Romantic Fall Weddings 2020

Are you planning on doing “Welcome” and seating chart signs?


Florals were very important to me as well so I did a hanging installation as well as a ground one for my ceremony. Lots of elevated/tall centerpieces. Lots of votives.
My wedding was an “edgy glam” vibe.

So pretty!! I'm having a Spring 2021 romantic wedding. It's amazing how similar my centerpieces are to the ones you show here (3 vases w/floating candles)! Not exact. The flowers around the bottom really add something nice! I'm gathering all different shades of purple, and trying to just make everything beautiful! I've been slowly gathering silk flowers (all different kinds), and greenery for those, and for the arch, and little accents on the card table, guest book table, memorial table, etc. Real flowers cost way beyond my budget, so I'm picking up pretty silk flowers wherever I can find them! Facebook marketplace, craigslist, and I also comb the clearance aisles and sales at Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I've also found some good stuff at JoAnn's Fabrics.

View Quoted Comment That’s so amazing! I have also decided to go the silk flower/real-touch flowers route. This way I could design my event exactly how I want without spending $8k-$10k on floral decor! I didn’t even think about JoAnn’s Fabrics!!

View Quoted Comment That’s so awesome!! I’m not sure about whether or not I should do a placement card seating chart or if I should do like a giant poster/sign seating chart! There’s even this mirror idea that would match the vibe of what I’m going for. I’ve seen beautiful ideas for both, just haven’t decided yet!






But I do think that if I stuck with just doing placement cards that it wouldn’t take away from the welcome sign that I’m wanting to do:

View Quoted Comment Yes! Real flowers were way out of budget. I never thought of JoAnns either until I went in there for something else and realized all the stuff they have in addition to fabric and patterns! Good luck on your search!

View Quoted Comment Thank you!! Appreciate it

View Quoted Comment Oooo super pretty! Okay, if you’re having plated meals and require meal indicators, you might be better off just doing placement cards.


I did a seating chart sign and although it was gorgeous, I realized 1. I still needed placement cards because because people had preselected their meals 2. I know needed to do an EXACT seating chart as in not only did I need to choose the table they were sitting at, but also the exact seat. 🤦🏻‍♀️
It turned out fine, but created more work for me. We did a lot of mirrored acrylic details. Our placement cards/meal indicators were Christmas ornaments (we as a couple collect one on every trip we go on so we wanted to share that tradition with them since it was a semi-destination wedding).

View Quoted Comment 😱😱 That looks stunning!! Love the black acrylic signs!!!!!! I love the Christmas ornaments, that’s so cute!
I’ll have to remember to probably put the seating chart out on display and then with the table setting put placement cards there so they can find which seat they need. That would be a smart idea so that they don’t have to work out who to sit by or deal with any awkwardness!!
I think we will be doing stations, just because we decided to narrow down our guest count to 100 and I think the stations would help fill the room (it’s a large ballroom). But I also LOVE the idea of doing a plated dinner, I honestly don’t know if there’s like a huge difference in pricing between those two options. Here is the venue we are going for, currently have a courtesy hold on it for our date:



Definitely needing gold accents, which I think would look nice with the plum purples/black-violets and all! Going for a very deep purple look with this place (The Hyatt Loge).

Ooooo I love station dinners! It’s like a dining experience visiting each station for me. I’m such a fatty. 😂


Plated for us was actually the same price as the buffet at our venue (San Diego Safari Park), it was around $200/pp for filet mignon, stuffed chicken breast or potato gnocchi choice. However, I wanted everyone eating at the same time. We had almost 180 people at our wedding so dismissing 20 tables would have taken too long, and once the last table got their food the first few would have already been done eating. stations are good that you can have everyone get food around the same time and they’ll be able to split off to different stations as opposed to getting in the same buffet line. I do like buffers though because you usually get more food as a guest! Haha
That venue is gorgeous! Are you doing the ceremony there as well? It’s going to look so elegant with the rich purple hues and gold! I sometimes secretly wish I had done a ballroom wedding because of how glam and elegant they look! 🥰

View Quoted Comment You make a good point! There are so many things I haven’t taken into consideration 😱 glad to be having this discussion. 😅😅
Yeah so far we know that’s we’ll be having doing a Beef Carving Station + Pasta Station (I LOVE my carbs lmao) if we go the stations route! Girl I WISH I could have that many people at my wedding!!! I bet it was amazing! And at a Safari Park omg 😭😭
We will be doing our ceremony in that ballroom as well, I think it’ll be a very pretty, candle-lit ceremony with dim lighting and rose petals scattered all over 🌹🌹🥀🥀🌹 I’m really going for that ceremonial feel, with it being in the evening I think we can achieve that!I know that my venue is lacking in the chandeliers department. I’m debating on whether or not I should also rent one??Apparently that’s a thing and you can rent one and have it installed. I’d have to check with the venue to see if I can even do that, OR if I should try to just incorporate crystals in the centerpieces I’m doing... also love the hanging fairy lights idea I’ve seen at “night-time ceremony” pictures on Pinterest and whatnot. My dress is basically all crystals, I don’t have photos but it’s also being held for me, so I do need lighting that makes the dress sparkle!

View Quoted Comment I will be doing the hanging terrarium globe lights, lots of candles, and possibly this if it’s not too much, unless I rent a chandelier.



I just want the whole place twinkling!!

View Quoted Comment Yes, girl! Pasta and beef carving? Gimmeee gimmmmeee!! 😋

View Quoted Comment 😱😱😱😱😱 That is seriously so cool!!!! I loved the vibe and everything!!!

And the fact that it benefits the animals 😭😭😭 That is PERFECT! 🐾🖤
I’m blown away by that. Wow. And you looked so beautiful!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Girl. I wouldn’t regret a thing!! I am thinking that we may wind up inviting our 100, and then I’ve heard that people do like an “A” list and a “B” list for who to invite, so top priority guests go in the “A” list, and then whoever they can stand to not have at the wedding goes on the “B” list. Whoever doesn’t RSVP or says in advance that they can’t make it gets replaced by someone on the “B” list lol. I was thinking about doing that so that the guest count stays consistent, but I’m also so tempted to just invite everyone!!!!We are wanting our Chicago, Illinois/Chicago suburbs wedding, but our guests mostly live 2 hours South of Chicago and getting everyone to show up has worried me a bit, but I also feel like if I make the event awesome enough that all will come!!! 👏🎉Illinois weather is also something to worry about as well because it literally snowed on Halloween this year 👻 So hopefully it doesn’t around my November date! I wish it were always sunny here, or at least consistent 😩😩

View Quoted Comment Also: this is exactly why I want to go all out on the videography!!!! A Full wedding video I might not watch all the time, but I can NOT stop watching your wedding video teaser!!!
👏👏👏👏👏 Definitely hoping my highlight video looks that good!!! 💜💜 I was going to go with Amor In Motion on here! They do a fantastic job!
https://amorinmotion.com/

View Quoted Comment Oh yeah, I’ve totally heard of the different-tiered lists. We weren’t able to do that since I procrastinated and sent our invites kinda late. Lolol


You can typically expect like 80% of guests to accept an invitation for local weddings. So I think you’d be safe with initially inviting around 110-125!
So my husband’s originally from the Midwest (Ohio) and most of his mom’s side of the family lives in DC so it wasn’t too hard convincing a lot of his guests to come to California during February—gave them an excuse to get out of the snow. Haha

However, it was pouring rain ALL morning on our wedding day. Clear skies the week leading up to it as well as the day after! So my vendors had to scramble to move my whole wedding under the covered area where my reception was. It delayed my wedding by 45 minutes (which turned out fine since the shuttle coming from our hotel and had 100+ guests on it was running late because of traffic). The rain completely stopped 30 minutes before the scheduled start time. Haha. Things are gonna go wrong—it’s inevitable with weddings. You just gotta roll with it. Lol rain on your wedding day is good luck though! I’m not sure about snow, but I’m sure it just means it’s EXTRA good luck! 🥰
I think your invites and website will really set the tone for your wedding. So if you want to get people excited, I would try to frame it as a fun excuse for people to get super dressed up, drink and just have fun. Our invitations were a little out of the normal so I think it helped hype people up for the wedding. We also made it a 3-day event— Thursday: rehearsal and beer tasting with bridal party and their significant others. Then straight to our Welcome Dinner for like 80 ppl so it was like a mini wedding. Friday: my husband golfed with his guys and like 20 other male guests while I had brunch with my girls then went wine tasting with them. Then we held a pool party and bbq for any of our guests that wanted to come back at our place. Saturday: guests got free admission to the Safari park so some did that in the morning. Then ceremony/reception. Then we held a private afterparty at the bar/lounge at the hotel we were staying it. So I went from being the girl that wanted to elope and do a small intimate wedding in Hawaii with just our super close friends and immediate family to “let’s host a big 3-day weekend party!!!” 😂
To be fair though— it was my husband who really wanted the big wedding! And he only planned like 5% of it.🤦🏻‍♀️
Are you thinking of doing an afterparty? Or you can even do a happy hour or something the night before!
I actually love weddings that aren’t close to home because it’s like a mini vacation for us. I feel like a lot of people feel that way too so I’m sure most of your guests will show up!

View Quoted Comment Awww thanks! 🥰 Jay + Mack Films was one of my dream vendors. I knew I had to have them when I first saw their work. I agree with you— photography and videography were super important to me too. My husband definitely got sticker shock at first (well with our entire wedding actually lol), but once he saw our teaser, he was like “you were right like always. It was worth it.” Hahaha he also said that about the florals! This was a man who first thought that having a single rose in a vase would make a great centerpiece! 🤦🏻‍♀️


I just checked out Amor in Motion—they’re really good! I saw that they follow my photographer and they’ve worked together on a wedding! 🤗 have you booked them yet?

View Quoted Comment Oh my gosh!! That’s so amazing!!!! I haven’t booked with anyone yet, I was actually originally planning on touring Eaglewood Resort & Spa in Itasca, IL as our last toured venue before we got to pick who we’d sign with, but then the whole virus thing happened and all wedding meetings/bridal fittings and whatnot had to be put on hold 😭😭 He and I were talking though and even by the looks of the photos, I’m pretty sure I would like the ballroom at the Hyatt Lodge better. Luckily we do have the courtesy hold on it for our date!!
I SO agree that it is like a mini vacation!!!! No one really understood why we wanted to do it so far from everyone else but we wanted it to be just a different experience and we like the venues better in the Chicago area 🤷🏻‍♀️
And Amor In Motion is incredible! I have been updating them and letting them know that I for sure want to book them, just waiting on this whole virus business to pass so we can continue forward!
The idea of doing a multi-event celebration weekend is PERFECT! I actually absolutely want to do something with that because people would be traveling to come celebrate with us anyway, and to a lodge where there’s golfing, an indoor pool, & Midtown Fitness & Spa 🙌🙌 I was actually wanting to spend like a week there too, just to get comfortable with the venue and staying there and spend some time with the staff. We’d definitely be having our rehearsal dinner there, our wedding will be on Sunday night so that if there is snow in the forecast then everyone could get there Friday, Saturday, or Sunday morning. So we’d have the rehearsal dinner Saturday night, probably have my bridesmaids enjoy the Spa with me the morning of that ❤️❤️❤️Ahhhh I’m so excited!!! I haven’t even thought about an after party!! So the lodge is 25-30 minutes away from Downtown Chicago, the bars there are exquisite but then I’d have to get everyone back to the hotel so I probably wouldn’t be doing that I think 🤔 BUT Oak Brook’s downtown is only 9 minutes away from the lodge so that could be doable!!? I’d love to get something figured out for that!!! Again, there’s so much I haven’t even considered, I don’t even know what I don’t know!! Lol. The lodge has bars in the lobby, but it’s pretty relaxed, the venue itself is very cozy and quiet. Definitely need to figure out if the venue offers transportation.

View Quoted Comment Come to think of it, most of the nightclubs (that I can think of) wouldn’t be open on a Sunday night. My fiancé and I are from Champaign, IL which is 2 hours South of Chicago. We’d love to figure out a good timeline for our wedding weekend!
I’ll have to look around and see where would really be a good fit for an after-party. I was thinking that possibly for the rehearsal dinner if instead of dining at the Lodge, there is an Asian Bistro & Nightclub in Chicago I was wanting to try called Tao Chicago. Could be fun also if just me and the bridesmaids went, or if the older adults just headed back to the lodge after eating and we could do the clubbing bit with the groomsmen + bridesmaids.

View Quoted Comment Oooo I love Tao! I haven’t been to the Chicago one yet, but the vegas one used to be an old stomping ground for me. Haha that would be so much fun to do as a last hurrah with the bridal party and fiancé!


So best advice I got from one of my married girlfriends is if possible, don’t schedule your rehearsal the night before because if people drink too much, they will be hungover for your wedding. I guess people were late and some didn’t even show up to her ceremony because of all the drinking they did at the rehearsal. So we did our Rehearsal/Welcome Dinner on Thursday. we had it at a brewery (Stone Brewing) and had an open bar so people were definitely drinking all night. They kept partying afterwards either in our hotel rooms, hotel restaurant, or downtown San Diego since it was their first night it and they were pumped to be in warmer weather. So it was nice having a rest day in between. Then at our BBQ/pool party on Friday, only about 40ish people came, and we only served beer and wine and ended it around 10pm.
Yeah, if possible keep the afterparty local to the venue or where most of your guests are staying so that it’s convenient for them to come. Our hotel was a small boutique one with like 80 rooms and because we had 40+ rooms booked under our block, they were super accommodating to us. Even more so than an actual wedding that was happening on their property that same day. They gave our guests priority/early check-in, some of our guests accidentally booked through Expedia and the hotel was willing to count those rooms towards our block still, they distributed our welcome bags to our guests at check in... it was such an awesome stay. It was on a lake so guests actually got a free daily 1-hour Kayak or paddle board rental. They extended their rental time for us so that our afterparty could end at 1am instead of midnight like normal events. They even let me like order things for our afterparty food that wasn’t even on the menu— their chef was super flexible. Lol. So if you can negotiate with your hotel... definitely do it! Most hotels are willing to give concessions for guaranteed room blocks. Also holding the afterparty where your hotel block is (or near it) definitely encourages people to stay there. Plus it’s nice because they can Uber back together or just end up walking their drunk booties up to their room! 😂
If you want to do transportation, we looked into like those super nice shuttles with the bathroom but they were going to cost us close to $5k and so we rented school buses for guests at the hotel and a nice shuttle for our wedding party and their significant others (which was around 40 ppl). We had 2 school buses and only one round trip ride. So if you miss the boarding time, better call an Uber! Lol It was about $2500 altogether which was a steal considering our venue was about 40 minutes away from our hotel.
Or you can even do a brunch the next day with your bridal party! We skipped that because we were so poop and wanted to spend some time alone. But I’ve been to weddings where they held a brunch afterwards!
It’s so good that you’ve started planning so early though! It gives you more time to find vendors and take your time with details. I don’t know how some people can plan weddings in less than 6 months. When I was planning, I would get so overwhelmed with wedding planning that I would take month long breaks from doing anything wedding-related. Haha
If you need a budget excel sheet to give you an idea of some of things you might need for the wedding let me know. I know during the last couple of months I was like “oh shoot. I didn’t even consider this or think I needed that!” 😊

It is sooooooo BEAUTIFUL!