Anybody NOT decorating their venue?

Hiya

we had a manor house hotel and I was dithering with chair sashes, bows, curtains etc for ages! and then did none and it was absolutely fine, I thought less looked more!

the ceremony room carpet clashed with my outfits! but I didnt decorate the room at all! I just had one of my table centerpieces (goldfish bowl) placed on the ceremony table and that was just fine - the room itself is georgous but I did no decorating.

main room - just had centerpieces (as above) on the tables and the table were dressed in white linen looked lovely

I'm glad I didnt spend the extra money on the bits and bobs - I thought the whole place looked fab as it was - I really dont regret and to be honest people really didn't notice!

honestly dont do it for the sake of it - spend it on drink/food for your guests or money for your honeymoon!

We didn't have any decorations up at the venue. But then we were in a newly rebuilt hotel so nothing was really required.

Had we been in a barn / village hall or similar then you would have probably received a different response from me so I really think it's venue dependant.

I had no additional flowers other than bouquets and button holes, we had table centres but these were minimal. I was very surprised walking down the aisle to see the registrars table had flowers on it, had I known the venue would do this I would have asked them not to - if I wanted to decorate it I would have got my own flowers in! So no, I don't regret not doing it in my venue. Did anyone notice? If so then they didn't say anything to me!

We didn't bother decorating the ceremony venue (register office). It would have been tricky logistically, and we felt the room didn't need doing as it was fairly grand and formal by itself. I just placed my bouquet on the table.

Likewise we didn't decorate the church hall where we had afternoon tea... I'd got bunting, but it got left behind. Nobody noticed, people were far too busy eating sandwiches and chatting.

In the evening we did pay extra for lighting, and we had a photo display, but that was it and we let the venue do the talking for the most part.

If you already have a 'pretty' venue, then you don't NEED to do extra decorating, unless you want to of course.

ETA: forgot about the tables! We did have chair covers, and centrepieces, although they were relatively simple and also the caterer organised every last bit of the tables so I really didn't have to worry about it.

That sounds lovely.

Just out of curiosity - has anyone done the whole Goldfish Bowl centerpieces with a Live Goldfish in?

I love goldfish

(Wouldn't want it to be cruel though)

I haven't but know its been done and have heard from my florist that the poor fish end up having extra "drinks" thrown in and the kids just bang on the glass

Poor fish

My mum works at a hotel the goldfish bowl with live fish in thing has been used a few time, she said it looked nice, but they moved the fish out for the evening so the fish were safe from things like that, and just left empty bowls with some flowers.

Part of our reason for choosing the venue is that not much "decor" was needed to make it look good.

We're doing table centrepieces, flowers on the top table, and some candles... and a couple of "uplighters" to add some colour to the room but that's about it.

The venue can provide a lantern on each table and we will have a centrepiece on each also. Other than that no, but I think the venue has plenty of interest of it's own already.

What a fantastic looking venue

X2. It looks fab!

Thankyou AJ and FTLMB. It's an 1860's warship and we (the party that is) get the run of the whole thing for the evening. Should give the guests both young and old, plenty to explore we hope.

Thankyou Kochanski. It's HMS Warrior.

Our venue for the evening reception (wedding breakfast is in a different room) is a medieval guildhall so we're keeping decorations to a minimum. Candles on the tables and that's it really! It's such a big space and so nice that I don't think it needs anything else. We'll have the band / DJ set up at one end and a dance floor and some tables throughout the rest