Turn Up the Heat at Your Summer Wedding with These Seasonal Tips and Ideas

Jun 3

Since ancient times, summer has been the season for weddings. With long, hot days and abundant flowers and greenery, it’s understandable why so many couples choose to celebrate their love during the warmer months. Whether tradition or the nice weather is inspiring you to get married in the summer, we have tips to make the most of the season whatever your budget.

Summer Color Palettes

Image by Jill Wellington courtesy of Pixabay.

“What are your wedding colors?” is one of the first and most common questions you’ll be asked while planning your wedding. Selecting one to five colors (or more if your wedding theme is rainbow) is helpful for more than just getting friends and family off your back. A color palette can help guide your design choices from flowers to frosting to bridesmaid’s dresses and make events of all sizes look unified and elegant.

Summer paints the natural world with vibrant colors: blue skies, yellow sunflowers, bright red berries, and the saturated green of fresh limes. Many summer color palettes feature vibrant colors that reference the natural world, from the blue and whites of a summer sky to the warm neutrals of a grassy field. Websites like colorhunt.co and colorpalettes.net offer premade palettes of complimentary colors. You can take a note from colorpalettes.net and pull colors from your favorite photos using an image editing or digital art program.

Summer Flowers

Using seasonal flowers in your floral arrangements is a great way to bring the season into your wedding, whether you’re planning elaborate centerpieces or a simple boutonniere. While out-of-season flowers can usually be ordered from hothouses or other countries, in-season flowers are usually the most affordable and freshest option. Summer florals come with the added challenge of keeping your blooms from wilting in the heat. Some flowers are more heat-tolerant than others; tropical blooms like orchids, birds of paradise, and protea are particularly hardy.

In-season summer flowers include:

Anthurium
Chrysanthemum
Cosmos
Cornflower
Dahlia
Daisy
Delphinium
Freesia
Gardenia
Hydrangea (not heat resistant)
Iris
Lily
Lisianthus
Orchid
Protea
Stock
Sunflower
Zinnia

Whether your flowers are a simple bouquet or decorating a whole event space, keeping them fresh is crucial during the summer months. Store cut flowers out of the sun in water for as long as possible. If you have the option, potted flowers are far less likely to wilt in the heat. Alternatively, you can look at succulents, air plants, or dried flowers to avoid the struggle of keeping cut flowers from wilting.

Summer Wedding Themes

Image by Gde Kertayasa courtesy of Pixabay.

Themes are a great way to guide the design of your wedding and simplify the many choices you’ll make while planning. A theme can be as subtle as a color scheme or as bold as costumes and stylized decor. Below are some popular themes for summer weddings:

Beach or Tropical - Whether you’re having a destination wedding or just wishing you were on the beach, a seaside theme is a great summery aesthetic. Tropical flowers also tend to be far more heat resistant making them excellent choices for cut florals on hot days.
Patriotic - With Memorial Day and Labor Day bookending the summer and Independence Day right in the middle, you might choose a patriotic theme for your wedding. Perhaps you’re honoring a service member or just love fireworks; whatever inspires this theme it comes with sparklers, stars, and red, white, and blue. You may even want to sub in a classic American apple or cherry pie for cake!
Rainbow - Summer is often associated with bright colors - and what’s more colorful than a rainbow? Whether you’re celebrating Pride or just love color, this is a great choice to bring joy and vibrancy to your wedding. If you have a wedding party, consider having each member in a different color to create a living rainbow.

Eating Seasonally

Image by HomeMakers courtesy of Pixabay.

Summer brings fresh fruit, cold drinks, and bright seasonal flavors. Like florals, seasonal foods are fresher, often cheaper, and a great way to deepen your wedding’s summery vibes.

On hot summer days, many people crave light and refreshing meals. Appetizers or desserts incorporating melons, which are at their freshest during the summer, offer a refreshing, sweet-and-savory treat. Watermelon salad and prosciutto-wrapped melon are classic choices. Tomatoes are also in season during the late summer months. Caprese salad, either as a plated dish or a skewered bite, combines the classic flavors of summer-fresh basil, tomatoes, and creamy mozzarella. Chilled gazpacho is another way to incorporate tomatoes as a cool and refreshing soup.

Crab boils, clam bakes, and crawfish boils are popular summer foods in coastal areas of the U.S. so it makes sense that seafood is a popular option for wedding menus. Crab cakes make great passed appetizers. For a more relaxed but still indulgent option, lobster rolls are an East Coast summer favorite. A sushi or raw bar are refreshing options that adventurous eaters will enjoy.

Few flavors say “summer” more than barbecue. Grilled and smoked foods aren’t as light as delicate gazpacho but they’re equally seasonal. Pulled pork sliders, grilled kebabs, or even upscale hot dogs can add a relaxed, playful energy to your meal.

For dessert and drinks, consider seasonal fruits like berries and melons. Frozen treats like popsicles or icy drinks will help your guests keep cool in the summer heat. “Naked” cakes (cakes with a very thin or no layer of frosting on the outside) seem to be a growing summer wedding trend - possibly because they look relaxed yet elegant or maybe because there’s less buttercream to melt off in the heat. A popular (and colorful) alternative to a traditional wedding cake is a multi-tiered stack of delicious and very pretty macarons.

Weather-proofing Your Wedding Day

There’s no getting around it: Nashville is hot and sticky in the summer. For some people, 90 degrees and 70% humidity is ideal; but for many if not most, the heat can feel oppressive - especially in formal attire. The temperature and humidity can even be dangerous for guests or wedding party members with conditions like asthma, COPD, or pregnancy.

In general, temperatures peak around 3 PM. With early sunrises and late sunsets, brunch and evening weddings offer beautiful light while avoiding the hottest part of the day. If any part of your event is outdoors, make sure your guests have a shady spot to retreat to to cool down, and consider offering hand fans, sunscreen, or parasols as favors (more on that below).

If you’re planning an outdoor wedding, tailor your dress code to the weather. Floor-length gowns and black tuxes might leave your guests sweating through their finery if they’re outside in the summer heat. Consider inviting guests and your wedding party to wear light, breathable clothes. You might even include a reminder to wear sunscreen as part of your dress code. If you have long hair you may want to consider a durable updo; not only will it keep your neck cooler, but it’s also likely to be more humidity-resistant than curled or straightened hair.

The challenges of summer weather extend beyond the heat. Pop-up afternoon showers or thunderstorms are not unusual in Middle Tennessee. Have an alternative location ready or at least a place for guests to shelter in the event of a sudden summer storm.

While an indoor event is less likely to be scorching hot, you may have to plan for the opposite. We’ve noticed a trend in Nashville where public facilities set their air-conditioning to arctic during the hot summer months. Folks wearing suits might enjoy the reprieve from the heat, but those wearing dresses will likely want to bring a shawl or cardigan to fend off the icy cold.

Other Summer Wedding Considerations

Image by Scott Webb courtesy of Pixabay.

Even if you have your weather plan locked in, there are a few other summer-specific considerations to keep in mind. Despite the recent rise in the popularity of fall weddings, summer has been wedding season since the Roman Empire. Most modern couples planning a summer wedding are hoping for nice weather rather than the blessings of the goddess Juno, but the tradition of summer weddings remains strong all these centuries later. With so many couples vying for limited summer weekends, staying flexible with your date is a must.

The season's popularity means that summer weddings can come with a heftier price tag. While it may be tempting to take advantage of the long weekends around Memorial, Independence, and Labor Day; planning an event during a holiday weekend can make finding accommodations for out-of-town guests an expensive and challenging feat. Venues, hotels, and travel can all cost more during summer months, especially close to those holidays.

In contrast, summer is considered the off-season in many tropical tourist destinations. If you’re planning a destination wedding somewhere with beaches and palm trees, you might get a better deal during the summer months.

An increasingly popular way to keep costs down is a mid-week wedding. With most weddings falling on weekends, mid-week weddings offer both increased availability for vendors and, often, discounted rates. If your guests can swing their schedules to be available, it’s a win-win for all.

Summer Wedding Favors

Wedding favors offer you a chance to thank your guests for celebrating with you and send them home with a small token to remember the day. Favors can be one of the easiest parts of your wedding to DIY and can be scaled up or down based on your budget. In general, consumable and practical gifts are the biggest hits with guests (tchotchkes are likely to languish in a catch-all drawer), but anything that has meaning to you and your partner will make a wonderful gift.

Hand fans are a great practical gift for a summer wedding in the South (or anywhere, really) and can be personalized either by a vendor or with a simple paper tag you print and attach yourself. If you go this route, you may want to hand out the fans as guests arrive at your ceremony to maximize both their usefulness and your guests’ comfort. Even if your attendees don’t wind up using the fan after your wedding, they’ll appreciate the personal cool breeze on your big day. Miniature bottles of sunscreen, bug spray, or handkerchiefs are also excellent choices to help your friends and family brave the elements.

Edible gifts are always a winner, but keep the summer heat in mind when choosing your treats. Even if your venue is air-conditioned, guests will still need to get back to their homes or hotel rooms. Heat-sensitive chocolates and buttercream frosting might melt during the journey. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t indulge your chocolate addiction, but you may want to pick an alternative if guests will be headed home before the temperature starts to cool off in the evening or if your favors will be sitting in the hot sun all day. Hard candies, small jars of honey or preserves, or even seasoning blends are great, temperature-stable alternatives. At one summer wedding we officiated, the couple gave each of their guests a tiny cactus plant - which we still have. It’s happily basking in the southern sun on our kitchen windowsill and is a lovely living reminder of a beautiful summer wedding in Nashville.

Start Planning Your Summer Wedding Today!

Whether you’re planning a private elopement or a grand event, we hope you have the summer wedding of your dreams. As wonderful as seasonal menus and themed decor can be, the only thing that truly matters is the love between you and your partner and the community you choose to share that joy with.

If selecting a Nashville Wedding Officiant is still on your to-do list, reach out to Zelda, one of Nashville’s most in-demand wedding officiants, for a chat about what you have in mind for your wedding, more info on packages, or to book your elopement or wedding of any size.

Melanie Bresnan http://melaniebresnan.com