Decorating the venue on day of ~~ tips?

View quoted message Thanks!! We loved it. I think it helped them having the separate bins.

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Head table looks good, thanks for the tips! The separated bins idea is great

head table

We had this, except an even tighter timeline. We had my two sister in laws and some of my friends and cousins volunteer to decorate. I did my best to package stuff together in bins for example - a bin for the head table, a bin for the tops of the guest table and a bin for the guest book, date night ideas and cake table etc.

It was hard to let go and have someone else do the decorating for us, but given that the ceremony was at 12:30 and we weren't given access to the reception venue until 1:30 we had to have others take over. It turned out beautifully. I don't have our photos back from the photographer yet to wow you, but here is a photo that a friend took of the head table.

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Thanks a lot!

We hired a day of coordinator. i dont want my wedding party running around setting things up while trying to do their hair and make up etc. you could also get some extended family members to set up (close cousins, close aunts etc) if you dont want to pay for a day of person.

Hire a decorator or day of coordination!! that’s not something you’ll have time for the day of!

After reading this, I feel a weight lifted off me. Our day of coordinator will be in charge of this.

I'm also in the same boat! we get access to our venue at 9am the day of, and of course the ladies won't be available to set up. Our ceremony site is in use from 1:30pm-2pm and my ceremony is scheduled to start at 3pm - however, the ceremony won't take long to set up, and I've already delegated my godmother, her best friend, and my MC's wife to take care of it. Those 3 will also set up the reception.

However, we also have our hotel staff who is responsible for chairs, chair covers, tables, table linens, etc. so we don't have a lot to do except my own stuff, which will be stored at the venue 2-3 days before so the decorating crew just has to duck into our coordinator's office and grab the stuff.

Definitely delegate the decorating - you don't have the time/energy to be worrying about that on your wedding day. Don't be afraid to provide photo mock-ups, instructions, etc for how you want things to look. Also trust and have faith in whoever is decorating - I'm sure it'll look gorgeous!

As long as you know people who can get it done you'll be fine. At least one person who knows what you want to direct the rest of the people. I hope you have someone you can trust enough that you can relax while it's getting done.

One word : DELEGATE!!!
Enlist your groom, your cousins, your dad. Give them sketches of what the centerpieces should look like and where things should go.
We got confirmation that we won't have access to our venue until the morning of the wedding. So we're dropping off the decorations during the rehearsal for storage (3 days before the wedding - There's a function on the Friday, that's preventing us from setting up). The venue will be available at 9am the morning of the wedding, so I've asked two of my cousins if they could decorate and my FH will be there with his brother to help out.

Where are you getting married?

Do they have the option to pay a little extra for access the night before?

I know it's nice to save money where you can, but for me I really wanted to see everything come together myself and knew I wouldn't be able to the morning of.

Definitely put feelers out to family and friends to see if people will come help.

And people that you trust to follow your vision. Also lists of what you all have and where it is supposed to go. Photo aids if necessary as to how you would like things set up. If it stays organized and everyone knows what they are doing it should come together pretty quick.

Another option is you could hire someone to do that for you. There are some less expensive options out there for DOC or decorators, that are still great at what they do.

We have a combination of family setting up and our DOC kind of overseeing and making sure everything goes according to plan. We get our reception area the night before... but there are still some last minute things like cake/flowers/candles... and we get our ceremony space literally half an hour before our ceremony.. so that should be fun. !

Get as many family and friends involved as you can! People want to help you make this day magical! Let them!

I’m in a similar situation and have two locations to decorate 🙃🙃 I’m planning to tackle it by recruiting as much family as possible to have specific roles , ie aunt at ceremony to decorate mom at reception hall to decorate etc! I was surprised how many people really wanted to be involved 😁💕