The lovely ladies over at Lovebird Designs have a fab treat for us today, a guest blog! Kristine at Lovebird Designs gives us her expert advice to deciding on your wedding décor…
It’s obvious that we passionately believe that planning the wedding decor is one of the most exciting parts of your wedding. However, unless you have always had a clear vision about your big day, the endless list of options can seem slightly overwhelming and this is why we have created a simple step by step guide to get you started.
But before you start, take a moment to consider your preferences on your wedding style or the wedding venue. One will directly depend on the other, therefore step one can become step two and vice versa.
The Style
Your wedding should reflect you as a couple – your story, your personalities, your taste, your interests, your color preferences. Your wedding décor will fully depend on your chosen style, and this can be a particular theme or color scheme, and will also depend of the season of your big day. We suggest that you decide on your style as early as possible – this will leave you plenty of time to coordinate your wedding décor, starting with invitations that can give your guests a little taste of what your wedding day will be like, and finishing with the bridesmaids dresses and wedding cake toppers.
The Venue
The decorations will be directly influenced by your wedding venue. Once you have decided on your wedding style, you can look for your wedding venue, or you can choose the venue and adapt the style accordingly. For example, a wedding in a barn is perfect for a rustic and festival style wedding, while wedding in a marquee provides you with a blank canvas where you can let your imagination run wild and come up with many possible décor styles. If you are holding your wedding reception in a hotel, manor or a country house, don’t forget to take the existing décor and color scheme of the room into account. This is essential as clashing colors and styles can have a negative impact on your décor.
The Color Scheme
Choosing a color scheme means setting a style and vice versa. A nice idea is to keep the indoors in harmony with the outdoors by choosing a color scheme according to the season of your wedding day. Spring is lovely for light pastels, summer for vibrant, deep hues, autumn for dark purples, reds and oranges, and winter for greys, whites and sparkles. Obviously, there’s no strict order and you can go for anything that tickles your fancy. If you’re afraid of getting it wrong, a well known and easy tip is to either pick three different colors or use many different shades of one color and stick with that.
The Décor
Once you have decided on the style, venue and color scheme, picking décor shouldn’t be difficult. We love fresh flowers and if you can’t imagine your wedding day without them, we suggest to start by choosing seasonal flowers that fit your color scheme. Once you know if and how much flowers you will use for your ceremony and reception, you can decide on the other decor.
If you are having a church ceremony, the decor should soften and personalise the look. The pew ends, lanterns, candles and any other decor should represent your wedding style and color scheme. We certainly recommend re-using the ceremony décor in your reception venue, for example, the pew ends can double as reception centrepieces.
The main décor of the reception is table centrepieces, they add to the character of your wedding, create a focal point of each table and provide a subject of conversation for your guests. Whether it’s a simple vase of flowers or some mad sculpture your little brother made from old hats, just remember to make sure they don’t reach above (or below, if suspended from the ceiling) eye level – you want your guests to be able to converse at the table.
Depending on the venue and your wedding style, you can choose to add other decorations – bunting, draping, fairy lights, lanterns and candleholders, bird cages, fun backdrops for taking photographs, signs, etc. To provide a memorable entrance and to add extra hang-out area for summer weddings, we suggest to consider dressing your venues outdoor areas as well. You can hang lanterns and bunting from the trees, light the pathway with candles in mason jars, have bay trees leading the way – whatever you do, make sure it’s fun.
We suggest that you consider the ‘wow factor’ of your wedding – what is the thing that’s going to really set the mood and make your special day a truly unique one, keeping yourselves and your guests remembering your wedding day for years to come. This could be the wedding venue itself, the theme you have chosen, a fun activity or a special entertainment, or it could be part of your décor – the church decorated as a winter wonderland, stunning reception centrepieces with flower garlands hanging from the ceiling, crystal chandeliers lighting your marquee, trees wrapped in fairy lights outside your venue. The ‘wow factor’ can be something as simple as beautiful headpieces for you and your bridesmaids – the main thing is to have something that’s truly unique and special for your wedding only.
Paper lanterns and greenery suspended from the ceiling make a stunning ‘wow factor’
DIY or a Professional?
If you are a creative and hands-on kind of bride-to-be, or just simply a bride on a budget, a DIY wedding décor can certainly be very cost-saving and great fun. We have heard from many brides that working on the décor with their friends and family made some of the nicest memories of their entire wedding, while other brides told us that DIY décor took up much too much of their precious time, and spending the entire day before their wedding as well as the morning of their big day decorating the venue and arranging the flowers wasn’t something they would ever do again.
Before you decide, we advise to consider carefully the time and complexity this will require. Think about your own skills and strengths, as well as those of your helpful friends and family members, and if you decide to go for a DIY décor, plan your time very carefully and, most importantly, make sure you don’t spend your wedding day stressing over centrepieces. We have said it and we will say it time and time again – delegate, delegate and delegate!
