Fall Wedding Ideas On a Budget: Best Ideas For a Small Budget
A fall wedding has so much going for it: beautiful colors, perfect weather and delicious food. Plus, there’s lots of fall wedding ideas on a budget to help your wedding feel special, without breaking the bank.
Fall Wedding Ideas On a Budget
If you’re trying to plan an affordable wedding, the first thing to do is rethink the typical reception. A traditional, dinner and dance wedding in a ballroom or banquet hall is the most expensive type of wedding to plan. If your budget isn’t big enough for one, you can plan your fall wedding at a different venue, or serve a different meal:
If you want to have dinner for your wedding, you can stay on budget by choosing a community center, a church hall or a private home for your wedding reception.
With these types of venues you can shop around for inexpensive catering. Or you can plan to DIY or semi-DIY your wedding meal.
Another way to save money is by planning your fall wedding at a different time and serving a different meal. You can start earlier in the day and plan a brunch wedding or a lunch wedding.
Or start your ceremony in the afternoon, and plan a desserts only reception or a cocktail party reception, with drinks and appetizers.
Please note: this article contains affiliate links. That means that I may earn a commission if you decide to buy something.
What Time Should a Fall Wedding Start?
When you’re planning an autumn wedding, you can choose any starting time you’d like, depending on the type of wedding you’re planning. If you’re planning a dinner reception, you can hold your wedding ceremony during the day and begin your wedding reception at 6:00 pm.
If you’ve booked a scenic spot, you should choose your wedding time based on the view, and your guests comfort.
If you’ve got an outdoor wedding venue with beautiful fall leaves, you could have your ceremony in the morning and follow it with a brunch or lunch wedding reception. If it’s too cool for a morning ceremony, hold it in the afternoon and follow it with a dinner reception, a desserts only reception or a cocktail party reception.
Themes For an Autumn Wedding
If you’d like make your wedding planning a lot easier, you can start by choosing the style and a theme for your fall wedding. There’s a lot of decisions to make and lots of things to buy. If you’ve got a style and theme to stick to, it’ll help narrow down all your choices. Having a theme can also help your wedding look stylish and well thought out.
Choosing your style is just deciding how formal you want your fall wedding to be. Do you want to plan a formal wedding, a semi-formal wedding or a casual wedding?
When you start thinking about a wedding theme it can be as easy, or as complicated, as you’d like. You can simply choose a color, then match your bridesmaid dresses, decorations and flowers to that color. Or your wedding theme can be a broad idea that will help you choose things with a certain look, like elegant, rustic or boho.
Another option is to choose a specific theme that you’ll stick to when you choose your wedding invitations, decorations and flowers. Specific themes can be something like fall leaves, sunflowers or pumpkins.
Fall Wedding Colors
Once you’ve decided on your style and theme, you can choose fall wedding colors that match:
Classic Fall Colors
Vivid colors, like orange, rust and burgundy are classic choices for a fall wedding. You can use brightly colored leaves, pumpkins and fall flowers for your bouquets, invitations and favors.
Neutral Boho Colors
Boho’s laid back natural look is a great choice for autumn weddings. Typical colors for fall boho weddings are dusty rose, peach, apricot and beige. You can fill out your wedding bouquets and decor with boho touches, like pampas grass, feathers or lace.
Deep and Dramatic Colors For Autumn
Another great color scheme for fall weddings are deep, dramatic palettes that include plum, navy or black. These are great choices to match a formal or semi-formal style, with an elegant look.
To see more fall wedding bouquets, boutonnieres, invitations and decor, check out my favorites list on Etsy: Fall Wedding Ideas, Bouquets and Invitations
Fall Wedding Flowers
If you’re on a tight budget, you can save money on your fall wedding flowers by doing DIY instead of hiring a florist. There’s lots of ways to DIY your flowers. You can choose fresh flowers and make your wedding bouquets and boutonnieres a day or two ahead of time.
Or you can use silk or wood flowers and make everything a few months ahead of time. If you’re not crafty, you can find pre-made silk wedding bouquets online, in every price range.
If you decide to make your wedding bouquets and boutonnieres using fresh flowers, the best way to stay on budget is by choosing flowers that are in season.
Depending on where you live, and the time of year, you might be able to find late summer roses or lilies to use in your seasonal wedding bouquets and centerpieces. If not, there’s lots of beautiful fall flowers that you’ll love, in every color:
Dahlias
Sunflowers
Chrysanthemums
Ranunculus
Zinnias
Cosmos
Carnations
Asters
Marigolds
Hydrangeas
Fall Ceremony Decor on a Budget
When you’re deciding on decor for your wedding venues, start by figuring out what spots you’ll need to decorate. Remember to check with your venue for their decorating rules, then decide how much you’ll plan:
If you’re getting married in a church, you’ll probably be allowed to decorate the ends of each pew and add some floral arrangements to the altar or signing table.
If you’re getting married at your reception venue, your decorations will depend on the room you’ve rented. Some venues will provide an arch that you can decorate, as well as the chairs and aisle.
If you’re getting married outdoors, the scenery will count as most of your decor. But if you’re getting married in a wide open space, you’ll need to add a focal point. The focal point will help keep your guests attention on the ceremony. Consider making or renting an arch, a cross, a chuppah or an altar, as a spot to stand during your wedding.
If you decide to decorate the aisle, you can outline it by placing decorative objects at the end of each row of chairs. Or you can define the aisle by scattering fall colored flower petals or leaves.
Inexpensive Decor For Your Aisle:
Pumpkins
Lanterns
Candles
Wood stumps
Mason jars
Flower arrangements
Greenery
Flower petals
Oak leaves
Maple leaves
Gingko leaves
Decorations For Autumn Wedding Receptions
If you have space at the entry way to your wedding reception, you can plan bigger displays that match your style or theme. For a rustic theme, you could choose items like hay bales and wooden decor. If you’d like a more elegant wedding style, you could paint some small crates or ladders white, then add flowers, framed photos or other pretty decorations.
For more easy and affordable ideas to decorate your own wedding, read this next DIY Wedding Ideas on a Budget: DIY Wedding Decor, Flowers and Decorations
Inexpensive Decor For a Fall Wedding Reception:
Hay bales
Direction signs
Wooden pallets
Wooden crates
Small ladders
Potted plants
Framed pictures
Lanterns
Candles
Centerpieces For an Autumn Wedding on a Budget
Making your own centerpieces is a great way to save money on your fall wedding decorations. You can shop online, or at your local craft stores or discount stores. Look for items that match your style and your theme. You can find all kinds of glassware, like vases, candy dishes or mason jars. Plus lots of colorful decor, like silk flowers, candles and table runners or fabric.
If you can’t find items in the right color, plan a few painting projects for any items you do find. Small gourds and pumpkins are cheap to use as decor for fall weddings. If you paint them gold or silver they can be a pretty and elegant way to fill some space in your decor.
Inexpensive DIY Centerpieces:
Silk flowers
Greenery
Table runners
Small mirrors
Mini pumpkins
Apples
Fall leaves
Feathers
Pampas grass
Candles
Tea lights
Confetti
Fall Wedding Menu
Fall Wedding Food Ideas on a Budget
When you’re planning your fall wedding menu, try to choose food that’s warm and comforting for your guests. An easy way to stay on budget is by offering the classic wedding meal: soup, salad, chicken and pasta. Then jazz it up by adding a fun, but inexpensive extra, like an apple pie buffet or a caramel apple station.
If you’re on a super tight budget, you could plan a Thanksgiving potluck as an affordable fall wedding. You’d have to cook enough turkey for all your guests, then ask them to bring side dishes in lieu of gifts.
If you’d rather skip the potluck, some more budget fall wedding ideas could be a cocktail party wedding reception or a desserts only wedding reception. Keep to your fall theme by offering hot cocoa or mulled wine. Plus fall desserts like apple tarts, cinnamon donuts or pumpkin pie.
Affordable Food Ideas For a Fall Wedding
Create your own caramel apple station
S’mores station
Hot cocoa bar
Hot chocolate bar
Hot apple cider bar
Sangria station
Pie buffet table
Cookie table
Fall Wedding Cake Toppers
When you’re choosing your fall wedding cake, you can match the colors, style or theme you’ve chosen for your wedding. If you’re on a small budget, you can order a plain white wedding cake and add a cake topper that matches your style or theme. You can find cake toppers to match any theme, from a rustic wood topper to a floral set that matches your wedding bouquet.
Fall Wedding Invitations
For easy and on-budget wedding invitations, check out the All-In-One style from Minted. The cards come ready for you to fold, seal, and drop in the mailbox. Your recipients’ addresses are even pre-printed for you - for free! The RSVP section is perforated, so your guests can easily send their cards back to you.
If you see a wedding invitation you like, be sure to order a sample. Choose your 3 favorites, then use the code 3FREE to get free wedding invitation samples from Minted sent to your home.
If you’re not sure what your style is yet, sign up for a free sample kit - it’s filled with different types of invitations, paper and color swatches, so you can see all the different types: Fall wedding invitations from Etsy
Rustic Wedding Planner Book
Need more ideas for your rustic fall wedding? The DIY Rustic Wedding Planner has tons of ideas and tips for planning a wedding on a budget. There’s worksheets and checklists for everything from choosing a venue to planning your menu:
