Decorating for Wedding Receptions:
Tips & Ideas

Decorating for wedding receptions should follow on from your overall wedding ideas and themes. You can use just about anything as the inspiration for your wedding theme.

Whatever theme you choose, it needs to run through the whole wedding, meaning that your wedding reception decorations should be easier to plan.

The theme will give you set colors to use as well as giving you inspiration for centerpieces and other decorations.

When you’re decorating for wedding receptions, there are certain areas that will have priority. The following are the focal points that will need the most attention:

The head table is where you, your fiancé, the bridesmaids and the groomsmen will sit (dias). The table traditionally sits at one end of the room with the guest tables facing it.

You could use drapes or tulle swags as a backdrop and tablecloths to highlight your main wedding colors, and floral and candle centerpieces to pull out accent colors.

Many modern wedding receptions do not have a long head table facing the guests.

In this case, choose a larger or more elaborate centerpiece to differentiate the bridal party's table.

You may also wish to do this for the tables with key family members. If your reception is open seating, place a "Reserved" sign on the tables.

Click the above right photo to read more about the comprehensive eGuide for ceremony and wedding reception decorations.

It's important to feature the wedding cake at your reception. No matter what size wedding cake you have, you can make it stand out with the right wedding cake table decorations.

Try putting the wedding cake on covered blocks to elevate it, and front-light the cake with borrowed or rented stage lights to pick out the finer details on the cake.

Placing rose petals on the wedding cake table or arranging the bridal bouquet and bridesmaids' flowers around the cake are a nice way to decorate the wedding cake table.

You can also use flower arrangements and candles, just be careful not to distract from or upstage the wedding cake with table decorations!

Most of your guests’ time at your party will be spent at their tables, so when you’re decorating for wedding receptions, make sure you give yourself time to work on the centerpieces.

These need to be special enough to differentiate your reception tables from tables in a nice restaurant, and either tall or short enough guests can hold conversations.

Try a tall glass vase of flowers and greenery. For an evening wedding, surround the base of the vase with votive candles.

A low glass bowl on a round mirror filled with floating candles and flowers will reflect light beautifully.

It will help if you pick a location where the backdrop to your wedding reception is already beautiful. You can spend a fortune in time and money decorating for wedding receptions held in bare venues.

Decorations for outdoor weddings should merely accent the location you’ve chosen. This could be the addition of a white trellis archway for a meadow wedding or erecting colored windbreaks for a beach wedding.

Hosting your reception in your own backyard saves you money and time. You can use the colors of flowers and trees in your yard as inspiration for your backyard wedding decorations. You can also use garden objects such as birdbaths, potted plants and flowerbeds as fixed decorations.

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