When I was decorating weddings, my primary concern was — how are the head tables set up? That was my main job, of course, and it mattered because the number of head tables and the amount of time I had to decorate impacted how elaborate the decorations would be.
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Sometimes, you have to find the right venue if you want to have fabric draped from the ceiling in an awesome way. For example, the Altadena Country Club decorates the ceilings of at least two of its banquet rooms with crystal organza.
Flickr photo by Hoang
This banquet room is apparently the venue’s Victorian Room. Besides the exposed beams (which are already pretty cool on their own), the room features a very large, dangling silver chandelier. And from the chandelier, the venue has draped crystal organza and Christmas lights all across the ceiling, in a sunburst pattern. How awesome would this look at your reception, hmmm?
Draping really changes the way any venue looks and makes it fit for a wedding. Take this Malibu house, for example. Without the blue and turquoise organza, its simply a house — albeit a very nice one, having a party. But with the draping, there’s no doubt that this party is a wedding.
What I truly love is when the venue lends itself for draping up high. Draping on tables is great, but draping the banisters of the second floor balcony? Awesome.
There is a lot of interest here in decorating with fabric, particularly ceiling decorations. But it can get expensive, if you use a professional florist or wedding decorator. So how about trying to do it yourself?
The difficult thing about DIY wedding decorations is trying to get the materials that the professionals have. Luckily, there are a few florists and decoration companies that have recognized there might be some demand for wedding decoration kits.
Image from WeddingDecor.com
I’ve never decorated a ceiling, yet its one of the most common questions I get — how do you decorate the ceiling? How do you hang fabric from the ceiling? What fabric do you use to decorate the ceiling?
Flickr photo by eugene
I can understand why everyone wants to know how to do this — just look at the above picture. Decorations like this really make a venue look special. (Fabric + lighting = WIN!) Unfortunately, I’ve never decorated a ceiling myself, though I have decorated at venues with permanent ceiling decorations. I do have some thoughts on this though.
So it seems there has been a lot of reader traffic on this blog while I’ve been busy! In the past week that I’ve been busy with other commitments related to work and a non-profit organization I’m involved with, I got my first reader question. How exciting!
Here is Becky’s question:
WOW! Your designs are wonderful! I was hoping you could give me a suggestion of a website, book, or whatever to learn to drape for decorating. My son is getting married in June on the historic Halley’s Bluff over looking the Osage River. (Missouri). His bride to be’s family owns the property. (Actually has a little cave under the bluff where Jesse James had a hide out!). I purchased a beautiful wrought iron gazebo from Sam’s club for the event. (I will have item in my yard after the wedding.). What kind of fabric do you suggest for draping? I have heard tulle, but than also read tulle “was tacky”. Voile is another fabric I have heard, but very expensive. Does tulle work for you? Any suggestions? I will definitely mark your site as a favorite! By the way, inour area we do not have anybody who does this for hire. Thanks. Becky
This is a good question. There are a lot of fabrics out there, but they all drape, or lie, differently on different surfaces. There are some better for laying against a table, others that look better hanging freely, others that…well, you get the picture. Let me give you a few examples.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my friend Jinah’s wedding. One thing about decorating for a friend is that you don’t want to disappoint — but at the same time, you don’t want your friend to be a drill sergeant, barking orders about how to do this, or do that that way. Luckily for me, Jinah has given Caroline and I pretty free reign on what to do, mostly just telling us she wants the colors to be silver and gold. Hey, that works for me!
Problem with that approach is now there’s too many possibilities! But when I think about the house where Jinah is going to get married, all I can think of are all the horizontal and vertical lines there are — all the balconies on the second floor, the height of the portico, the top of the portico, not to mention the pool’s fountain. There are so many surfaces to decorate! So I naturally began to think of garlands.