5 Key Areas To Style in Your Wedding Venue to Create Maximum Impact
This post is for all you creative couples and DIY brides who plan on styling your own wedding venue. Don’t feel like you need to fill every inch of your wedding venue with decorations, props and flowers. You don’t need to spend a fortune on wedding decor, be clever and focus your attention on styling the key, functional areas of your wedding venue.
By choosing fewer areas you can transform them into eye catching statement pieces of venue decor, that your guests will not only want to admire and explore through the day they will remember for years to come.
Remember to try and stay consistent when styling the areas so that they work together in the venue as a whole. Keep to your chosen colour palette, use the same flowers and foliage in each area, stick to your wedding style.
Ceremony space
You can really go to town with styling your ceremony space! The ceremony space may well be one of the most photographed areas of decor, after all its going to be the place where you say your vows and share your first married kiss!
It will also be the first piece of decor that your guests will see so it a great way to set the scene and build excitement for things to come.
Create a real focal point by using colourful backdrops. These backdrops could be either hung from an arch way or arbour, which is perfect for framing you both along with the space or hung over head as an installation. Colourful ribbons, draped fabrics dressed with foliage or a huge wall of flowers, there are so many creative options!
If your ceremony space is indoors it’s a good idea to look at the actual space in the venue and work with the character and features of the building. Take inspiration from the existing features such as a country house venue with grand fire paces that have huge mantle pieces. These could be styled with lush foliage garlands, colourful bottles filled with pretty flowers or interesting vintage props. If your wedding venue is a barn with rustic beams you could suspend or drape from the beams to create your ceremony back drop.
The aisle can also be decorated after all it is part of the ceremony space. Tie in the colour palette used in your backdrop, line it with the same flowers and foliage used in the backdrop or mark it out with colourful pinwheels.
Image captured by N Davies Photography at The Pilgrims Rest
Welcome area and guestbook
The entrance to your reception venue is like unveiling the rest of your wedding to your guests, its so exciting! Why not add personalised welcome signage to guide your guests in. This is also a great place to position your guest book area, think about it as a piece of wedding decor and create a focal point that draws your guests through the entrance.
Making it more than a just table, your guestbook area will become a feature and a fun space that your guests will want to sit at and explore.
You could use an upcycled or vintage piece of furniture like a writing desk for your guests to sit at comfortably and think about the messages they want to leave you both.
Style the piece of furniture, remember that it’s not just a functional piece, fill the cubby holes with fun books that mean something to you and that your guests might enjoy looking through, add vintage props that reflect your personality or framed pictures of you for your guests to giggle at! You could even fill the draws with cascading flowers or foliage.
If space inside your wedding venue or marquee allows you could extend your guest book area into a vintage lounge or chill out zone by adding comfortable seating and decorative furniture.
There are so many more options for the guest book table, get creative and think about what works best for you and your wedding style.
Image capture by N Davies Photography at The Pilgrims Rest
Ceiling decor
Let’s be honest the ceiling of your venue is probably not the first area that you might think about when planning your wedding decor. Clever styling of the ceiling of your wedding venue can make a huge visual impact and create a totally different atmosphere.
A very high ceiling can make a reception space appear cold and even echo, draping fabrics and hanging lighting will give the effect of a lower the ceiling, making it appear softer and create a warmer more welcoming atmosphere. Add pops of colour and carry through your wedding style by hanging clusters of paper lanterns, reams of paper streamers, or hanging floral installations.
There are lots of creative options but if you are a little stuck for ideas work with the features of your wedding venue. Does the ceiling of your marquee or a country house have huge chandeliers that you can work around or accentuate? Does your barn wedding venue have rustic wagon wheels already suspended from the ceiling that you can style with draping foliage? Does your village hall have beams that you can string lengths of bunting through?
Make sure you have a good set of ladders; you may even need a scaffolding platform to make sure you are safe working at height. If in doubt, make sure you speak to your wedding venue and your wedding stylist.
Image captured by Stephanie Dreams Photography, Flowers by Hire Society, Wedding cake and smaller cakes by Charlotte Anne Cake Design
Cake table and dessert station
Your wedding cake is a showstopper itself don’t hide it in a corner, make a feature out of it. Bring it to it the centre of attention for all of your guests to admire. Think about how you display it, your wedding cake doesn’t have to be just plonked on a table with just a tablecloth for decor. You could use upcycled pieces if vintage furniture such as a dressing table or a chest of drawers with flowers and foliage cascading out of them or even on a rustic barrel and stacked apple crates.
Why not go a step further and incorporate your wedding cake display into a dessert station? Surround your wedding cake with mini desserts created in your wedding colour palette. These could be styled on vintage crockery or glass cake stands along with colourful sweets and macaroons displayed in interesting glass containers and vintage sweetie jars. Thinking about creating height and interest by using vintage props such as stacks of vintage books and add a personalised sign that lets your guest know when the dessert station will be open.
Image captured by Iris and Ivy Photography
Chairs
Let’s talk about chairs. Not just a functional piece of furniture but another opportunity to create a major impact. Decorating the chairs is one of the most cost-effective ways of introducing colour and interest to your wedding reception venue. There are so many ways to style the humble chair from attaching small bunches of florals and foliage, to tying on colourful ribbons and fabrics. you could also look at adding colourful cushions, seat pads and chair covers.
These are just a few of the many different options you can choose to style for your day. Whatever you decide to do with your wedding styling make sure that its personal to you, don’t forget to tell your story through your wedding decor. Fill your wedding venue with your personality as a couple by using your favourite colours and patterns, nods to your favourite era or your hobbies, use flowers that mean something to you, that’s fragrance maybe bring back a special memory.
I hope you find this useful. Take a look at what services I have to offer and please get in touch if you are thinking of hiring any props to complete your looks.
If you are still undecided and are thinking about hiring a wedding stylist who specialises in vintage wedding decor I’d love to hear from you!
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