SoRaiseYourGlasses

Decorating your Wedding Reception

Decorations

Favours

Tableware

Cake decorations

Balloons

Personalised Banners

Table Accessories & Centrepieces - Table Crystals , Petals & Table confetti ,

Classically most brides select a particular colour theme for their wedding and this theme can flow through from the bridesmaid dresses to the table decorations. Some brides select a theme for their wedding which may focus on a particular era such as 'the thirties’ or perhaps a geographic theme such as ‘tropical’. This information page will focus on the classical wedding and how to dress your venue in a simple but effective way to create a stunning look.

The first rule for dressing your venue is to keep it simple as this tends to create the most stunning effect. Select you colour scheme and keep to it BUT please don’t get too hung up about having an exact match of your colour. Shades of the same colour are fine and you can spend an awful lot of time trying to find an exact match which is just not necessary. Don’t compromise on the colour of the bridesmaid dresses because you can’t find table napkins in exactly the same colour.

Colour

Popular colours change each year. In Spring 2010 lilac and silver are very popular. Pale pink is always popular as are any other pastel colours. Some brides go for a strong theme such as black and white which looks stunning, or rustic colours. Combining your base colour with neutrals: white, ivory, gold or silver, is frequently a good idea as it provides contrast AND you can accessorise these with your base colour easily as far more products are available in these neutrals. Add a ribbon in your base colour to a neutral and you instantly have introduced your theme in a simple but effective way without the effort of searching out items in your base colour.

What Decorations

The two most commonly used items at a reception are flowers and balloons. You can use either one or both together. Either one creates a lovely table centre and the colours instantly create your colour theme. When selecting balloons or flowers take a swatch of your bridesmaid dresses or colour board along to your florist or balloon decorator.

Balloons

Our information sheet on balloons gives you further information on balloon décor but basically for a table decoration you need two foil or three latex balloons. For decorations around the room you need at least five balloons to a maximum on nine in general. As well as on the tables balloons can be placed at the entrance to the room, in the corners, by the bar area and one or two arrangements can be moved to the dance floor in the evening.

Organza

Organza rolls are about the most useful decorating item you can buy! The organza can be cut and provides instant colour. It has multiple uses such as creating swags on the top table, draped around pillars and banister rails, draped across ceilings, tied on chair backs and table runners. See our range of organza rolls

Favours

Favours or guest gifts have two key functions – a thank you to your guests for joining you on your special day and as a table decoration. The little card boxes are relatively inexpensive and can be filled with almonds or chocolates. Tied with a ribbon on your base colour they certainly look stunning laid out on the table. They can be placed at each place setting or in the centre of the table. Some people even use our card tiered cake stand and place the favours on this and they then have another purpose – a table centre. See our range of favours.

Table Confetti

Table confetti in your base colour or a neutral finishes off a table beautifully. You don’t need to use too much as you need to leave space for your guests dinner plates and is used to great effect lightly scattered over the table. Some brides scatter it just around the table centre leaving the rest of the table empty. There are three choices of table confetti: petals real or paper, metallic confetti or the stunning Swarowski crystals. A combination of petals and metallic confetti or crystals looks lovely and you can mix shades of colour or your base and a neutral. Our recommendations in terms of quantities are one bag of metallic confetti per sixteen people, five paper petals per person or one bag of table crystals per ten people.        Metallic table confetti;         Paper Petals;           Swarovski Table Crystals

Napkins

A neatly folded napkin adds colour to each place setting. For a formal sit down wedding breakfast you should use a dinner size (40cm) napkin. For a buffet a luncheon size (33cm) can be used. Try and get the best quality napkin you can – 3 ply is the better ply to use.

You may also need paper plates if you are having a buffet and want to have a coordinated look and a reasonable price.

Our range of coordinating paper tableware can be found here

Other Table Accessories

You can add all sorts of other accessories to the table such as bubbles, crackers, poppers and candles all of which we sell in a range of colours and styles. Our range is shown here

We hope that this has given you some ideas to create your look for your special day.