Here are some tips for throwing a backyard wedding and making it a magical affair:

• Personalize the day: Incorporate pieces of your love story into the ceremony and reception to make the day feel more personal. You could give mix CD favors to your guests of all the different bands you've seen together or skip the cake and have a sundae buffet if you love ice cream.

• Get the guest list right: Create a reasonable list of attendees to avoid overcrowding that could ruin the vibe of your event and create logistical problems with restrooms, parking, and other headaches. Make sure you only invite the number of people that can be accommodated in your home.

• Embrace the natural decor: You don't need a ton of decorations when you have an outdoor wedding because the natural scenery is so nice. Consider planting some extra flowers or grab planters from your local home improvement store. Working with your natural setting can lead to some beautiful centerpieces and decorations.

• Prepare for inclement weather: Outdoor weddings always have the added component of planning for the weather. Take a look at the temperatures and precipitation for your wedding month in the past few years to get an idea of what you can expect. Hope for the best but plan for the worst in terms of the weather.

• Call in reinforcements: Planning a backyard wedding often involves a large number of do-it-yourself tasks. Enlist friends and family to help and hire a professional here and there to take some of the stress off. For the big day itself, try to make sure that your job as a couple is simply to say your vows, take pictures, and enjoy yourselves.

• DIY wedding improvements: Backyard weddings expose your property for what it is, so make sure that you've identified all the problem areas and repaired them accordingly. You could also make additions to your home to advance its appeal and functionality during the wedding if your budget allows.

• Outdoor lighting: Good lighting can transform your backyard into a fairy tale wedding venue. You need proper lighting so that the party will go on into the night without accidents, but there are ways to do it that can heighten the ambiance. Consider strings of twinkle lights, paper lanterns, or mason jars with candles inside hanging from the tree limbs.

• Setting the mood with music: After lighting, the other main contributor to the mood of a backyard wedding is music. Choose the perfect reception playlist to complement the ambiance. You'll also want to be sure you have appropriate speakers to project your music to your guests.

• Investing in priorities: When it comes to wedding planning tips, backyard weddings aren't much different than any other type of event. How much you need to spend on a backyard wedding depends on your priorities and preferences. You can rent larger equipment like tables, chairs, and lighting systems, and that tends to work out to be less expensive than if you were to buy it all.

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