A flower you often bring home, a letter you kept or a colour you both love can be the beginning of your wedding decoration. Choose two or three meaningful elements and consider where they belong: the welcome area, ceremony setting or tables. A few personal touches can make an unfamiliar room feel warmly yours.
Take the floor plan, venue photographs and your budget to the decoration team. Check entrances, aisles, wheelchair access, sightlines and camera positions before settling on backdrops, flowers and lighting. Ask the venue and supplier to confirm fixing methods, open-flame rules, power, suspended decorations and permitted installation times. These practical details belong in the design conversation from the start.
Request an itemised quotation covering production, hire, fresh or artificial flowers, delivery, installation, removal and waste clearance. Check whether the scale, materials and quantity of flowers in a reference image are included. Have both of you proofread names, dates and seating information before anything is printed. Know the last date and cost for changing personalised items.
If ceremony flowers will move to the reception, agree the route, people and time needed. Guest arrival and dinner service should still have clear passage. For an outdoor setting, agree a weather alternative and who decides whether it is safe to proceed. Finally, name the person who collects family photographs, keepsakes and items you bought, and the person who returns hired pieces. May the things you take home hold a little of the affection that filled the room.
Walk through the day before signing off the decoration
Put the design beside your running order and check these handovers with the venue, decorator and camera teams. The setting needs to work for the people using it.
- Where people move: do flowers or props overlap with the dress, relatives' walking route, the MC's position or camera movement?
- What people need: where are the bouquet, microphones and ceremony items kept, and who hands each one to the next person?
- What changes position: which team moves ceremony decorations to the reception? When can they start, and when must the new setting be ready?
- What goes home: who counts and receives hired items, purchased decorations and family keepsakes?
Your chosen supplier provides the decoration design and installation. Use the venue checklist to confirm setup and clearance restrictions before agreeing the handovers.
One small place to begin
Choose three meaningful design elements and make one checklist for installation, removal and the person taking each keepsake home.
These notes offer general planning guidance. Adapt them to your wedding, your family and the arrangements you agree with each team. Confirm what each service includes before booking.
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