Are you ready to bring your wedding vision to life? We're here to help you through the process. Follow these steps to find the wedding decor of your dreams.
Alongside with your attire, your wedding decor is one of the best ways to let your personalities truly shine on your big day. But before you begin crossing things off your wedding decor checklist, remember that there’s more to the process than simply settling for the first items you come across. Choosing wedding decor that’s beautiful, cohesive and reflective of your tastes as a couple requires a good amount of planning, but we promise it will all be worth it in the end.
Are you having trouble choosing your wedding decor without having a solid idea of how you want your venue to ultimately look — Classic? Glamorous? Bohemian? Minimalist?
Step #1: When you first get engaged, it can be tempting to stock up on decor that you think you might use down the road, especially if you catch a case of inspiration overload or an amazing deal. But until you’ve finalized your venue and a crystal-clear vision of how to describe your wedding style, you could be doing more harm than good by collecting random decorative items. Your original wedding vision is likely to change throughout the early stages of your planning process, especially once you begin to factor in budget, guest count, season, etc. Better to hold off on ordering those ultra-trendy agate table numbers — for now at least.
We know that it can be hard to put your dream wedding vision into words, or to choose just one style and stick with it, so if you’re struggling, don’t think of your wedding style as the be-all and end-all. Focus more on the vibes you want your wedding to express(relaxed, romantic, modern, edgy) instead of limiting yourself to a specific theme (rustic, beachy), which sometimes feel overdone or clichéd. Explain to your vendors something like, “I want a relaxed atmosphere with rustic and bohemian undertones” to leave room for creativity and flexibility when choosing your wedding decor. Believe or not it can help your wedding plannercreate a vision with just this explanation.
Step #2: Be Flexible With Your Color Palette
While it’s important to know the general colors you want, try to be open-minded and use the color palette as a guideline for your wedding decor rather than feeling obligated to have everything match perfectly. Instead of “gray and white” for example, think of a “neutrals” color palette consisting of ivory, beige, and colors with gray undertones, like charcoal, olive green, and khaki. This approach gives you the opportunity to have a few “focus” colors while also adding similar tones to round out your decor, ultimately creating a more authentic look.
Step #3: Take Advantage of Your Surroundings
Now that we've gotten down to the nitty gritty of your wedding style, think about your venue. It might already have a lot of existing charm or otherwise decorative features, such as built-in accent walls, landscaped gardens, fountains, stained glass windows, lighting fixtures, or ceiling beams. Consider how you can design your wedding decor to highlight those details, and how you can benefit from using them. Depending on the venue, you may be able to let the venuedo all of your decor work for you. If you’re getting married at an outdoor venue, such as a beach, lakefront, or anywhere with a view, you may not need much decor to begin with. In fact, going overboard with decor could detract from your venue’s scenery, which we’re guessing is one of the reasons you chose it in the first place.
Use pictures of your venue to help you envision exactly what you want to use, and where. If you’re working with a wedding planneror event stylist, they should be able to create mockups of the space with various decor to give you a good idea of the end result.
Step #4: Finish With Extras and Splurge Items
If you have room left in your budget, you can consider adding a decorative “splurge” item or two. Maybe you’ve been dreaming of a hanging luxury backdrop or adding luxurious vintage velvet chairs to your sweetheart table. We also suggest going for that splurge item if there’s an empty space in your venue that needs to be filled, or you want to wow your guests with an unexpected feature. A flower wallgives your wedding celeb-worthy status and can be re-purposed as a fun photo backdrop for your guests. Elaborate dessert displays (yes, this includes donut walls) are another splurge item we love. If you want to encourage mixing and mingling, create a wedding lounge to get guests up and out of their seats.
Tiffany Richardson is a DC Wedding Planner & DC Event Planner serving DC, Maryland, Virginia and beyond!
