help - struggling with colour and hunt/shooting theme

I can see this turning into another contender for thread of the year 2014! Hunting theme? Are you thinking of hanging dead animals around the room?

I'd look at retailers like joules and Harris tweed to see what colours they have. The joules interior is quite nice actually if you can get a shop. Also look up country house hotels as they are often old shooting lodges and might help with inspiration.

Hunting theme would make me think of tweeds, pick a colour out of a tweed you like and use that for bridesmaids dresses? (Red is more usually for horseback hunting) Green or blue would work with that.

As well as tweed elements, you could do picnic baskets for a "shooting lunch" although perhaps not the lunch itself which is usually ploughmans etc. Or you could have a meal featuring game that's in season, name the tables after big shooting estates etc

Feathers and/or thistles in the wedding bouquet would also be evocative of shooting in the Highlands: Feathers and Thistles

This Google image search might help: Shooting Lunch

OMG ?

I personally find a hunting theme rather barbaric and horrible plus it can be very tacky (might as well have a slavery theme or some other outdated concept imho) but I took the time to search some images for you of themes linked to hunting

if you Google 'redneck weddings' or 'hillbilly weddings' you'll find many more

Agree with some of the previous suggestions of keeping freen and 'earthy' themes, feathers, thistles. My H2B is a gamekeeper so this sort of thing is a way of life for us, and while we've chosen not to use it as a wedding theme we're hoping to keep it reasonably 'country but classy' as we're both quite outdoorsy... the company doing our decorations showed us a picture of chair sashes in hessian material with lace over the top, that looked very nice. Also saw a colour scheme the over day of emerald green which they'd contrasted with sunflowers which looked beautiful.

Maybe it may be an idea to try and keep your theme a bit more 'neutral' and go for a country feel rather than outright hunting and shooting. I for one wouldn't be bothered but I know for example a lot of our guests - mainly my side of the family (and judging by the sounds of it a lot of folk on this thread!) would be quite uncomfortable with it. Personally, I want my wedding day to be remembered for all the right reasons and hunting and shooting are very controversial topics and not what I'd want to be top of the list of conversation for the happiest day of my life; I try and avoid the topic a lot in day to day life as I dont want to ram my opinions down others throats and respect their differing opinions but also dont want to be preached at - especially not at my wedding. A more general country feel could still seve as a nod to your partners interests without being so blatant about it (I suspect 'country wedding' will be a better search term on google than hunting!)

ETA - to keep with our country theme OH and BM are going to look into getting a nice quality fitted tweed waistcoat each to go with their suits, with crevats to match BM (that I'm hoping to have in a complimentary colour - they're under instructions to pick a subtle tweed that will match! The hessian and lace bits, hoping to bring some woodland inspired decorations inside too, you could have 'english country garden' inspired flowers, a 3 tier english garden style cake (maybe a 3 tier victoria sponge with icing sugar instead of an iced cake'. Pinterest and google will be your themes here 'country wedding' is quite a popular search term as I've found out!

Wow some the replies here are unnecessarily rude! If you have nothing to add leave the OP alone.

OP I agree that it would be best to keep it subtle look at tweeds for your colour inspiration. I gave my H these as his weddign present. I had our wedding date engraved on them. We used lots of wood and things in our wedding. We had our cake on a big slab of wood we cut from a fallen tree, we used smaller wooden bloks as the table center pieces. We also keep peacocks on our farm so we used the feathers as decorations around the venue. Having a game menu also sounds like a good idea. We considered having venison as our main but in the end we went with beef as we didn't have a deer cull last year on the farm.

Well, you can't post something on a discussion forum and not expect people to discuss it. I'm sure the OP is well aware that hunting and shooting are controversial, but if she's set on it as a theme she presumably won't be deterred by that. I personally would be quite upset and angered by a wedding themed around what is essentially animal death, so let's hope she has no family/friends of a similar mindset.

I agree with this! Fair enough if it's not your cup of tea but no need to take the p*** JJKCB!!

Ditto. I couldn't attend anything that condones animal cruelty. It's a controversial subject to base a wedding around, and may be close to a lot of people's hearts, unless all the guests are hunters?!

Completely rude and unnecessary comments, just because it's not something you'd personally have does not mean it's wrong for someone else. OP wasn't asking for opinions on whether shooting is wrong or not.

Welcome to hitched, Rosco and Louise have given some great advice. I think the sound of your theme could be really nice. I love tweed - I think that Hunter (or Wellie boot!) Green would look stunning on bridesmaids, and would be much more flattering than sage green. If you are worried about differing body types, you could do some BMs in navy, and some in the green. Sunflowers would also look beautiful with those colours. If I'd gone for a winter wedding, I'd have gone down a similar route!

Some very rude responses, totally not needed. Please do not be put off by this. Everyone has a different view on things, I'm sure you know that some would read too much into this theme! Stick around, I look forward to hearing your plans.

I can see some of what you're saying here, but I think the OP was thinking much more along the lines of a British shooting party (outdoorsy/ tweeds/ corduroy/ wellies/ dogs/ dressing up for dinner in the evenings afterwards) than American hunting (camo/ big guns/ big game/ hell yeah/ hill billy) ... although do correct me if I'm wrong OP!

As others have suggested, slanting it more towards "country wedding" with subtle elements or nods to a shooting theme would seem to be the way to go, even if your guests are all of the same mindset, because apart from anything else it gives you more scope and flexibility!

And always remember, it's your wedding, so you must do what you and OH want, regardless of what any of us say in the end.

My friend is an Athiest, hates churches and preaching but is coming to my wedding because she's my friend and respects my wish to marry in a church. If didn't agree with hunting, but my friend chose to have that as a them, I'd go without any concern either, it's their choice!

Agree with all of this!

Lottie2409 and JJCKB I cannot understand why you being so unbelievably rude!

Love the idea of using Joules/Hunter for inspiration as far as colours go. I've seen lovely tweed at Country Fairs the have used different greens with a striking pink in them. I'm sure Pinterest will have some ideas for modern tweed which could provide some colour inspiration.

Lottie2409 and JJCKB I cannot understand why you are being so unbelievably rude!

Love the idea of using Joules/Hunter for inspiration as far as colours go. I've seen lovely tweed at Country Fairs the have used different greens with a striking pink in them. I'm sure Pinterest will have some ideas for modern tweed which could provide some colour inspiration.

Hay, although I don't really have any ideas I want to say I love your theme!

Not quite sure how some of the hitched members think their family's ate a hundred years ago! God forbid all the food stores shut, they would be the ones going hungry!

I think if you have a very basic colour scheme with pops of tweed colours that would work. You could go for really earthy centre peices. Not long ago I saw on TV candles with moss and it looked really good ( the moss was grown by a company not just grabbed from a marshy bit of land the day before).

wishing you the best of luck putting your wedding together and would love to see flashes of what you do do

Now that's an entirely different issue. Of course people hunted hundreds of years ago. I don't care about that; I care about what's happening now. Victorian women injected hot wax into their faces as a filler; does that mean you'd encourage someone to do it now, just cos their ancestors had? No. Times change, and we have a breadth of choice in all aspects of life that has never existed before. That doesn't mean the OP shouldn't have her hunting theme; people should absolutely have what they want at their weddings (I intend to). But don't dismiss people as hypocritical when they express their dislike for it. Their reasons are not invalid cos of something their ancestors once did.

Oh, and if the food stores all shut I still wouldn't eat meat - I would die before I killed and ate an animal. Veganism is one of the things most important to me in life.

Apologies OP and others for hijacking the thread. Please resume.

In addition to earlier suggestions, this is an American wedding but they've themed it around British hunting traditions - I think a few of the earlier pictures from another poster may have been from this wedding:

https://whimsicalwonderlandweddings.com/rustic-english-hunting-winter-wedding-ideas/

And I forgot to add: the one essential thing at a hunting themed wedding is hip flasks. No self-respecting country gentle(wo)man would be without one! ?

I know people have their own opinion, but to get so rude about it as a wedding theme is beyond me. I don't think the OP plans to get people to hunt at her wedding.

Yes I do agree times have changed and no personally I wouldn't put hot wax in by face but plenty do use Botox, so pretty much the same practice just a more defined product.

I come from a pretty old fashioned family, grew up around hunting, camping and loads of out doors activities so I guess to me it's the norm. But I do understand that to some people it's barbaric. Then again maybe their are things in their lives I find not right but I wouldn't be as harsh as some people were to the OP and blast their choices in life.

Wow. Hitched really has changed if the responses in this thread are considered harsh and a blasting. They're positively tame compared to when I was planning my first wedding; then the place was known in the rest of the wedding world as 'Bitched'. ?

Someone mentioned a Victoria sponge cake as an option. I saw this one yesterday which could fit the bill nicely.

I LOVE naked cakes.... that looks awesome. My wedding cake will most definately be naked.....:p

Rude???

let me get this straight:

I spent nearly an hour researching and posting results of search's for a theme (and multiple variations of that theme both English and American although most results are American as its not a common British theme) that I dont personally support or believe in to help a complete and utter stranger only to be called rude and offensive by late showers who have offered absolutely NO real advice or help to the OP and have only appeared to pick a fight... seems about right

you're welcome

Yes I do think you we're rude and I stand by that, not because of your views but the sarcastic way you posted.

The reason I'm a later poster is because Iv been decorating all day and popped on while I was having a 10 min break for a brew, I generally wanted to let the OP know that I think it's a fab idea. It baffled me if people don't have anything nice to say why don't they just keep their opinions to themself because someone is always going to come back with an oppersit view. I'm not saying your or my views are right because at the end of the day we're all entitled to our own, but it did seem very sarcastic and that you were trying to make the OP feel her wedding would look 'hillbilly'ish'.

Errr... not sarcastic at all, search hunting/shooting wedding and it WILL bring back mostly redneck/hillbilly wedding links FACT (if you had tried to actually help the OP you would know that) as those are the cultures where shooting weddings are common theme... you know what it looks like when you assume things though

you(s) have come on to pick a fight for no reason which is the only 'rude' thing on here

Oh dear lord get off your high horse will you!

If you read my first post I said about centre peices.

Look at your last line of your first post, you said something along the lines of 'If you google hill billy weddings you can see for yourself'. You could of said 'if you google hunting weddings'.

I'm so very sorry I didn't come up with a list as long as my sodding arm to try and help this bride, I wanted to support her! I dont think she come on her questioning her theme choice just wanted to know how she could make it work in her wedding. Yes you gave a list, well done you for being a top hitcher but sometimes support is just as good as ideas!

I find it quite petty that you feel the need to point out that I wasn't very helpful, when all I done was say that if food stores shut the people who are so against hunting would go hungry. I didn't say anyone's views were wrong. What does annoy me is when someone clearly wants help and gets sarcastic replys.

In no way was I trying to start an argument in my first post, I just stated a fact that hunting used to be the norm.

Hi guys, sorry I havnt replied sooner our internet is down!

wow what a discussion for my first post!

you have all given me a lot to think about, I was thinking of slightly having abit of hunting as in table names etc, loving the idea of hessian and sticking to country theme as wouldn't like to offend people. Thought about horseshoes as centrepieces and name the tables in welsh words no idea what though haha.

xx