Balloon Decor for Weddings and Where to Put It

The Entrance And The Ceremony Backdrop

The entrance is the first thing guests see and the place they stand while they wait to be let in. A wedding balloon arch over a doorway in Bedford, or a pair of columns either side of it, gives people something to photograph before anything has started. It also tells guests they are in the right place, which sounds like a small thing until you have watched people wander round a hotel looking for a sign.

The ceremony backdrop is the one everybody thinks of first. An organic garland across a frame, a draped arch, or a sequin wall or flower wall behind the registrar all do the same job, which is to put something behind the couple so the photographs have a middle to them. Choose it around where the light comes from. A backdrop set against a bright window will photograph as a silhouette however good it looks in the room.

If the ceremony and the evening happen in the same space, plan both at once. The frame behind the registrar in the afternoon is very often the wall behind the band later on. Agreeing that with the venue in advance is what stops the evening feeling like a stripped back version of the afternoon.

Behind The Top Table, The Cake And The Dance Floor

The room looks at the top table for most of the meal, so whatever sits behind it ends up in every speech photograph. A garland worked along the back wall, a sequin wall, or light up initials with a garland framing them all read well from the far end of a room. Keep the weight of it above head height. Anything at shoulder level disappears the moment people sit down.

The cake table is small and it is worth treating as its own job. A cluster to one side, a personalised bubble balloon printed with the date, or a low garland along the front of the cloth gives the cake a setting instead of leaving it on a bare trestle. Event linen hire covers the cloth itself, which is worth doing, because a cloth with a proper drop hides the table legs and whatever is stored underneath.

The dance floor is the last part of the room to be dressed and the first thing people photograph once the evening starts. A ceiling cluster, a garland around the doorway onto the floor, or a backdrop behind the DJ changes how the whole space reads when the lights go down. It is also the easiest place to be generous, because by then nobody is sitting still long enough to be in the way of it.

Light Up Letters For Initials

Light up number and letter hire gives guests somewhere to photograph themselves at your wedding. Two initials behind the top table, or one either side of the dance floor, quickly become the spot people head for once the evening starts. That is worth planning for rather than leaving to chance.

Give them room to stand back. A pair of letters in a corridor gets almost no photographs, because there is nowhere to hold a phone from. They need enough clear floor in front for somebody to step back and fit two people into the frame. They are freestanding, so a venue that will not allow anything fixed to its walls is usually still happy with them.

Ask the venue where the nearest socket is before you settle on a position. Letters need a plug within reach and a route for the lead that nobody is going to trip over, and that often decides where they stand more than the look of the room does. A dark wall behind them gives the strongest photographs, because the bulbs read brightly against it. Set in front of a window they lose some of that until the light drops outside.

Initials, a surname or a word like LOVE all work. Numbers suit a date, so an anniversary party or a renewal of vows can use the year instead. Letters also carry straight through from the meal into the evening without being moved, which makes them one of the few pieces in the room that does two jobs in a day.

They sit better alongside a backdrop than alone in the middle of a wall. A letter either side of a sequin wall, or either side of a flower and greenery wall, gives guests one place to photograph instead of several, and it keeps everybody waiting for a picture in the same part of the room.

Sage, Blush, Ivory And Chrome Palettes

Most of the wedding palettes we work with sit in one of a few families. Sage and ivory with a little gold reads soft and suits a marquee or a barn, where there is already timber and daylight to work with. Blush with ivory and pearl is warmer and photographs well in a room with cream walls. Chrome, in silver or gold, is the one that lifts a plainer room, because it picks up whatever light is already in there.

Matt and chrome finishes behave very differently in photographs. Matt holds its colour and sits back where you put it. Chrome reflects, which means it shows you the room around it, carpet included. In a venue with a strong patterned carpet, a mostly matt palette with a small amount of chrome through it is usually the better balance.

Bring your real colour reference rather than a description of it. A ribbon, a swatch from the bridesmaid dresses, or a photograph of the flowers tells us far more than a colour name, because sage covers a wide range and blush covers a wider one still.

Working With Your Venue, Your Florist And The Dressing Team

Most venues have settled views on what can be fixed to a wall, when the room is free and how long a turnaround between the ceremony and the evening can take. Those three answers shape the whole plan, so they are worth having early. We are happy to speak to the venue directly about access, fixings and timings if that is easier than passing messages along.

If you have a florist, the two should be planned together rather than side by side. Balloons and flowers share the same backdrop, the same arch and often the same plinths, and both look better once somebody has decided which one leads. Usually the flowers lead on the ceremony arch and the balloons lead on the entrance and the evening, but that depends on the room rather than on a rule.

Venue dressing works the same way. Where a venue has its own team doing chair covers and table decor, we fit around them. Where there is nobody doing that, our venue styling, event prop hire, event linen hire and table decor can cover the whole room, with event staff on the day if you want hands rather than just the install. One team for the room is simpler, but either way somebody has to own the running order.

If children are coming, decide early where they will be once the meal finishes. Soft play hire gives them a corner of the room that is theirs, which keeps them off the dance floor and lets their parents sit down for a while. Themed character displays work in the same corner where the guest list is young. Both of those need floor space agreed with the venue in the same conversation as everything else, because they are usually the last thing anybody thinks to mention.

Whichever way the work is split, agree a time for each supplier to be in the room. Two teams arriving together with one set of double doors between them is where wedding mornings go wrong.

To talk a wedding through, the events line is 07584 653282 and the email address is hello@eventartistry.co.uk. If you are nearer Kempston, The Balloon Shop counter at 210 Bedford Rd, Kempston, Bedford MK42 8BL covers helium balloons and smaller orders, and the shop line is 01234 604298.