own inspiration board.

Credits: photo credits: gold spray painted animal escort cards from 100 Layer Cake, photographed by Edyta Szyszlo // place setting via Style Me Pretty, photographed by Jen Huang // chair via Once Wed, floral design by Kathleen Deery Design, photographed by Jose Villa // bride via Wedding Chicks, photographed by Elizabeth Messina // shabby lamp decor via Ceci Style Magazine, photographed by Jose Villa // cupcake sparkler via Marlein Overakker, photographed by Paul Barbera  // rainboots with flowers via Style Me Pretty, photographed by Jessamyn Harris.