Good Things for Fall Weddings

Encrypted Save-the-Date

Nothing says "I spy a good time" like this quirky and curious save-the-date. The words are printed in blue, and then a red-squiggle design is printed over them to obscure the announcement. When guests use a red lens to decode and read the card, the information beneath becomes clear. The only mystery that remains now? How to make it yourself. Learn our secrets here.

Make These Save-the-Dates

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Floating Flower Table Decor

Keep the cross-table conversation flowing with elegant, low floral runners and place-card holders. They're easy on the eye and easy to re-create. Enlist lush peonies and gaylax leaves to compose your arrangements, then scatter artfully down the center of your reception tables.

Make These Floating Flowers

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Sequined Flower Girl Cardigan

Offer your flower girl a bit of playful bling by attaching a border of sequin trim to her sweater. Use fabric glue, which will ensure that the sparklers stay put even in the washing machine.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Sequined Wedding Favors

For a fancy take on candy wrapping, roll up your favorite sweets (we used almond dragees here) in colorful tissue paper, position a strip of sequins down the center, and cinch the ends with a length of thin string. At evening's end, set out an oversize dish filled with these treats for guests to take home.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Sequined Ring Pillow

Give a basic white cushion a brilliant, sequined edge. The reflective surface will make your rings beam even brighter. And thanks to the gleaming piping, it's hard to miss (something a nervous ring bearer will appreciate). Secure sequins with glue. Yellow-gold bands are from Christian Bauer (christianbauer.us for stores).

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Sequined Shoes

Put a spring in your flower girl's step by outlining her ballet flats with two rows of sequins. Choose a metallic shoe, like the pair shown here, and you'll be her BFF for life. Model is wearing Nordstrom "Bella" ballet flats and a Crewcuts by J.Crew "Larissa" skirt.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Bridesmaid Dress with Sash

Extravagant to the eye but costing just dollars, a tulle bow is an easy way to spruce up a bridesmaid dress. Cut 3 yards of the material in a coordinating color, tie it around the gown's waist, and create an oversize bow in back. You'll Need: Mood Fabrics tulle in shrimp. Model is wearing a Simple Silhouettes "Veronica" dress.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Ties in a Range of Colors

Offer your fiance's groomsmen a range of tie colors so they don't look too matchy matchy. Pick different shades in the same color family -- from vibrant red to soft peach, for instance. That way the group appears coordinated, but each guy looks unique. The Details: Elite Solids neckties in Christmas red, poinsettia red, burnt orange, ecru, and pale peach (Ties.com). Brooks Brothers French-cuff dress shirt.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Colorful Candles

This arresting centerpiece idea offers festive color and ambience for hours. Purchase brightly hued taper candles that coordinate with your wedding's palette, then spraypaint wooden candleholders of varying heights to match them.

Make These Colorful Candle Holders

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Customized Chocolates

Guests will be enjoying these favors for days after your reception. Wrap bite-size Hershey's miniatures (keep on only the foil) in our clip-art letters. Spell out your initials, or just compose warm words to love by. Place in clear boxes for a perfect 10-bar fit, and tie with gold thread. You'll Need: Hershey's Special Dark Miniatures (Amazon.com). ClearBags "Crystal Clear" boxes #FB129. Vintage metal thread (tinseltrading.com).

Make These Customized Candy Favors

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Individual Fondues

Melted chocolate is nearly synonymous with indulgence. Serve it alongside yummy delectables to dip, such as dried apricots, pretzel sticks, and cubes of pound cake. Or consider cookies, caramels, fresh fruit, and chunks of coconut. Use Japanese porcelain teacups and sushi trays to yield single-size portions for guilt free double-dipping.

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Love Poster Guest "Book"

Instead of having your loved ones write messages in a book, put out a poster on which they can sign their names. Then, after the wedding, display it on your wall (and finally relegate his beloved
Animal House print to the attic). To use this poster, download our editable (and free!) clip art. Send the file to a printer or a stationer, and ask them to churn out the 18"x24" image for you. The Details: Ikea "Ribba" frame. Le-Pen marker in teal (Amazon.com).

Make This Love Poster Guest "Book"

Good Things for Fall Weddings

Seasonal Fruit Favor

Wrap seasonal fruit in tissue for a sweet (and healthful) gift for guests. Have an office-supply store make a rubber stamp with your names, wedding date, and a drawing or clip-art illustration (the entire design should be 3 inches in diameter or smaller). Stamp image onto squares of tissue paper. Cut off stems, center fruit on tissue, wrap, and twist.

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.

Get the How-To

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.

Get the Recipe

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.

Get the Recipe

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.

See More Premade Decorations

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!

Get the Recipe

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.