If you’re looking for wedding decoration ideas, nothing beats the quaint charm of a rustic wedding. This simple yet stunning wedding theme has been chosen by whimsical couples across the globe for years, and its simplicity never dates.
Embracing the beauty of the natural world and keeping the ambience light, warm and relaxed is what a rustic wedding is all about. So if that’s the backdrop you’d like for your special day, here are 22 wedding decoration ideas that’ll help set a romantic rustic scene.
Rustic Wedding Venue Decorations
1. Soften your space with drapes
Whether you’ve chosen a fashionable tipi, picturesque barn or country manor, you can soften your wedding venue and create a cosy atmosphere by adding drapes. Ceiling drapes can brighten a room while creating a snug, intimate feel. They can be coloured to match the rest of your wedding theme, and they can even hide features that just don’t work with your overall look.
Walls can be draped too, creating a dream-like feel and transforming dull or boring room exteriors.
Soften your wedding venue with drapes
2. Add a touch of mother nature
The key to a rustic theme is to bring the outside in and relish in the simple beauty of nature. Softly coloured floral arrangements, rugged foliage and blooming trees all have natural character. These can be used dotted around your venue as decorations themselves, or you can add natural elements to room features like archways and even construct floral frames for key moments like the vows and the signing of the register.
Consider entwining fairy lights in your arrangements to maximise impact and highlight their natural beauty. And use up lights for dramatic lighting on majestic trees.
Use natural decorations to create an enchanting scene
3. Make the most of your venue’s character
If your venue is bursting with character make the most of it. Highlight key features with floral arrangements, foliage and cleverly placed lighting. Up lights flood features like archways with ambient light, and you can add sparkle to pillars and partitions with column lights.
Highlight natural features with clever lighting
4. Go whimsical with bunting
Colourful bunting feels laidback but uplifting at a wedding. Strings of coloured and/or playfully patterned bunting are a cute way to brighten up ceilings and walls.
5. Create stylish photo displays
Rustic photo features are an intimate and stylish way to decorate your venue. You can display pictures of you and your partner, your guests and even those adorable baby pics your parents love to show off. Present your beloved snaps on wooden pegs and twine for a classic look, or you can stack old crates and adorn them with your favourite framed photographs.
Photo displays are an intimate decoration idea for your wedding day – Photo by sarandy westfall on Unsplash
6. Create feature tables
You can make country-chic feature tables too for desserts, the guest book and seating plans using recycled materials like barrels, planks and crates. Don’t forget to complete the look with natural elements like leaves and flowers.
Make rustic feature tables with barrels and crates – Photo by Victoria Priessnitz on Unsplash
7. Continue the rustic theme outdoors
Everyone needs to catch their breath for a moment at a wedding, so it’s great to create a relaxed outdoor space where guests (and you!) can retreat for some fresh air and quality time with favourite people. For a charming picturesque scene, you could have hay bales and blankets, and maybe even a guitar for an impromptu sing-song in the wee small hours! Use soft lighting like fairy lights around features and trees to complete the chilled-out country vibe.
Rustic Wedding Lights
8. Sparkle with fairy lights
Fairy lights work so well with a rustic theme that you can pretty much use them anywhere for a bit of magical sparkle. An area where fairy lights have maximum impact is across the ceiling of your venue, creating a starry, fairytale sky across your special day.
You can also team fairy lights with ceiling drapes to add an even more dreamy feel that’ll warmly light your first dance and your guests’ hearts.
Add sparkle to your wedding with a fairy light canopy
9. Charm with lanterns
Lanterns dotted around your venue project warmth, soft light and a rustic feel. Or if you’re looking for whimsical charm, you can choose a full lantern canopy to cover your venue. Particularly if brightly coloured, a lantern canopy oozes playful character and upbeat party vibes.
A lantern canopy adds playful charm to a wedding
10. Go classic with chandeliers
If you prefer something more classically rustic for your big day, chandeliers are an elegant choice. And you can soften chandeliers with natural trademarks like flowers and foliage, or dress them up with chic drapes and fairy lights.
Classic chandeliers add elegance to a wedding venue
11. Make a statement with letter signs
Make your declarations loud and proud on your special day with oversized illuminated letter signs. ‘Love’ letters, for example, make a statement and create focal points in your venue. They work fantastically beside key areas like the guest book table or photo features.
Letter signs make a statement at weddings
12. Keep it simple with a light bulb canopy
For a subtly rustic look, you can go for a bare light bulb canopy. Whether you want to add a contemporary touch with Edison bulbs or you prefer the classic party look of festoon bulbs, there are lots of options available to brighten your special day with simple beauty.
Light bulb canopies are subtle but so effective.
Rustic Table Decorations Ideas
13. Add floral embellishments
No rustic wedding table would be complete without mother nature’s embellishments. Foliage garlands can make stunning runners for your tables. And, as well as the usual floral centrepieces, you can add flowers and vines around your tableware, slotted delicately into your menus and round your wedding favours.
Add natural decorations to your rustic wedding table – Photo by Mitchell Lawler on Unsplash
14. Choose wooden table accessories
Woody accents also look fabulous on a wedding table. Dot pine cones around your table, and use log slices as placemats, candle stands and centrepieces for a timeless country look.
Use alternative tableware like old bottles and jars – Photo by Elisabeth Arnold on Unsplash
15. Upcycle old jars & vintage pots
In terms of table decorations and flower vases, pretty much anything goes at a rustic wedding. Glass jars, wine bottles and vintage pots look playfully quaint with floral arrangements and candles. You can even use old watering cans, jugs and buckets filled with rugged foliage and mutely toned flowers for a stunning nostalgic look.
Rustic Wedding Cake Ideas
16. Go for a naked or semi-naked finish
Dark and interesting wedding cakes that are simply dusted in icing sugar or lightly coated in buttercream are firm rustic favourites. The simple, unpolished finish of naked and semi-naked cakes work perfectly with relaxed wedding themes.
A simply finished wedding cake is a rustic favourite – Photo by Luis Quintero on Unsplash
17. Wrap your cake in hessian
For a vintage-inspired cake, choose a simple white icing and wrap your cake in country-style fabrics like hessian and even lace. Effortlessly effective!
18. Decorate your cake naturally
Natural decorations are the best way to dress up any rustic cake. Fresh flowers in warm colours, leafy foliage, fresh fruit, pine cones and log cake stands or crates are excellent ways to finish off a showstopping wedding cake.
Decorate your wedding cake with pine cones and fresh flowers for a classic look. – Source: The Cake Guru
Rustic Wedding Favour Inspiration
19. Glass treat jars
Fill recycled glass jars with sweet treats wrapped in twine with natural coloured card labels – they look beautiful at rustic weddings. Popcorn, cakes, chocolates and mints are all perfect choices of sweet treats.
Rustic wedding favours are simply sweet – Photo by Wedding Photography on Unsplash
20. Natural card boxes and hessian wraps
And if you don’t want to go for jars, dinky natural brown card boxes or hessian and twine wraps are charming alternatives for presenting your favours too.
21. Local produce
Jars or bottles of local produce are classic favours. Honey is very popular but choose the delights that are local to you. Whiskey, cider and even handmade soaps can all be adorable wedding favours. And again, embellish with twine and brown cards to complete the look.
Local produce is a cute wedding favour idea – Photo by Jordan Arnold on Unsplash
22. Natural mementoes
Log slices with your names and special date are popular wedding favours. And even small plants or dried flower arrangements can look stunning as small favours when dressed up with rustic touches.
Lighting Hire to Complete a Memorable Rustic Wedding
So there you have it, 22 simple decoration ideas for a truly rustic wedding day. At Party Lights, we hire stunning lighting that’ll add magic and sparkle to your special day. We’ve worked on countless country-style weddings and can advise on what lighting will work in harmony with your venue, taste and style.