Modern wedding decorations for contemporary weddings

Make your wedding stand out from the crowd with imaginative wedding décor. Whatever type of venue you choose, you can personalise it and make it unique with a few well-placed arrangements and accessories. Here are some ideas for modern wedding decorations to get you started.

They do it with mirrors

Put mirrors in various places around your reception venue to exaggerate your decorations and make your venue feel larger. This works extremely well if you have plenty of colours and are using fairy lights, candles, or sparkly accessories like crystals. Place a round mirror on your tables, under the table centre, for increased impact.

Introduce a dress code

To take your wedding colour scheme to the next level by asking your guests to stick to a coloured dress code. You could consider dress codes such as ‘something blue’ or ‘autumn leaves’. Black and white is a favourite choice as you can ensure your guests won’t clash with whatever other colours you have picked.

Keep sight lines

Guests need to be able to see each other and chat across your tables so if you wish to have tall dramatic centrepieces have flowers arranged in giant martini glasses to allow guests to chat underneath them. Alternatively go with tall candelabras and just include a single flowered garland twisted around the stem. You could also select low floral arrangements for the tables and just include a couple of bigger arrangements elsewhere in the room, perhaps either side of the main table.

Use coloured glass

Include a small coloured glass candle holder with a tea light inside at each place setting for a romantic touch. Consider opting for coloured champagne and wine glasses, as well as coloured vases for your flower decorations. Coloured glass is not often used in wedding decorations, even though it can create a breath-taking effect whilst serving various practical purposes at the same time.

Create a feature of food

Pick colour co-ordinated canapés and stack them on cake stands, or serve them on glass trays filled with rose petals or coloured pebbles. Pair oversized platters with taller stands and containers to fashion an impressive buffet. Create a decorative feature of the food you serve by focusing on what it looks like and what it is served on.

The English rose

For simple yet powerful floral centrepieces, roses in a single colour are hard to beat. Choose low compact arrangements for the wedding tables and taller vases for other parts of the venue. Arrange a bunch of roses in a vase on the cake table and scatter the same coloured rose petals on the table beneath.

Add furniture pieces

If you want to include more character in your wedding venue, think about hiring or borrowing a few pieces of furniture that showcase your wedding theme. You don’t need to change all of the furniture at the venue; just a couple of well-placed items will create the right impression. These could be a couple of contemporary sofas for the lounge or a few vintage side tables for the bar area.

Feather it up

For an unusual effect feathers can be in your table arrangements, your bouquet, and your hair accessories, and could even be attached to place names or escort cards. Why not suspend a feathered circle from the ceiling in place of a chandelier? Feathers are becoming a favourite option to flowers in wedding decorations, as they are smooth and feminine, yet more contemporary and edgy than flowers.

Wedding trees

Wedding trees can be placed on the floor or used as table centres and can be decorated with fairy lights, twinkling ornaments, baubles, or small framed photos. They can also be used to hang wishes from your guests instead of a guest book. Wedding trees are created by bundling together many thin branches or twigs and organising them in a decorative vase.

Chair ornaments

Accessorising your chairs could be seen as too fussy but, unless you use chair covers, the backs of your chairs are definitely worth decorating. You could add a ribbon in your accent colour or simply including an ornament such as a fabric flower or butterfly on a wire.