A Riverside Wedding with a Fall Wedding Color Palette

It’s fall y’all! We love fall for the crispness in the air, cozy sweaters, and leaves crunching under our feet. Not to mention getting to plan and execute a warm fall wedding color palette! Although Amy and Mikie’s Montana wedding took place in late July, they craved a cozy fall vibe. Thus, we created their fall wedding color palette with copper and navy. We enhanced these rich tones with fun textures, like velvet dresses, gauze table linens, and fluffy florals.

They had a rustic, riverside wedding with 85 of their closest people. In this post, we are going to show you exactly how we pulled it off! We hope that this serves as your daily dose of fall wedding inspiration and helps you put together your own fall wedding color palette for your big day!

Selecting a Montana Wedding Venue:

We had a blast working with Amy and Mikie! When we first met them, they expressed their desire to have an outdoor wedding by the water, surrounded by nature and their loved ones. While there are countless outdoor Montana wedding venues, we ultimately landed on The Nest at Swan River in Bigfork, Montana.

This was the perfect venue for Amy and Mikie because it is a serene, riverside property, nestled at the foot of the Swan Mountains. Its ceremony site runs right up to the banks of the river and features these gorgeous, leafy trees, providing plenty of shade for guests. With a permanent tent installation for wedding receptions, we never had to worry about the potential for rain. With its natural greenery all across property, it was simple to incorporate our fall wedding color palette here!

What’s more is that they offer a handful of cute wooden cabins for you and your family to stay in for your wedding weekend. It’s the ultimate Montana wedding destination spot!

Crafting a Fall Wedding Color Palette:

Now that we had their venue in place, we started to design the wedding! Since Amy and Mikie envisioned a cozy fall wedding, we incorporated copper and navy into their fall wedding color palette. To accent this, we added ivory, gold, and natural greenery, which ended up playing off the property’s lush green grass and trees perfectly!

In order to add depth to their fall wedding décor scheme, we explored opportunities to utilize different textures. This included the natural birch we used at their ceremony site, the velvet lounge chairs we set at their cocktail hour, and the gauze table runners we used on their reception tables.

Fall is the perfect time to have fun with texture because doing so helps set the right cozy mood for your guests!

Ceremony Décor Details:

The Nest at Swan River’s ceremony site is called the Ceremony Lawn. It’s tucked behind the cabins to create an intimate and private space. For their ceremony décor, we set a natural birch wood arch at the altar with complimentary wooden pedestals flanking either side of the aisle. We seamlessly wove their fall wedding color palette into their ceremony by setting fluffy rust-colored floral sprays on the arch and pedestals.

We used mahogany folding chairs for the guest seating, which contrasted nicely with the light birch wood. On top of each chair, we set a wedding program that doubled as a fan with a copper bow tied around the handle. We also set custom sage green tissue packs that read, “Tears of joy, tears of laughter, tears of happily ever after.”

Lastly, Amy had her bridesmaids wear copper, velvet, floor-length dresses, which was beautiful and helped feature their fall wedding color palette even further!

Cocktail Hour Décor Details:

Amy and Mikie’s cocktail hour took place at the property’s outdoor Pavilion. We love the way we incorporated their fall wedding color palette here! To do so, we set a lounge area with a tan pin cushion couch, dusty blue armchair, and copper wingback chair. We carefully placed copper, navy, and tan throw pillows on each furniture piece, and set a couple of chocolate brown wooden coffee tables as well. Our favorite detail from this lounge setup though was the patterned copper area rug! With a blend of rust, light blue, and fuchsia touches, it gave depth and dimension to the space beautifully!

Amy and Mikie’s seating chart was a large, standing, gold mirror with all the guests’ names on it. We set it up in such a way that the gorgeous trees on property reflected in the mirror, making this even more of a statement piece!

Reception Décor Details:

We also infused Amy and Mikie’s fall wedding color palette into every part of their reception! This took place under the venue’s white, lit tent with open-air sides. We set two farm tables on either side of the reception space and three round tables surrounding the dance floor. We then placed the newlyweds’ sweetheart table at the top of the reception space, so that they could see all of their family and friends.

For the table décor, we decided to set navy gauze runners down the center of the guest and sweetheart tables. On the farm tables, we scattered copper lanterns, crystal bud vases, copper candlesticks with taper candles, and rust floral arrangements, and loose greenery.

We dressed the round tables in peach linens and set candles of varying heights as the centerpieces.

All the tables boasted navy blue napkins on top of hammered gold charger plates. Each place setting had a sapphire blue glass and gold flatware. We lay a gray menu card and gold wax seal with each guest’s name on it on top of each napkin. Every component of the tablescape featured the fall wedding color palette, helping make the design cohesive and seamless.

And we can’t forget about dessert! Rather than having just one primary wedding cake, Amy and Mikie opted to have 3 cakes along with a variety of mini desserts! These are definitely our kind of people!

The cakes were all simple in design. One was a simple white cake with lavender buttercream filling with a solid white exterior and floral cake topper. The second cake was an espresso chocolate cake, also with a solid white exterior and floral cake topper. The main cake though an earl gray cake with two tiers. It was a white naked cake that we accented with a copper flower.

Mini pies, cake pops, and other sweet delicacies surrounded the cakes for all to enjoy. All together, it all smelled (and tasted) so delicious!

The Big Day:

After all the planning was finished, we couldn’t be more excited for Amy and Mikie’s big day! We always love seeing our plans unfold on the big day and we were especially excited to see Amy and Mikie’s fall wedding color palette come to life!

On that morning, we arrived at the venue midday to manage setup and make the weather call. Thankfully, rain was nowhere in the forecast for that day, which made this call simple and easy!

While Amy and Mikie got ready for the ceremony with their wedding attendants, we set up all their personal décor and liaised with their rockstar vendor team as they each arrived for setup.

When everything was in place, we lined up the wedding party for the ceremony processional, which just so happened to include Amy and Mikie’s two little dachshunds! They were so adorable with their floral wreaths and bows tied around their necks. Even their accessories tied in with the fall wedding color palette!

At just about 5pm on this beautiful day, we cued the music and started the ceremony. Mikie walked in looking very dapper in his navy blue suit and copper and white boutonniere. The dogs made their debut into the ceremony followed by the cutest flower girl and ring bearer! They held hands down the aisle, setting the stage for Amy to walk in.

For Amy’s entrance, we played Haley Reinhart’s version of “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You.” She held hands with her father and made her way to the altar, looking beautiful in her long white gown with blush underlay and floral details on the bodice. Her bridal bouquet offered the perfect pop of copper to complement her look.

The ceremony was filled with sentiment and romance. It was sweet and reminisced on all their good times. Mikie may have even teared up a bit as they each read their personalized vows and exchanged rings.

Before the waterworks completely spilled over, their officiant pronounced them husband and wife, the new Mr. and Mrs.!

The Big Celebration:

Now it was time to let loose and party! The newlyweds had the brightest smiles on their faces, as they made their grand entrance into their beautifully decorated reception, featuring their fall wedding color palette. They then headed straight into their first dance.

Afterwards, the dinner buffet opened and guests indulged in pork tenderloin medallions and beef tri-tip roast with sides of scalloped potatoes and mac and cheese. Yum!

The remainder of the night was marked by heartfelt toasts delivered by loved ones, sentimental dances with each of the bride and groom’s parents, and of course, the cake cutting. We don’t see a good bouquet toss that much anymore, but Amy did one with her bridesmaids and it was so fun! After all the formal activities were complete, the newlyweds danced the night away!

And they lived happily ever after!

Final Word from Katie:

Amy & Mikie, your wedding was SO fun! I just loved getting to know both of you and I enjoyed seeing you have such a great time on your big day! Plus, I adore how your fall wedding color palette came to life! Everything was beautiful! Huge congratulations to you both!

-Katie

Vendor Team:

Planner: Big Day Celebrations

Venue: The Nest on Swan River

Photographer: Kelly Kirksey Photography

Videographer: Skeeter Johnston Productions

DJ: RMF Entertainment

Florist: Forage & Floral

Baker: Montana Wildflour

Hair & Makeup: Covet Beauty

Caterer: The Kopper Kitchen

Rentals: The Party Store // Empress Tents & Events

Linen: BBJ Linen

Let’s Plan Your Fall Wedding Color Palette!

Big Day Celebrations offers full-service wedding planning, coordination & design services, and micro-wedding packages, so no matter how you envision your wedding, we will make it happen and have a whole lot of fun along the way!

Ready to get started? Drop me a note below and let’s do this!