Good Things for Fall Weddings

Wheat Wreath Wedding Decoration

Wheat represents bounty and wealth; the horseshoe shape is good luck. Let this decoration work its powers at your ceremony or reception site.

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Good Things for Fall Weddings

Mini Candied Apples

The diminutive scale of lady apples transforms a fall favorite into a dainty nibble; offer to guests on passed trays as a sweet-tart surprise at the cocktail hour. A paper leaf is an elegant touch: Use a computer to design and print "Enjoy!" on card stock, then cut out with a leaf-shape craft punch; affix to short skewers with adhesive dots.

Mini Candied Apple Recipe

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Flower Girl Foliage

As a fitting nod to the season, substitute dried leaves for petals in your flower girl's basket. If fall foliage isn't abundant when you wed, you can order pressed leaves online (from drynature.com). We lined this pint-size basket with cotton fabric. Using scissors, cut a large round of fabric and a slit on opposite sides to accommodate handles, then place in basket. Wrap silk ribbon around, and tie in a bow.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Marzipan Acorn Dessert Garnish

Sweet marzipan acorns capture the beauty of fall. The marzipan is tinted pale green with food coloring to mimic the appearance of nuts just picked from the tree; a thin coating of bittersweet chocolate, decorated with sprinkles, crowns each one and balances the marzipan's concentrated sweetness. Place the acorns on pressed leaves for a lovely autumn display, and serve them on a dessert buffet or on platters at guests' tables.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Cinnamon-Orange Molasses Cookies

The dough for these cookies is firm, making it ideal to cut out into shapes.

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Good Things for Fall Weddings

Caramel Coffee Warmers

Just as the coffee is being served, the dancing always seems to begin in earnest, leaving guests with cold coffee when they return to the table. At your reception, offer caramel wafers to rest across the top of the cup -- the coffee will stay warm and the caramel will soften, turning the wafer into a sweet gooey treat.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Cocktail Nuts in a Single Serving

At a cocktail hour, pass candy cups of sweet and savory roasted nuts for a delicious, no-fuss treat. Each paper bowl holds just the right snack-size amount. Our homemade mix is served with store-bought Marcona almonds.

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Good Things for Fall Weddings

Customized Wedding Cake

Premade decorations dress up a wedding cake in an instant. Embellishments are crafted from gum paste or marzipan and painted with food-safe paint. Have your baker make a plain cake (this one is a basic three-layer cake topped with fondant) to use as a canvas for an assortment of adornments, which can be attached with royal icing. Piped trim at the base of each tier provides decoration.

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Good Things for Fall Weddings

Fall Wedding Boutonnieres

Incorporate the shades and symbols of autumn into festive boutonnieres.

Boutonnier How-To

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Buttons for Your Flower Girl

Customize a flower girl's sweater -- and match it to your palette -- by replacing the buttons with new or antique ones in winsome colors or shapes. Available in myriad styles and materials at fabric and trimming stores, the fasteners are a simple, economical way to create a look that's as adorable as your littlest attendant. Cashmere cardigan by J.Crew. Assorted vintage buttons from Tender Buttons and M and J Trimming.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Embossed Velvet Leaf Ring Pillow

Embossed velvet leaves, made with a rubber stamp and an iron, dress up a silk ring pillow for a lasting impression.

Pillow How-To

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Great Pumpkin Centerpiece

A white-pumpkin shell becomes the vase for an arrangement of roses, daffodils, ranunculuses, calla lilies, tulips, and hypericum berries in fall colors -- yellows, peaches, and shades of orange. Smaller pumpkins and votive candles in orange-glass holders fill out the centerpiece.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Share Your Signature Cocktail

Create a simple, natural display that's rich in color by propping seating cards atop beautiful pomegranates, seasonal in the autumn months.

Pomegranate Seating Card How-To

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Framed to Please

Raise the bar with a drink-recipe display that does double duty as a decoration.

Display Frame How-To

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Door Monograms

Personalize the entrance to the ceremony or reception in an instant with store-bought wooden initials. These autumnal colors feel warm and welcoming.

Door Monogram How-To

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Wooden Seating Cards

Show your ingrained sense of style with seating cards crafted from paper-thin wood veneer. These inexpensive sheets are pliable enough to fold and cut easily into delicate shapes; the elegant graining makes a distinctive canvas for calligraphy. We used craft punches to create maple and birch leaves.

Wooden Seating Cards How-To

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Wedding Program Pouches

For a cool-weather wedding, why not give programs their own woolly wraps? Felt pouches bring a cozy touch and bursts of fall color to the ceremony and make pretty mementos for guests.

Woolly Pouch How-To

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Gift Bags for Wedding Guests

Paper bags, slightly modified, make distinctive wrapping. A novel sealing method garners the most attention, since recipients will be intent on getting past it.

Gift Bag How-To

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Keepsake Kites

These favors will soar, though perhaps not as high as your spirits on your wedding day.

Keepsake Kite How-To

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Aubergine Dahlia Wedding Bouquet

Late-season aubergine dahlias get their sparkle from white-tipped petals. The leaves are embossed velvet. Fresh chartreuse acorns are a nod to the colors of spring, just a season away.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Panetonne Wedding Favor

Take a cue from the Milanese, who serve panetonne, a sweet bread made with dried fruit and citrus zest, on special occasions. The loaf is traditionally made in a large panetonne mold, but we baked ours in attractive mini paper ones. Each treat is then wrapped in a cellophane bag tied with a letterpress tag by Austin Press. Bellissimo!

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Good Things for Fall Weddings

Mini-Pie Favor

Scrumptious miniature pecan pies from a bakery in custom-stamped bags make for tasty treats that are easy as pie to assemble in advance.

Mini-Pie How-To

Good Things for Fall Weddings

White and Orange Wedding Bouquet

Exquisite in its asymmetry, this bouquet, composed of white and orange seasonal roses and darker-orange Chinese lanterns, takes its shape from the lanterns, which dangle gracefully like charms from a bracelet.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Harvest Wedding Centerpiece

A table arrangement of grains celebrates the bounty of fall. In addition to wheat, which symbolizes a fruitful life, this textured display includes other dried grasses (available at crafts stores), so it can be made weeks ahead. The final flourish? A luxurious satin bow.

Centerpiece How-To

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Fall Harvest Wedding Bouquet

The fall harvest at its most robust: White and rust mums are the surprise here, and the driving force of this bouquet. They are carefully interspersed among white roses, accented with hypericum berries, and cupped with oak leaves. Feathery out-of-season plumes of astilbe soften the arrangement.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Light-as-Air Wedding Bouquet

Surprisingly rich in color, bearing hues of blue, green, dusky rose, and taupe, these puffs of dried hydrangea are almost weightless. They are heightened by calla lilies, which soften the shape and scale of this purely natural display, as does the pomegranate-colored, satiny silk ribbon.