Our Woodland Wedding: Part 1

It’s finally out in the open: Robbert and I are getting married! I’ve been eagerly looking forward to this moment and I’m so happy I get to share parts of the wedding and the planning with you. Today I’d like to kick off at the beginning: what theme are we going for during the wedding?

As you may have heard in the engagement and wedding Q&A, we’re going to have the wedding at a beautiful location in the woods. When I started looking for wedding locations I was originally looking for a castle or other type of historical building. Getting married in a castle is what I had always imagined for myself, and seemed like a logical place to start. But then I came across forest weddings in my search, and that’s when it clicked. You know that feeling of “this is it”? I had that as soon as I realised getting married in the woods is an option.

A castle wedding is beautiful and lovely, but a woodland wedding is so much more fitting for Robbert and me. He was really excited about the idea as well, so it didn’t take us long to decide to go for it. Outdoor weddings are a bit of a risk in the Netherlands as we get a lot of rain, but we have options to combat that with beautiful, large tents. It rarely rains all day long anyway, so we’re optimistic.

Planning an outdoor wedding does feel a bit safer in regards to the pandemic, too. So far in the Netherlands, the number of people that are allowed to get together outside has always been (significantly) higher than indoors, as there’s more room for distancing and more airflow. We’re hoping that with an outdoor location and a relatively short guestlist, we’ll be able to have the wedding of our dreams even if the pandemic isn’t fully over come spring.

The Theme

So, we’re having a woodland wedding, and that’s going to be at the core of our theme/style. However, this still leaves a lot of room for personalisation and we do plan to go for a bit of a different theme than many of the other forest weddings I’ve seen pictures of. We want the style to be laid-back, rustic, with vintage elements and lots of (dried) wildflowers.

There are lots of rhododendron bushes in the area where we’ll have the wedding, and they should be in full bloom on our wedding date in spring. Could you ask for a better backdrop? I love the idea of having different wildflowers and greenery as decoration, in all the colours nature has to offer.

When the sun goes down in the evening, we’re hoping to have a campfire and lots of little lanterns and candles around for a beautiful fairytale vibe. Minding fire safety, of course :)

I’ve put together a little moodboard to bring across the vibe we’re going for on our big day:

This moodboard is what we’re building the rest of the theme/style off of. I get so excited just looking at it! It’s perfect for us. This style feels like home to me, a warm and welcoming atmosphere that’s festive and special, but doesn’t put pressure on anyone to look or act super formal or unnatural.

The whole wedding is completely tailored to us and our guests and we hope that we can make everyone feel comfortable there. Less pressure, more celebration!

In the next wedding update I’ll tell you all about my plans for the dress. Stay tuned! :)