The final decorations that you will need are for your reception. Remember to recycle as much as you can from your ceremony and often you can decorate the Top Table, without spending any additional money!
Now we have to concentrate on your Guest tables! With so many different styles to choose from this is where you can begin to get a bit confused with all the choices available. If you are going for a country cottage or vintage theme you might like to consider vintage jugs filled with different blooms, or birdcages wrapped with pretty rustic flower arrangements. These work particularly well in marquees and barns, where the decorations suit the surroundings.
The following information has been kindly supplied by The Balloon Lady...
If you are in a grand hall, with panelled walls and high ceilings then often you need tall floral arrangements, that take advantage of the size of the rooms and fill the space above peoples heads, you can include here tall vases filled with sweetly smelling lilies, tall candelabra with twinkling candles and pretty floral arrangements, large martini vases with co-ordinating arrangements of flowers and many, many more styles.
Of course not everyone likes tall arrangements and not all venues suit them, and so lower modern alternatives include gold fish bowls wrapped with stems of flowers, cubes filled with roses or traditional round posy arrangements of mixed flowers. The sky is the limit on what you can spend at your reception, as a general rule, bear in mind that large arrangements with masses of flowers in them are always going to cost more than simple arrangements, and consider this when planning what to spend.
There are simple ways of economising at the reception without any of your guests noticing and that’s by keeping your colour scheme, but perhaps adapting your flowers and perhaps use stems that are less expensive than those used in the bouquets. As long as your tables tie in with your bouquets, I don’t believe anyone will notice if the flowers are all identical or not.
You can again add any finishing touches like rose petals and diamantes scattered on the tables, but try not to clutter the tables, once there are flowers in the centre and they are laid up with cutlery and glasses and wine bottles, they don’t need masses of extras. Its very easy to buy lots of bits here and there as you are planning your wedding, but if you aren’t careful the table will look cluttered and un coordinated on the day.
Final Hints And Tips:
·      Book your florist early – most will only do one or two weddings in a day and you don’t want to be disappointed and find that the person you want to use is already booked.
·      Use someone enthusiastic and who understands how you want your day to look.
·      Be realistic about your budget and let your florist know what it is, that way he/she can show you decorations that will fit within it
·      Be realistic about your colour scheme, brown flowers (for example) don’t really exist, but there are shades of vintage inspired roses that will blend beautifully.
·      Finally relax and enjoy planning!