For a western themed wedding, location is everything. Think about having your wedding in an "old west town", which are located throughout the Midwest and usually offer wedding packages at a cost. You can also find an open prairie and use tents and backdrops that you have designed yourselves. Or just decorate an old country church and reception hall. The important thing is to find your own style and preferences and then incorporate them into your wedding.

Decoration will be your visual focal point for this type of ceremony. To create the ambiance of a western themed wedding, use gold bows, which can be found at Christmas time. You can also use hay bales for guest seating, drive away in a horse drawn carriage and use country music or western movie themed music at your ceremony.

Once you have the ceremony details worked out and you know for sure this is what you both want, began thinking about your attire for your western themed wedding. Watch old western movies to see what brides wore, such as heavy fabrics, long sleeves and a lot of lace. For the groom you could go simple with blue jeans, a brown vest and a brown jacket, of course worn with a hat, boots and spurs. For the bridesmaids, western themed weddings are known for keyhole, dark dresses usually worn with lace up boots. Instead of having them hold a big bouquet of attendant flowers, hand-make headbands adorned with flowers and ribbon.

To decorate your guests' tables, use your imagination to create the western theme. Buy cowboy hats and line the insides with fresh flowers and baby's breath, or buy old cowboy boots at a thrift store and let sunflowers dangle from the tops. Adorn small items on tables with things like sheriff's badges or replicas of old medicine bottles.

Incorporate your western theme even on the dance floor by using kerosene lamps or lanterns hanging from posts instead of the usual string lighting. You can also hunt through antique shops and flea markets to find old wagon wheels and wooden trellises, which can be lined with wildflowers and rope.

Another original idea for guests to enjoy your western themed wedding is to have a corner of the reception hall set up for photos. Find western clothing at thrift stores or western supply stores. And instead of a dollar dance to raise money for the bride and groom, offer them black and white western photos of themselves to take home as souvenirs. You can pay your own photographer an extra fee to take the photographs.

While planning your western themed wedding, have fun and enjoy. The more fun you have planning your wedding as a couple, the more memories you'll be making that will last a lifetime.
About the Author

Kirsten Hawkins is an event planner from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.wedding411.net/ for more event planning tips, strategies, and resources.