This post starts with photos of the church. I’ve decorated this church dozens of times (I actually grow up in this church).
There was no draping; instead, my brother and his design partner custom made these stands of branches and put sprigs of hydrangeas on top and on the bottom. One arrangement was placed at the opening of each row along the aisle.
My brother the budding florist decorated a wedding this past Sunday and it turned out splendidly. I don’t quite have time yet to do a comprehensive post on the event, but I wanted to give a sneak peek at what it looked like!
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.
Continue reading
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?
Candles, lanterns, Christmas lights — they all add ambiance to a wedding. Whenever you can, you should incorporate some kind of light with your decorations. So I scoured Flickr for a few ideas on how to get a lighting element onto your guest tables.
Flickr photo by Casual Chin
The arrangement above is your wedding magazine-ready type candle arrangement. It’s got the pretty pastel pink and cream roses, orchids and the silvery lantern with the stars on the windows. I can’t quite tell, but it looks like this venue was possibly on a patio, so maybe an arrangement like this wouldn’t have as much impact as some of the others I found. Continue reading
At a wedding, where does a guest spend the most time? Possible answers include A) the dance floor, B) the (open/cash) bar and C) their tables. There’s not a lot you can do about decorating the dance floor and the only thing you can really decorate a bar with is pretty bottles of alcohol. So you should spend your time and energy decorating the guest tables.
Flickr photo by lisarunolfson
The table above is super fancy. I’m not suggesting that my tips will make your guest tables look like this, but you can take different things from this example and the others I found on Flickr to make your wedding look all the nicer.
One of my favorite color combinations for a wedding is purple and silver — to me, the pairing is sexy and classy at the same time. This wedding reception at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena demonstrates the sexy and classy elements very nicely.
Photos by Hoang
Just check out this room. I love the purple lighting on the walls, love the silver table cloths with those silver chairs, and the flowers are so lush and awesome. You want a closeup, I know.