outdoor wedding reception ideas

A:I'm planning my wedding reception outdoors as well for the same reason. I'm lucky it's at my parent's home so bugs will not be an issue. My dad sprays 3 times a week a month before each event he throws at our house. You may want to see if you can do that if you choose the park. You also need a tent. I don[t care for tents myself.. but you have to have one. What if it rains? Also... the tent will prevent your cake from melting and guests will have a comfortable place to sit out of the elements. You could decorate it with lot's of colorful fabric/paper lanterns. We have huge can lights in the colors of our wedding so at night our tent will be blue and green inside while people dance. I wouldn't worry about decor too much... you have to realize you can decorate an outdoor wedding the same as you would an indoor wedding reception. You still need table linens- you could pick some really awesome colors which would set the mood, and I would do some relatively simple flowers. I'm ordering white orchids from fiftyflowers.com in bulk and arranging them in glass vases 15 prays to vase. Also, we bought a ton of candles so at night the tent glows. The easiest way to serve guests dinner is a buffet. I personally don't love buffet, but they don't need electricity and everything stays warm. You're also going to want to get some big tubs you can fill with ice and stock with water, soda, whatever you may be drinking. On top of that we just got back from buying a ton of liquor, we've hired two bar tenders to tend a rented bar. Youre also going to have to consider hiring help, because you're not in a hall and it makes it easier to clean up. Is there a power source near this river? If so you could rent a dance floor, get some extension cords, and have a DJ. If not you could always hook your ipod up to one of those portable ipod players and be able to havemusic and dancing that way. Have you thought about bathrooms? If there are not bathrooms very close, you will need to rent portapottie (ick)... it's not classy, but a must. What are you thinking for colors? Are you traditional? I have so many decoration ideas for outdoor weddings but I need to know more about you :)

A:Hi, Congratulations on your engadgement. It sounds like your wedding is less than a year, so I hope you start your wedding decorating now. If it you want Sophisitication for your wedding, you may want to think about adding layers to your wedding. Like, many tablecloths for one table, different glasses for different reasons (like a champayne glass, water glass), and lots of varying silverware (like a salad fork, and soup spoon). I also recommend you decorate the trees on your land with "Colorful" battery powered lights, in case your wedding lasts for awhile into the night. I also hope you are able to choose your favorite "Colors" for your wedding, and keep a "Colorful" balance everywhere in your wedding decorating. Even though Sophistication decorating is Worldly, I recommend you stay with the decorating of yours and your husband's culture. Especially with alot of the food you serve people, should be the food of yours and your husband's culture and heritage. If your "Relatives" are from the "Country," why not get a country theme in your decorating for your Relatives, such as checkered tablecloths or checkered chair covers, small tea-candles on the tables, and country flowers centerpieces for your Tablesettings. I hope you decorate your wedding the way you like it to be decorated, and I recommend you import lots and lots of your favorite flowers from all over the world to decorate your wedding how you would like it. I hope your wedding has alot of beautiful memories for you. Have a very nice day. Sincerely, Erin Young

A:cucumber sandwiches..really easy...cut the crust off the bread, spread whipped cream cheese and put cut up cucumber slices on it and cut into triangles(quarters) they taste really good.

A:Lighting will be key! Ask yourself about the formality and the colors and then go from there. Use paper lanterns--you could even find a way to make your own to save some$$. On tables try varying heights of candles or some really cute glass lanterns (Ikea.com has some great cheap stuff or check out a rental company) Rental places will also have other outdoor lights that you can put up around the perimeter of the space to make a really drastic impact and add some fun color. good luck with everything and have fun planning!

A:Well, you could get some hot pink and orange tableclothes for the guest and food tables. Maybe you can make it into a Luau style. You could decorate with a few tiki torches for the tables, like these: http://www.orientaltrading.com/application?namespace=browse&origin=catalogProducts.jsp&event=link.itemDetails&demandPrefix=15&sku=34/623&prodCatId=377380&mode=Browsing&No=0&Ne=90000&sp=true&Ntk=all&mr=BS%2BBrowse%2BLuau%2BParty%2BDecorations&Ntx=mode%252bmatchallpartial&N=377380&tabId=PartySupplies&in_merch=1 You could place a few Lei's on the table and maybe even do a Hawaiian theme BBQ. You could do some teriyaki chicken and pork, mango salsa, kebobs, pineapple, watermelon, etc. I am not sure how much money you want to spend or how formal/casual you want it...so it's really hard to say. But, hopefully this will give you some good ideas! Good luck :)