Decorating Your Wedding Venue

Decorating Your Wedding Venue: 12 Impactful Ideas From Curradine Barns

How you decide to decorate your wedding day is uniquely personal to you, however there are some tried and tested styles and ideas which we think work beautifully in a barn wedding venue whether you’re getting married inside or out.

Here are our 12 top wedding venue decoration ideas to help guide the design vision for your big day.

Say it with signage

A simple and cost effective way to add personal touches to your day is to include signage around your wedding venue. Think fun, personalised bar menus or photobooth signage with your very own couples hashtag. Add signage to card and gift tables, memory tables and add signposts around your venue which tie in with your theme. This is your opportunity to get creative.

Let there be light

Never underestimate the importance of lighting. Think warm fairy lights wrapped around beams or trees, as a top table backdrop or draped across ceilings. Twinkly decorations are one of the simplest ways to make a big impact from day to night.

If you’re getting married outdoors or plan to spend summer evenings mingling beneath the stars consider festoon lights suspended around seating areas.

Sprinkle candles and lanterns inside and out for instant romance. You could even invest in your own signature scent to add to candles for added ambience and to win points for attention to detail.

Light up letters are a fun way to blend lighting with signage and help transform a venue atmosphere from day to night.

Rustic crates

An ever popular decorative addition to barn wedding venues with rural surroundings are rustic crates. Stacked on top of each other they can be used to create a simple but effective feature and then filled with personal touches such as photographs, signage and bud vases filled with seasonal flowers. You could even use stacked crates to create a rustic seating plan or as a cake table backdrop to disguise less attractive walls or corners.

Statement arches

An impactful way to highlight your ceremony aisle is with an arch decorated with flowers and perhaps elegant draped fabric. Admittedly a significant investment, you can guarantee wow factor with a statement arch which focuses your budget in one key area rather than spreading flowers more scarcely around a room. You could even consider asking your florist or stylist if they could move the arch after the ceremony to use as a photo backdrop.

Trees

Whether you opt for real or faux, including trees as part of your wedding venue decoration is an impactful and more sustainable option than opting for cut flower arrangements.

Faux blossom trees look beautiful at the top of an aisle, or opt for light up trees in a barn to add romance and drama to a wedding breakfast. Real trees can be hired too, and look beautiful when brought indoors in summer, creating flow between inside and out.

Ladders

The ladder look isn’t going anywhere. These versatile, rustic additions are effective as seating plans, memory features or photo displays which showcase your story so far. Ladder features can be dressed in all manner of ways to help create focal points and to zone areas.

Table runners

Table runners are an effective way to add texture and whimsy to your table design. Choose a colour from your scheme that will compliment your flowers and consider whether you’ll want to add foliage too. Cheesecloth is a beautiful lightweight fabric that works well as a table runner, or you might opt for a heavier cotton, linen or even jute material.

You could decide on a full foliage runner cascading off the edge of your table to add subtle drama to a pared back, rustic theme.

Bunting

Bunting is a popular decorative choice for country weddings and pairs well with barn style wedding venues, drawing the eye upwards toward beautiful wooden beamed ceilings and brick walls.

Crafty types may wish to make bunting themselves, making it a cost effective way to introduce your colour scheme and theme throughout a space.

Ceiling decorations

One of the most impactful ways to decorate a wedding venue is to take decor to the rafters. If your venue has high ceilings, add chandeliers, coloured or white paper lanterns or lampshades to draw your guests eyes upward, creating incredible ambiance and showstopping features. Combine lighting with floral installations for added impact, such as gypsophila clouds, pampas grass puffs or foliage features.

Another way to fill ceiling space and add soft, beautiful texture to an otherwise rustic backdrop is to hang drapes from the ceiling.

Potted Plant centrepieces

Using potted plants instead of cut flowers for your wedding table centrepieces is not only a more sustainable and environmentally conscious choice, it is also an effective way to run a rustic garden-inspired theme through your wedding venue.

Potted herbs and succulents look great on log slices or stone plinths in the centre of guest tables, surrounded by jam jar tealights for a real country wedding feel. You could gift these to your bridal party after the big day.

Alternatively, you might wish to spend a little more and consider using potted olive trees or bay trees which can later be planted in your garden and will forever remind you of your wedding day.

Balloons

Balloon installations are a fun way to bring a little light hearted and uplifting (you’re welcome) decor to your wedding venue. You could even opt for balloon centrepieces. Always choose biodegradable balloons wherever possible.

Coloured glass and metallics

One of our favourite ways to introduce a colour scheme to tables and decorative features is to include coloured glass and metallic brass. Tinted glassware instantly brightens up a table and works so well with flower centrepieces. Similarly, brass candlesticks elevate a rustic scheme, adding an air of sophistication.

Getting started with wedding venue decorations

Now you’re filled with plenty of great ideas for decorating your wedding venue, it’s time to consider whether you’ll want to do the decorating yourself or hire a wedding venue stylist to support you in the design and execution of your day.

Whichever route you choose, consider hiring your wedding day decorations to ensure you’re doing all you can to reduce waste from single-use items and to champion re-use wherever possible.

For more information on weddings at Curradine Barns, get in touch with the team today.