Wedding Design: Love for Rustic

While we were planning our own wedding, I must have looked at THOUSANDS of photos online.  I literally spent entire days browsing through online site such as Project Wedding, Style Me Pretty, Martha Stewart Weddings & The Knot.  Occasionally I would find a great idea that I could incorporate into our wedding, but most of the time, I was falling in love with a lot of different styles of weddings, other than the one that we were planning.  Maybe it was growing up on a farm, maybe it was my husbands' love for the outdoors, but one of the styles I fell deeply in love with was the new "Rustic" style.

Rustic, you say?  Like a dirty old barn?  Not, even close!  The title of this style might be misleading, so let me give you a little idea of what a 2010 Rustic wedding looks like.

Image from Martha Stewart Weddings

Image from Project Wedding

Image from Project Wedding

 Image from Project Wedding

They are simple, elegant & chic.  Using colors like moss green, coffee brown, mocha, ivory and even a touch of gold, one can bring in just about any element from nature & incorporate it into the style.   It's a style that is being used widely in the wedding world right now, and when done well, this design style is amazing. 

One specific element that I really adored, was using slices of tree trunks for the base of centerpieces, or using a couple of them them as a guest book to be signed or carved into.  Here is one example that turned out beautifully, where they use several slices as cake stands... and they are incredible!

Image from Once Wed

Image from Once Wed

The thing that really pulls together this whole style,  however, is the right venue.  A formal hall, or a beautiful ball room is not exactly the right space for this type of style.  When I think of a rustic wedding I think of an outdoor ceremony under a big oak tree dripping with hanging votives.  I think of an old barn, with thousands of twinkle lights draped from the ceiling.  Something like this:

Image from here

Image from Project Wedding

Image from Martha Stewart Weddings

 

I think that this style can make a wedding seem very intimate and personal.  The accents from nature bring a little something extra to the decor & it looks amazing.  So if you love this style and are getting married soon, search around for local farms.  Some of them are really starting to cater to brides since this trend has really taken off.  Actually, I really would love to start incorporating some of this design into my home.  It really brings the outside in and it's warm and inviting.

What do you guys think?  Would you do a rustic wedding?  I think that if I had it all to do over again, it would be one of the top contenders!