Styling tips & tricks for summer weddings
Getting married in the summertime? Discover our top summer wedding styling ideas to help you make the most of the season.
Summer is a wonderful time of year to get married, bringing with it blue skies, warm weather, and long, balmy evenings. You and your guests can make the most of the great outdoors, with plenty of opportunities for socialising and capturing beautiful wedding photos.
Here are our top summer wedding styling ideas to help you make the most of the season.
How to style an outdoor summer wedding
1) Choose colours that look great in sunshine
Pale tones can sometimes look flat in bright sunlight. We recommend choosing deeper, richer colours for your summer wedding colour palette, such as:
- Sage and olive greens
- Terracotta
- Ochre
- Deep berry tones
- Warm apricot
If you’ve got your mind set on a softer palette and don’t want to go too dark, simply add one or two accents in the tones above to stop your photographs looking washed out.
Top tip: Hold your swatches or florals up outside on a bright day, at midday and again in the early evening, before deciding. Colours can shift more than you might expect in different lighting.
2) Select flowers and greenery that suit the season
Some flowers look great on a mood board, but will struggle to last on a hot afternoon. Choose flowers that are in season during UK summertime, for example:
- Dahlias
- Cosmos
- Sweet peas
- Scabious
- Olive
- Eucalyptus foliage
These flowers will cope better with heat, cost less and look better outdoors than anything flown in that’s not in season.
Top tip: Ask your florist if they can give you a small sample arrangement a few weeks before your wedding. Then, leave it out in the garden for a day to see how it copes with the heat before committing.
3) Plan your lighting for both daytime and evening
Think of your summer wedding as two events: a bright daytime ceremony and reception, and then an evening party once the sun goes down.
During the daytime, natural lighting will do most of the work for you. But as the day transitions into evening, you’ll need some extra lighting to keep the atmosphere going. For example, you could include:
- Festoon lighting overhead
- Lanterns or fairy lights along tables and pathways
- Candles at table height
Top tip: Check what time sunset falls on your actual wedding date, then make sure any festoon lighting or candles are lit ten to fifteen minutes beforehand. You don’t want to leave your guests in darkness!
4) Prepare for changeable weather
Even in the summertime, the UK weather can be unpredictable. You want to make sure your guests remain comfortable, and that the venue still looks stylish, if the weather turns.
Here’s what you need to consider:
- Choose a venue that has covered or indoor backup options (like Water’s Edge at Ewen)
- Select decor and materials that can cope with all weathers, like sturdy foliage, laminated signage and battery candles
- Keep your colour palette and styling consistent between your outdoor setup and the backup space
- Build a little flexibility into your day’s timings in case things suddenly need to move indoors
Top tip: If a heatwave is forecasted, bring in some industrial fans or ice cold drinks to keep your guests cool. If showers are likely, keep a few umbrellas on hand for guests to shelter from sudden showers.
5) Let the setting do the work
When hosting a summer wedding outdoors, you don’t need to go overboard with dressing the space. Instead, just place a few thoughtful decor pieces that don’t take too much attention away from the setting.
You could try:
- Styling your aisle with loose, seasonal stems rather than a dense, structured arrangement
- Placing a couple of urns or planters to frame the ceremony spot instead of a full floral arch
- Leave your tables largely undressed if they face a view of water, trees or countryside, so that the backdrop does the talking
- Save your bigger floral installations and statement pieces for indoor spaces in the evening
Top tip: Visit your ceremony spot at the time of day you’ll actually be there on the wedding day. That way, you can style around the lighting and the view you’ll really get, not the one you saw during your viewing.
Water’s Edge at Ewen: the perfect spot for a summer wedding
If you’ve always dreamed of tying the knot beside the water, surrounded by open countryside and all your favourite people, Water’s Edge at Ewen could be the perfect venue for you.
Every wedding here is exclusive-use and unfolds over two nights, giving you and your guests uninterrupted access to our beautiful outdoor and indoor spaces. Exchange your vows outdoors on ‘the island’ beside the shimmering lake, enjoy a delicious three-course dinner or relaxed BBQ feast in the courtyard, and then party the night away in our converted barn reception space.
The courtyard and reception room are connected with large bi-fold doors, meaning your guests can move between indoors and out all day. And if the weather isn’t on your side, both the courtyard and outdoor ceremony space sit under covered stretch tents to keep everyone dry. Our indoor barn is always ready as a backup, too, so that the weather doesn’t ever disrupt your plans.
Want to see how your summer wedding could unfold beside the water? Book your private viewing and we’ll walk you through it in person.
FAQs
There isn’t a single best colour palette for a summer wedding. However, deeper, richer colours like sage, olive, terracotta, ochre and berry tones hold up well outdoors and tend to photograph better in bright light.
Make sure you build a wet weather backup plan into your styling from the starting, rather than treating it as a last resort. Choose decor and colours that will work equally well indoors or outdoors, and ask your venue how much notice they’ll need to move things around due to the weather.
You don’t need completely different decor for each part of your wedding, but you’ll need to consider what works in daylight, and what needs additional lighting or texture when the sun goes down. You can easily introduce candles, lanterns or fairy lights in the evening without changing your whole colour palette or theme.
Yes. Couples can tie the knot on the lakeside island, which holds up to 180 guests, and then move to the courtyard and indoor reception room post-ceremony. Both the courtyard and the outdoor ceremony area sit under covered stretch tents, and the indoor ceremony room is always available as a backup if the weather turns.