Planning to have a wedding with a casual style? Then you might want to have a Western themed wedding. This theme is perfect if you are holding your wedding in a chapel, church, home, garden, park, community center, farmhouse, ranch or country inn. But even if your wedding is in a big city hotel, you can carry out the theme with your choice of decorations and food.
Here are some ideas:
Decor-
- Use patchwork quilts, Navajo blankets, or red and white gingham as tablecloths.
- Use bandannas as napkins.
- Centerpieces can be arrangements of flowers in baskets, mason jars, vases of flowers inside cowboy boots, or small blooming cactus plants that can be used as favors.
- Flowers should look like they were hand-picked from a garden. Choose wildflowers, daisies, sunflowers, zinnias, roses, and lilacs.
- Use bales of hay for decoration around the room or for seating.
- Keep drinks cold in buckets and washtubs filled with ice.
- Light the area with kerosene lamps or, for safety reasons, battery-operated lamps that resemble vintage kerosene lamps.
- Hang a metal triangle and ring it when it’s time to cut the cake.
Cake and Desserts-
- You can simply top your cake with a cowgirl and cowboy. Or work with your cake designer to create something unique such as the look of a hand-tooled leather belt wrapped around each tier or get cakes shaped like cowboy hats or boots.
- Apple pie or cobbler.
- Homemade (or homemade-like) ice cream.
Food-
- Buffalo wings with ranch dressing
- Barbecue ribs and chicken
- Grilled steak
- Baked potatoes
- Corn on the cob
Favors-
- Bandannas personalized with your name and wedding date
- Program fans that look like Western “Most Wanted” posters
- Cowboy hats
Wedding attire-
- You can wear a vintage or vintage style wedding dress in antique white with lace but it isn’t necessary. In fact, actress Sandra Bullock wore a designer (Angel Sanchez) white lace wedding dress and veil to her Western wedding to Jesse James in 2005. She added white cowboy boots to give her look a Western flair. If you love denim, there are stores online that sell blue denim wedding dresses.
- Your bridesmaids can wear square dance dresses or dress like Western saloon girls. If you prefer something more traditional, find vintage-style dresses that are similar to your own.
- The groom and groomsmen can wear black suits, vests, white shirts with bolo ties (decorative strings with a clasps of silver), and cowboy hats.
- Ask guests to dress casually in Western wear.
The Summer 2009 issue of Destination Weddings & Honeymoons magazine has a two page spread showing decorations and acessories you can use at your Western wedding. There are also many wedding vendors who sell Western and Cowboy related wedding accessories and favors on the Internet.