The reason Dani and her fiancé Marc chose to have a backyard wedding are largely the same as most couples’ looking to get married at home: “we wanted an intimate wedding with our closest friends and family members. We didn’t need a very large space and wanted to hold the wedding somewhere that is special to us, so we decided that there’s no place like home, and planned our wedding in the back garden of my parent’s house in Gozo,” she explains.

A back yard wedding gave them the opportunity to be more creative and create their perfect wedding – thanks to their being very few restrictions when it comes to catering, cake, décor etc. Apart from this, Dani adds, “having the venue available all the time for planning was also a big plus!”

Marc & Dani

When it comes to the wedding ceremony, Maltese law does not allow couples to hold a civil marriage within a private residence, but, as Dani explains, there are a number of alternatives to consider. “Since it is not possible to hold a civil ceremony at home, the options are either to have a religious ceremony in a church or a civil ceremony in a public space like a public garden or village square, and then have the guests walk to the reception venue. Otherwise, you also have the option of getting married legally in a registry office (just the two of you and maybe parents and witnesses) and then having an unofficial ceremony at home – you can either get a friend or family member to conduct the ceremony, or as we will be doing, you can have a humanist celebrant,” she continues.

Moving on to the reception, Dani’s main word of advice is not to underestimate the hard work involved in having the wedding at home. “If you are not the type of person who enjoys planning, solving problems and getting things organised, a backyard wedding might not be for you. Don’t forget, your home is not a wedding venue, so you will need to put in a lot of extra effort, even if the wedding you are planning is simple, with only a handful of guests,” she advises.

DANI’S TOP TIPS FOR PLANNING A BACKYARD WEDDING

Start setting up the venue ahead of time. Give yourself at least three weeks to move furniture and set up any decorations that can be done in advance, so that you have no last minute headaches to deal with.

When setting up a wedding in your own home, there’s a lot of little things to think about that couples who set up in a standard wedding venue don’t need to consider, such as hiring cleaners for the next day, hiring movers for heavy furniture etc. Don’t underestimate how much time these tasks can take up – make sure that you delegate some to friends and family so that it doesn’t get too much. You’ll find that they’re more than willing to lend a hand!

Hire a wedding coordinator for the day. Meet up with them at your home and go over all your ideas some months before the wedding, explaining how everything will be set up. Then, meet with them again a few weeks before, just to put your mind at rest that everything is still on track. This will mean that you can relax on the day, and let them deal with any issues that might arise.