Eight Best Wedding Ideas for Summer
When it’s done well, a summer wedding is a truly magical thing. A blissful, beautiful day where the people you care about come together in fairytale surroundings to celebrate your love. But how do you turn that dream into a reality? Just follow our Court Colman guide to the best wedding ideas for summer, and prepare to fall in love with your big day.
Location, location, location. That’s the main thing when it comes to buying a house and it’s the main thing for wonderful weddings too. And especially for nuptials that fall between May and October – choosing the ideal location is the most important of the wedding ideas for Summer. But why?
In the Summer, there’s more chance you and your guests will spend more time outside. Those all-important wedding photos are likely to be alfresco too.
Which pushes the setting of the wedding venue firmly to the fore. On a cold November day an uninspiring venue might be able to rustle up some interior decor to create a degree of ambiance for the reception and the photos.
But come a beautiful, warm Summer’s day, you and your guests will want to celebrate your wedding outside. Imagine: the sound of laughter and glasses clinking as you enjoy chatting with your guests on the terrace of a fabulous country house. You deserve a beautiful setting for your beautiful day.
Gorgeous grounds, a classy country house, photogenic features, a wealth of fabulous, flexible reception options – inside and out. Knowing that your venue excels at delivering this, in the way Court Colman does, reduces your stress and means you can actively look forward to enjoying the event with confidence.
The food you serve at your wedding really helps set the tone. So one of the best wedding ideas for summer is to envisage what dishes really match your personality, your theme, the venue, the size of the event and the time of year.
Would you prefer a flexible finger buffet rather than a hearty banquet? Will it feature continental summer flavours, such as caprese skewers, gazpacho and ceviche or English classics, such as edible flower salads, cool takes on cucumber sandwiches, artfully elaborate confections of strawberries and cream.
Will your drinks conjure up summer holidays abroad: aperol spritz, Prosecco or margaritas; or lazy English summer afternoons: Pimms, champagne, elderflower flavours or boutique gins.
Again, one of the best wedding ideas for summer, is to chose a venue – like Court Colman that has a team of excellent chefs with extensive experience of delighting guests at summer weddings.
Summer weddings don’t always some with summer temperatures. So good ideas for summer weddings are to think both flexible and comfortable. And to match the location – having a beach shack vibe for the dress code will look odd at a country house.
So the best thing here is to focus on your setting – what styles complement it? What clothes match that theme? It’s also worth remembering country house settings don’t have to be overly formal. Creating the feel of a relaxed weekend at a friend’s country house means you and your guests can be both in keeping with the setting and completely comfortable at the same time. It means in terms of clothes you can have plenty of layering options too. For women elegant cover ups, shawls, wraps, stoles and shrugs. For men jackets and waistcoats – all mean you can layer up, or down, according to the temperature. Having stylish personalised blankets for guests (which they can take home as a favour) they can re-sue again and again) helps too.
The setting helps guide the colour scheme too. The key ideas for summer weddings in terms of colour schemes, are to think light – whether soft or bright. Those long summer evenings can suit pastels – perhaps lavender and blush or a light grey. Or corals, peach or mint. Ivory and soft greens.
Or go brighter with the rich warmth of sunshine colours: tints of yellow, fuchsia or orange can enhance that summer-time feel. The best tip is to narrow down the type of venue you think you’d like, book a show around and ask the venue’s wedding planners what they’d recommend – their knowledge of the venue’s architecture, features and even the plants in the garden that will be in bloom can all add to your vision.
When it comes to flowers, there are two key themes in terms of contemporary wedding ideas for Summer. They are: think seasonal and think sustainable.
In the UK, thinking seasonal and sustainable often to go hand in hand. Locally-grown seasonal flowers are often more sustainable than those imported from overseas. They also tend to offer more opportunities for you to better match your wedding to the season, the time and the place.
Flowers that are in bloom in the British summer include delphiniums, peonies, dahlias and sweet peas. The trick is to consider whether the feel of the blooms matches your vision for your wedding. The next step is to source the kinds of arrangements you want, when you want them.
This can all feel a bit overwhelming. So it’s important to choose a venue, like Court Colman, which offers an experienced wedding coordinator – they can magic these concerns away.
While we’d love everyone we care about to be able to attend our wedding, in reality, not everyone is going to be able to fly in from locations around the world, or even around the country. So people will understand if you bear this in mind when sending out the invites.
While there’ll be some guests you want to invite regardless of their location, a sensible wedding idea for summer is to focus other invites on those who’re more likely to be able to attend.
Location, surroundings, a photogenic setting. Expert planning assistance, simply stunning food. Court Colman excels on delivering these best wedding ideas for summer and much, much more.
Our location is perfect: being just a 30-minute drive from Cardiff and Swansea makes Court Colman one of the best wedding venues in South Wales. We offer a superb location and stunning surroundings – inside and out. At Court Colman you and your guests can enjoy gorgeous Georgian architecture that effortlessly creates a country house atmosphere. Our superb collection of reception suites ensure your event is memorable, whether it’s lavish or low-key. Your photos will shine, whether they’re beside our waterfall or set amid our rose walk.
And we have extensive expertise at planning a wealth of wonderful summer weddings. So you won’t have to worry about flowers, colour schemes, menus and clothes. Instead you can focus on enjoying your declaration of love and having a memorable, magical day with family and friends. And that – after all – sums up the very best of all wedding ideas for summer.
Discover your wonderful wedding at Court Colman today.