DIY Backyard Wedding Planning
DIY Backyard Wedding Planning
This year, I took the leap with my now-wife Ashley to plan our wedding in our backyard. As a wedding DJ, there isn’t a venue I haven’t worked at in most of New England, let alone one close enough for both of our families. So when it came time to decide on our wedding venue, our backyard seemed the most fitting We’ve spent tons of time gardening, clearing brush, and really turning our property into a yard! Plus, who doesn’t want to jump into their own bed at the end of an epic party? It just all made the most sense to us. This is my 16th year DJing wedding, and let me just say there were even more details and logistics than I had expected throughout the process! Luckily, with amazing help from Jessy at Birdhouse Events and Rob, we were able to navigate everything to plan an amazing day! Let’s dive into how to start your DIY backyard wedding planning!
Is planning your wedding in your backyard the best option for you? I wanted to list some of the successes, challenges, ideas, and insider insight that came from planning my DIY backyard wedding to help make your day a smashing success!
1. Starting your DIY Backyard Wedding Planning
Doing a site visit with your tent company and planner is a great first step in your DIY backyard wedding planning. The tent company will determine which size will work best and where the tent can fit. Your planner can provide insight to the tent company about the number of guests and the floor plan inside the tent. Once you know the size you’re working with, you can start planning the projects you may have to do to get the space ready.
So, I’m a bad example, I have a crazy old farmer’s backyard with ruts, brush, and everything you can imagine, when we decided on the space for the tent I got to planning how to level the land, remove brush and, get our space wedding ready. (It involved a skid steer, lots of dirt, several tractors, some artificial turf, and a whole lotta time!) If you already have a flat space in your yard, you’re ahead of the curve in your DIY backyard wedding planning!
All Photos below are from our wedding album from @layneannphotography
2. Think About Guest Comfort and Safety!
Undoubtedly, your wedding day is about you and your significant other, but ensuring your guests are comfortable goes a long way in throwing an epic backyard wedding! We planned our wedding on the first Saturday of November. (it turns out that as a wedding DJ, you don’t have many available Saturdays!)
If you’ve ever lived in New England, you know it could be 80 degrees out or snowing. It’s a total toss-up! We made sure to have tent sides and heaters reserved with our tent company to be prepared for the cold, and while it wasn’t the coldest day of the year, those tent sides and heaters came in clutch later in the evening as the cold rolled in!
Another important thing to consider in your DIY backyard wedding planning is safety. Do you have enough light where folks will be walking? Is the ground relatively level? Is your property accessible for vehicles and mobility equipment? We used our shepherd hooks and bistro lights to light up paths where guests would be entering, using the restroom (this ties in nicely with #3), or moving about throughout the evening.
3. Picking your Restrooms.
This isn’t the most glamorous part to talk about, but it is so important. You need a bathroom trailer or portable restroom. It’s a non-negotiable need if you have a septic system like we do. Plus, you want to relax after your wedding day, and cleaning the bathrooms isn’t my idea of relaxing. There are so many offerings these days based on your space, budget, and guest count. Talk to your planner or the restroom rental company about what would work best for your DIY backyard wedding plan.
4. Powering Up Your Day
Something you may not have thought about is how much power you’ll need for the day! On our wedding day, we had 2 propane heaters, a bathroom trailer, DJ, Tent Lighting, and a Caterer. We needed about 4 separate 20 Amp Circuits to power up our wedding and that’s something most houses don’t have on the outside of their house. To avoid confusion, or running cables through windows I worked with our own DJ CJ (Electrician by Day, DJ by night) to set us up will all our power needs on the back side of the house. making it super easy to have each vendor tap in wherever it was needed.
5. Talk With Your Caterer!
Not all caterers are created equally, make sure to have a clear conversation with your caterer about what they do on your wedding day! We made sure to hire a full-service BBQ company, they passed hors d’oeuvres during cocktail hour, staffed the buffet and even cleared tables. Having a company to take the reigns on food and all the food-related items took a huge amount of stress off of us. Some caterers will set tables and chairs, do light decoration, and even teardown at night’s end. So, talk to your caterer and make sure that their service matches your vision.
6. Setting Goals for your DIY Backyard Wedding
If you’re like most folks, your yard and house may need some work before you’re ready to host a wedding there. It can feel overwhelming! Make yourself an itemized list with small achievable goals, I chose to take each project and assign a week to it. By the end of each week, I had a few things to check off and it helped me track our progress.
As we got closer to the wedding day I could prioritize what needed to happen vs. what I wanted. PRO TIP: Set a date a few weeks before your wedding to be done with all the projects. With my schedule, it wasn’t a possibility and I happened to get the flu the week of the wedding, I’ll just say there was some “unnecessary” stress the week of!
7. Dance Floor? 🪩
No 2 dancefloors are the same! Make sure to talk with your tent/rental company about what to expect for your dancefloor. Here’s a real-life story from my wedding. When the tent company showed up to install our dancefloor I looked out over the yard and saw that there was about an 8-10 inch rise making the dancefloor a platform. I’ve never seen a dancefloor like this after over 600 weddings we talked about how this just wouldn’t work. it was a hazard for folks without any cocktails in their system, it would certainly not be a great idea to dance on. After consulting with our planner and Rob we decided to go dancefloor-less and have folks dance right on the turf we put in place of grass under the tent, and it worked beautifully.
During your DIY backyard wedding planning, make sure you clearly know what to expect on your wedding day, and don’t be afraid to say, “That won’t work.”
8. Light it Up
Ok, so working for an event production company has its perks. I’ve done so many weddings in tents that I knew exactly what I wanted for lighting at our wedding! I opted for our 12′ wooden chandeliers with hanging Edison bulbs and our Amber Tent Wash Lighting. Paired with our Shepard hook path lighting, there was an amazing amount of light! So much that we dimmed it way down throughout the night. It was perfect! Now, I know that not everyone lights up tents every weekend, so you may not know what you want for lighting in your tent; that’s where we can help you and your planner! Check out all of our lighting options here: Wedding Lighting Options
Lessons Learned
If I could go back and do it all again, here are a few things I learned along the way.
If you have the time, don’t wait and ask for help! I had my head set on doing everything myself. While that was rewarding, I worked myself sick. After months of 18+ hour days, my body called it quits just days before our wedding! Fortunately I was able to muster the strength to enjoy it, but it was the most sick I’ve ever been. When I was down for the count I learned that all my friends and family would have been happy to help had I just asked!
I should have leveled and planted grass in the summer. I missed out on this one big time. My yard required some serious help and leveling. Waiting until a month before was probably not my best plan! Fortunately, turf was a great option for me! (Though it’s super heavy and took a lot of effort to lay down.) A better plan would have helped take some pressure off near the wedding day.
The last thing I would have done is hire more professionals. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of the work I did to get ready for our wedding. It gave our yard a pretty major facelift. But I can say I stumbled my way to success with many learning experiences. Had I hired some folks who knew lawn care, excavating, electrical, etc. I could have saved myself from learning the hard way and giving up a lot of time.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
At the end of all the planning, don’t sweat it! Everyone’s backyard is perfectly imperfect to have a wedding in! It’s the character and specialness of choosing your home to host your wedding that people will love! No one will care that the bush wasn’t trimmed, or the garden wasn’t perfect, they’ll remember that they got to celebrate you and your significant other on your special day.
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