DIY Wedding Venue Decorations: Where to Start and When to Stop!
23 March 2026How much decoration you add to your chosen venue really depends on what your venue looks like … and your taste! If you chose the perfect venue because of its rustic charm or elegant classical architecture, it makes no sense to then cover it up with lots of drapery, etc. You want people to fall in love with the venue as you have. If, however, you chose your wedding venue based on location, price or because it’s a fantastic blank canvas, the chances are it will need a bit of polishing to make it look finished.
A grand dining room with just a tweak of table centres and coloured sashes will look fantastic with very little effort, so there’s no need to go overboard. If you want to mix up the look and feel of a popular space, how about:
- changing where they put the top table,
- having a centre table rather than a top one,
- adding a backdrop if one’s not been used before, or
- having a sweetheart table instead.
There are so many fabulously creative options!
The plainer the space, the more you can put your own stamp on it. A boring room in a lovely venue can be transformed using backdrops and lighting, chair covers with sashes or even hiring in different chairs altogether. This doesn’t have to break the bank if thought about carefully. A marquee is a great blank canvas, full of possibilities and, unlike hotels, you can choose the flooring you want. With these spaces decoration is key, adding colour and light, drama or elegance.
I usually recommend starting with a theme for your wedding decoration; a colour scheme or favourite book, film or hobby can give you hints of elements you might want to include. A single theme usually works best in terms of bringing things together, but you might want to do something like ‘favourite films’ and use that as inspiration for table names, or work with complementary colours. I love Pinterest for getting ideas around themes and colour schemes, just try not to get too carried away!
Venue decoration inspiration for your wedding
The amazing The Sparkle Shed offers a variety of venue decorating options to suit most themes, from rustic to elegant and everything in between.
To make a statement with your decoration, you might want to consider something like a Cambridge Flower Wall in your chosen colours.
Drapery like the ones offered by The Sparkle Shed can transform any room to look like the classic interior of a marquee but a flower wall makes an awesome backdrop to a top table/sweetheart table. It can even double up as a ‘photobooth’ backdrop. You may have seen gorgeous flower walls at Ascot or film premieres; they are very popular.
A really quick and easy (and cost-effective) way to add drama and colour to your wedding venue is balloons. And no, they don’t have to look like you’re throwing a kids’ party instead of a wedding (unless that’s the look you want, of course). The fabulous Creative Decorations have created some stunning displays using huge confetti-filled balloons or swaddled in tulle, or even balloon archways. There are amazing things you can do with balloons!
Of course, flowers are a traditional decorative wedding element, what with bouquets and buttonholes, etc. but I’ll talk more specifically about flowers another time. There are some amazing alternatives if the idea of all those allergens stirs up your hayfever.
Enough is Enough!
The key with any decorating project is to know when to stop, and that can be hard. If you’ve got a small space or not much time to set up, I always believe in the “less is more” approach. If you’re going for a heavily themed wedding or an “over the top” look, now is not the time to be subtle! Try to work around any time restrictions to avoid unnecessary stress as everything needs to be set up. Your suppliers should be able to estimate how much time they need for this, so take their advice. If it feels like it’s too much, it probably is. You need to step back!
A word of warning about heavily themed weddings: not everyone will understand your vision. Do not let this get to you. Everyone has an opinion on another person’s wedding. Hopefully, they’ll be adult enough to keep their opinion to themselves on your happy day!
Remember – I’m here to help, from inspiring your venue decoration to rolling up my sleeves and helping bring your wedding ideas to life. I’m very crafty! X
