Elegant Rustic Wedding Inspo

September 22, 2020

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Are you a country girl with an elegant rustic wedding in mind? It can be done, and we have the inspo you need! It can be hard to get the perfect balance of country rustic and classic elegance, but with some planning it can be done beautifully. Here are some tips for an elegant rustic wedding that also stays on budget.

This post is all about how to pull off an elegant rustic wedding.

First of all, focus on neutrals and natural elements. If you go too color crazy, you’ll lose both the elegant and the rustic vibe. Choosing neutrals and natural elements will ensure that everything goes together with less planning, and your pops of color will make a bigger statement.

Instead of purchasing glasses, or only offering solo cups, choose to set the tables with mason jars for drinks. They’re pretty and practical since you can reuse them forever after the wedding. You could even throw a cute paper straw in each. Save the solo cups for after dinner when the dancing starts! You could have cute champagne glasses for the head table, and have your guests use those solo cups at the bar.

If you want to have a cocktail hour, but don’t want to drop thousands on appetizers, consider putting together charcuterie cups. Grapes on the bottom to weigh it down, a skewer of cheese and olives, a skewer of folded salami, and a skewer of berries will do the trick. This takes time, so you won’t want to do it yourself. But it is easy and so beautiful!

Or, instead of having a plated dinner, do one giant charcuterie board for your guests to share. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this baby, and it was way cheaper than most caterers! This was near Omaha, Nebraska: Charcuterie by CJ.

For table florals, you could purchase cute little vases like these, or you could collect jars up until your wedding, clean the labels off of them, and use them as vases. We did this for a recent party and it was GORGEOUS. Jars are smaller than your typical vase, so they require less flowers. One Costco bouquet spread among random jars goes exactly this far (photo below).

We also loved how those natural placemats looked, but you could opt for long table runners which are beautiful too.

Whenever possible, choose natural light over any other light. Candles and hanging garden lights are beautiful too, but LEDs take away from the romance and kill the elegant vibe. Here are some cheap candlesticks and candlestick holders (pretty gold ones or basic black).

Instead of renting a ton of chairs, use hay bales, simple DIY benches with stumps and 2x8s, or use mix-matched chairs from your friends and family, or collect them from Goodwill or garage sales and sell them after the wedding. I LOVED how this turned out at this boho wedding.

If you’re not huge cake people, consider a small cake for cutting and get donuts or pies for your guests (or skip the cake altogether and feed each other a donut). I love a good donut, and this would be so cute on a dessert table!

If you want an amazing aisle but don’t want to spend a fortune on florals, consider filling large jars with tall grasses like the photos below. You could even reuse them on the tables. I know, again with the jars, but they’re so versatile and cheap!

This particular wedding was at the Sarpy County Fairgrounds in Nebraska. Their decor involved lots of jars, tall grasses, the cutest donkeys you ever saw, romantic florals, and a cowhide aisle runner.