Wedding Decorations - The Beginning

Wedding decorating can either be a joy or pain - depending on how you go about it. When attempting to do your own decorating, remember to balance your imagination with accessibility of materials and suitability of decor. Also, weigh the pros and cons before deciding on whether you will be doing your own décor or hiring a professional. You may find that doing your own wedding decorations can save you tons of money while creating the effect you want and hiring a decorator may not be as hassle-free as you thought.

Before you plan on anything, remember time may not always be on your side. To be safe, start planning, buying or doing your decorations at least 4 months in advance. If time is short, then go for the most accessible and easiest wedding decorations you can think of. The important thing is that you meet your dateline.

To start off, consult wedding décor magazines and books first. Jot down a few ideas and from there, start conceptualizing your own. Remember to consider a few important factors when combining these professional ideas with your own - you will find that factors such as budget constraints, accessibility of material and suitability to climate will affect your final product. While you are at it, get advice and opinions from those who have gone through similar experiences so you may be able to cut down on unnecessary tasks.

Wedding Decorations - The Budget Option

The cheapest way to do wedding décor is to do them yourself. This may not be as terrible as it sounds. Simplify matters - blow up balloons, buy and carry the flowers yourself, tie ribbons, make bows, buy lace and string everything up at home before bringing them to the venues. This allows you to add your personal touch to everything - if you have always been meticulous or artistic, it will show in the items you string, arrange or tie. It also gives you more control over costs - you decide which balloons to buy and where to buy them from, you order from the website or store of your choice the type of lace and ribbons to use and even how much stringing up is really needed. To reduce costs, watch out for seasonal or clearance sales for wedding decorations materials. Post-Christmas sales are perfect for buying silver and gold bows and ribbons, for example, which may be more expensive or unavailable at other times of the year.

Of course, if you hired a decorator, all these details would have been taken care of but remember to check on each detail before they go off on a tangent and bill you for it! You may have an over-enthusiastic decorator who insists on decorating every corner of your hall with flowers, which will definitely increase your costs significantly. In situations like these, it may be prudent to hire them to do sections that are out of your capabilities, like centerpieces, ceilings and wall highlights.

Another factor to consider is where you will be having the ceremony and reception. Certain places of worship, like churches and temples, will have their limits on just how much decorating will be allowed. As such, church wedding decorations tend to focus on the common areas like congregation pews, aisles and the main church door entrance. Other smaller areas that may be open for decorations are the side tables for registrar signing and pulpits.

Church Wedding Decorations

Church wedding decorations, naturally, will tend to be more conventional than the decorations you would find at another venue, like the city hall or hotel ballroom. For church weddings, decorations usually consist of flowers, bows, ribbons, satin, lace, silver beads, faux pearls and tulle, and in more evangelistic, informal settings, balloons and silky curtains.

Pews make wonderful decorating props. You can tie bows along the aisles, or tie sprigs of fresh flowers with colored satin ribbons (even better if they are personalized) to double up as markers for your guests - pink or red on one side of the church for friends of the bride and blue on the other for the groom, for instance. At the main church door entrance, build a simple arch and decorate it with flowers and lace intertwined with light, silky material hanging down the sides - organza or satin work marvelously as church wedding decorations. Flower standees with bouquets of the Flower For The Day can also be impressive, magnificent decorating items, and they can be re-used at the entrance to your reception later as well.

Using flowers in abundant, vibrant colors set against other decorative colors of white and ivory will accentuate their placements, so if you do choose to do this, make sure you place these bouquets in strategic locations, like the wedding registration table, the choir pews or side tables leading up to the altar. If your wedding is during the Christmas season, you can have the luxury of adding a silver, glittery Christmas tree as part of your wedding décor.

For church weddings, it is customary to use pastel-hued flowers but bolder-colored flowers are not uncommon. While yellow chrysanthemums, roses and carnations are favorites, orchids also make excellent floral choices. In fact, mixing up all the colors so it looks like one mixed-up concoction of shades may just create the joyful, celebratory effect you were looking for. This is particularly useful during the fall and spring, where bold colors will be appropriate.