Leaves, Love, & Lasting Touches
The Fall is truly a spectacular time for a wedding. The crisp autumn air and the beautiful foliage draw you into a special mindset. Everything around you causes you to simply stand and marvel at the beauty and Creation of it all. Even the little children stop to thoughtfully bring you a special leaf that has the most spectacular colors. These are the moments that make us stop in awe as we gaze at the littlest details in the simplest of leaves.
The absolute best weddings I have ever had the privilege of planning and coordinating are the ones where you get to know who the bride is, who the groom is, and who they are together as a couple. There are amazing little touches that just bring it all together. It is wonderful when you see the tiny details, and they just make you smile. Fairy lights, scattered fall leaves and rose petals are easy touches to dress up any Fall occasion, but let’s talk about some ideas that make your wedding all about you!
Three Signature Details
That Make A Fall Impact
DETAIL #1: Add A Personalized Ceremony Element
Writing your own vows can be an easy way to personalize your ceremony, but let’s take it a bit further.
Let’s incorporate your Fall memories together into your ceremony a bit more. Pumpkins can bring in a touch of Fall, but also bring in happy times together - fun memories of pumpkin picking on the North Fork, apple picking in the Hudson Valley, hayrides through the back woods of the farm, and hot apple cider on a rustic wooden bench with your love beside you.
Why not bring these memories to your ceremony with the fullness of pumpkins? Orange can be a very strong, and sometimes overpowering, color, though. Instead, velvet pumpkins (like these on Amazon) can elevate your ceremony site with a touch of Fall, a touch of elegance, and a room full of memories. Lining the aisle with lush velvet pumpkins of all sizes in your beautiful colors, mums lightly decorated with fairy lights, and romantic multi-height candles in hurricane vases can symbolize a life to come - a life full of blessings, abundance, and romance.
DETAIL #2: Customized Guest Experiences
Ok - We’ve all heard of them - customized “His & Hers Signature Cocktails” that are cutely named after your love story. Adorable, for sure.
Let’s take a moment, though, to build on this Fall experience together. You’re having a Fall wedding. You’ve decided to get married in the Fall because you find the beauty in not only the colors, but also in the freshness of it all.
Let’s take the Fall memories that you have had together - the ones of you hiking in the Gunks, apple picking in New Paltz, and purchasing a fresh new hoodie as you browse the shops in Woodstock together - let’s take these memories and build on them for your guests. Bring your guests into your warmth. You already have the velvet pumpkins at your ceremony. Let’s guide them the rest of the way.
Instead of just a cute cocktail that you find fun - perhaps try a warm mulled cider with a touch of local whiskey. As the guests find their seats, (at tables that bring in the same velvet pumpkins and candles as the centerpieces), may they possibly be greeted with a cute treat of crisp cinnamon apple chips from your favorite local apple farm. And if you’re like me, you absolutely love a good fire-side cuddle. Talk to your venue about having a firepit at the end of the night complete with a table of fresh warm apple cider donuts. As guests take their treat and their warm drink to sit by the fire, may they possibly be greeted with an oversized basket, filled with warm blankets (like these).
What a wonderful way to bring everyone into your story - to share all that you love! A full walk-through experience of a typical day with the couple. Experiencing the things you love elevated with the luxury and elegance of a wedding. All the details of your favorite moments together. These are the details that really make everyone understand how much this day is not just about a wedding, but truly about a marriage with your favorite person in the whole world.
DETAIL #3: Music That Tells Your Story
Music is so much more than just songs you choose.
Music is your way to tell your story, even when nobody else knows what they are hearing. Music is an amazing way to bring in your own special memories to your day.
Story Time! My husband is a classical percussionist who plays with many symphonies and orchestras throughout New York State. He knows classical music inside and out. He is incredible! He can listen to 2 lines of a song and know if the composer is Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn or Handel without thinking twice. (He usually even starts conducting the next few measures!) That being said, we watched the movie “Madagascar” on the night we had our first kiss (after being friends for over 3 years!). In that movie, there is a whistling tune that is just so catchy, and we found ourselves whistling it all the time.
Fast forward 2 years later, and we were presented with the daunting task of filling out our DJ’s form for our wedding - introductions, first dance, parent dances - you know the form I’m talking about. Well - for the cake cutting song, we wanted that one. The whistling one. Despite all of my husband’s classical training, he was super on board with a cheesy whistling tune nobody’s heard of from some kids movie being played at our reception while we cut our cake. It was our story.
This song was something we loved the night of our first kiss, and I just knew I wanted something so simple for our cake cutting - but we didn’t know the name of it! (Remember - we got married in 2007 - way before ChatGPT, and Googling wasn’t really something we all did yet.) We ended up going to Borders Books, found the CD for the movie soundtrack, and looked on the back cover. The name of the song was “Best Friends.” And it was true. I was marrying my absolute best friend. (And I’d do it all over again.)
At our wedding, we literally had everything from Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” as we were introduced, to Norah Jones’s “Come Away With Me” as we danced our first dance, to this simple “Best Friends” whistling tune from Madagascar as we cut our cake. I urge you to do the same.
Forget the recommendations. Go with your story. What are the songs that you love? The ones that get stuck in your head? The ones that make you smile? The ones that make you dance? The ones that make you fall in love all over again? The ones that make you want this life forever? Who cares what people say you’re supposed to do. It’s your story. Share it with them! Bring them in. Let your guests be part of your story. This is your day. This is your moment together as a couple to let everyone glimpse into your world.