Wedding Reception Ideas For Each Season

This hub has ideas for wedding receptions for every season. I hope it helps as you plan your wedding no matter what month of the year you get married!

A fall wedding reception can be incredibly beautiful. Just think of all that color--reds, oranges, yellows, golds, bronzes, browns, with just a touch of green--pure magic!

Just think of the colors of fall harvest time, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. A farm or harvest theme would be fun. Having your reception in a barn with decorations of bales of hay, apples, pumpkins, corn and corn stalks would be perfect. Bunches of colored leaves will look great.

Don't think ghosts, goblins, witches, and turkeys for decorations. Do consider giving hayrides to guests if you have your reception out in the country in a barn. Hayrides are great for fall and if you are looking for something to make your wedding memorable, this could be it.

You could also take the pumpkin theme and turn it into a magical Cinderella type of reception with horse-drawn carriage rides around the farm for the guests. This would also make your wedding memorable.

Pumpkin centerpieces with tea light candles glowing softly would be pretty. Pumpkins also come in white. You could use some mini orange and white pumpkins surrounding a larger pumpkin. Some Indian corn would work nicely, also.

Or how about cornucopias with real fruits and vegetables spilling out as centerpieces? Favors could be mini pumpkin tarts, mini apple pies, a sack of nuts, apples, jars of homemade grape or apple jelly, apple butter.

For a fall wedding reception, you could serve foods made with pumpkin such as pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cakes, mini pumpkin pies, buttered sweet corn on or off the cob, creamy butternut squash soup, pecan tarts, candied pecans, roast turkey, cornish game hens, or roast pork.

A winter wedding reception can be bright red and green like Christmas or filled with blue and silver sparkles...the possibilities are endless.

If you are getting married in the month of December, feel free to decorate for Christmas. Bright reds and greens can be fun, but you can feel free to use other colors as well. Burgundy with gold or silver or cream, dark blue accented with light blue or silver, red and gold, or green and gold can be Christmas-y as well.

Use a lot of velvety ribbon in rich colors. Metallic ribbon will look great also. Strings of miniature lights, either clear, one color, or multicolored can be strung along walls and tables, making everything sparkle.

Decorate a large sleigh and use it to hold gifts for the couple or favors for the guests.

I have one friend who used a deep purple with silver and it looked beautiful. She had a large Christmas tree decorated with purple velvet ribbons and silver Christmas balls. For centerpieces on each table, she placed mini Christmas trees decorated in the same way, with votive candles on either side of the tree.

I once went to a silver and gold wedding, where pretty much everything was decorated in silver and gold, just like the song, Silver And Gold, from the classic Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.

There were Christmas trees, wreaths, and greenery, all decorated with silver and gold decorations. The bridesmaids wore light green. Their dresses were accented with silver. The maid of honor and the flower girl wore a slightly darker green with gold accents. The wedding cake was light green with silver and gold bows in fondant. It was a very beautiful winter wedding reception.

For January and February, forget about Christmas. If you are having a New Year's wedding, think sparkly. You can use any colors, just add lots of sparkles.

For the rest of January and February, ice and snow can create a winter wonderland. Use a lot of white with blue and silver accents. Glitter branches and string them with clear or blue lights. Place them in large vases or on the walls.

Large snowflakes decorated with glitter in white, blue, and silver and hung on the walls will transform your reception into an outdoor scene. Place floating snowflake candles on each table. Fill the candle bowls with colored marbles or colored water.

Blue cupcakes or a wedding cake decorated with snowflakes will complete the winter wonderland experience.

Favors could be bags of hot chocolate mix or coffee or tea blends with or without mugs. Hot spiced cider mix will also be appreciated in cold weather.

With a little imagination and creativity, you can come up with your own winter wedding reception ideas.

A Christmas wedding can be the most exciting party of the whole Christmas season if you do it up right. Christmas is my favorite time of year with all of the lights and decorations. A do-it-yourself Yuletide wedding is easy to pull off.

The colors of the season are so much fun. Rich shades of red, green, burgundy or blue give an heir of elegance. You can use just one or mix some of the colors. Add some metallic gold or silver in with your base color and your wedding will sparkle above the rest.

You can add some glitter to your bouquets. Add twinkle lights in clear, multi-colored, or one solid color like red, blue, or green. They can be placed in the church, on tables at the reception site and on Christmas trees or other large plants. Blinking or non-blinking lights or a combination of both blinking and non-blinking will make your decorations more interesting.

Poinsettia plants in red or white will make beautiful church decorations and great table centerpieces at your reception. They can be purchased inexpensively at Wal-Mart or grocery stores. During the reception, they can be given away as door prizes to wedding guests to take home with them when they leave.

Serve warm comfort foods such as pasta casseroles and other pasta dishes. Lasagna, macaroni and cheese, stroganoff with noodles, and goulash with pasta are all crowd-pleasers.

Homemade Christmas ornaments make great wedding favors and place cards. Mugs with packets of hot chocolate or apple cider also work well with guests.

There are many ideas for a spring wedding reception. I got married in April, the day before Easter. I had pink Easter baskets set up with peanut M&M's in pastel colors and after dinner mints for guests to snack on.

So if your wedding is near Easter, use seasonal decorations. Instead of Easter baskets, you can use mini crosses adorned with lilies of the valley. This makes a good centerpiece. Or use a crown of thorns adorned with a purple cloth and some lilies. Potted lilies covered with pastel foil also make pretty centerpieces.

For weddings that are not near Easter, think tulips, daffodils and other early spring flowers. Use pastel colors. Baby birds and animals can also be used to decorate.

If you are having an outdoor or a barn wedding, use toy barnyard animals to decorate the tables. Use gingham tablecloths. Place the toy animals around on hay bales. Give guests a hayride. Most will love it, especially if they have never before experienced one.

A spring picnic complete with baskets filled with food is an easy way to cater your reception. Serve sub sandwiches loaded with spring veggies and cold cuts.

Give each guest a mini basket lined with small pieces of gingham to match your wedding colors. Fill the mini basket with homemade candy or packets of flower seeds for favors. Vegetable seed packets make good favors for a spring wedding as well.

If your reception is indoors, use wooden arches and trellises decorated with vines and flowers. Put potted tulips on each table.

Keep the meal light by serving a spring salad with grilled chicken and French bread. Grilled salmon served with salad and strawberries is another great spring wedding reception choice.

If you love the color green, a St Patricks Day wedding may be for you. If you want a lot of green, go shopping in October and November when the Christmas decorations come out. Buy strands of green and white Christmas lights, small green Christmas ornaments, artificial greenery and sparkly metallic garland.

You can also find green placemats, green tablecloths, matching green cloth napkins, paper napkins, candles, and dishes, too.

Decorate with a lot of greenery, both at the church and at the reception. Use lots of green and white lights on large potted plants.

For flowers, I suggest white or off-white blossoms with a lot of greenery.

Pick up some shamrocks and some pots of gold for decorations at the reception for your St Patricks Day Wedding. You may want to use green and gold or green and yellow or two different shades of green for your wedding.

Serve green-colored punch, such as lemon-lime or Sprite with green sherbet in it.

Serve tiny sandwiches made with green bread. You can have small green loaves of bread baked at a bakery.

Serve guacamole dip with green tortilla chips. Green grapes, keylime pie, and green gelatin parfaits are all good choices as well. Have fun choosing foods for it.

Bake shamrock cookies and wrap them up as wedding favors for your guests. Another favor idea is to put gold foil wrapped chocolate coins in small green bags for bags of gold. Small green soaps or candles would also make good favors.

Green candles with small pots of gold wrapped chocolate coins make fun centerpieces.

If you are Irish, you may want to serve corned beef and cabbage for the main course. Yum!

A mint green colored wedding cake with darker green dots or flowers would be pretty.

If you are having a summer wedding reception, there are many themes to choose from. If you are having an outdoor reception, please be considerate of your guests and set up an air conditioned tent where the guests can eat and get cool. The tent can be decorated beautifully and guests can come and go as they please, enjoying the beautiful outdoors, but cooling down when they need to. A tent also protects from bug bites, especially in the evening.

A beach reception will be more casual with flip flops and lots of running around in the sand for children. Yet a tent will still be needed to protect the food and cake from heat and blowing sand.

Most of the summer wedding receptions that I have attended have been indoors with air conditioning due to extreme heat. Most of them have been in Texas.

If you live in a cooler place where the summer heat is not extreme, such as the upper peninsula of Michigan or Colorado Springs, to name just a few cooler places where I have lived, air conditioning may not be necessary everyday of the summer. It just depends on where and when you have your wedding.

You can have a tropical Hawaiian paradise reception, using coconuts and pineapples as centerpieces. Accent them with shells. Put a wick and pour some melted wax into some of the shells and light them.

Give sacks of dried tropical fruit to guests as favors. Serve shrimp kabobs made with veggies and pineapple over rice.

Whether your reception is indoors or out, make your guests feel special. Set up a smoothie or a frozen coffee station where guests can order fruit smoothies or frappuccinos. Offer snow cones to younger guests.

Set up an ice cream sundae station or a Popsicle station with frozen treats made with real fruit.

Decorate with flowers, citrus fruit, or shells and sand. If the reception is outside, set up a volleyball court for the younger guests, especially if you are at the beach.

If your summer wedding reception is inside, set up a cake walk circle for the younger guests and have an adult or an older teenager run the cake walk. Have lots of cupcakes on hand for this game. Kids love it.