How to Make an Ugly Wedding Venue Pretty

Host a festive wedding anywhere with the right decorations.

If you find that the available venue for your wedding isn't as pretty as you had dreamed it would be, don't despair. Common wedding decorations are pretty enough to cover up a multitude of flaws. The trick is creating an illusion with the materials you choose. By doing so, you can create a wedding wonderland that will totally transform even the ugliest of wedding locations. Plain meeting rooms, barns, church halls or outdoor venues can be spruced up with material, lighting, candles or plants, and it doesn't have to break your budget.

Instructions

1. Start at the top. Hide an ugly ceiling with strands of twinkling lights or draped, elegant fabric. Glue wedding flower blooms on foam balls, and hang them from the ceiling with satiny ribbon.

2. Cover bare floors or tacky fabric with fabric, rented carpets or a rented wooden floor covering. Scatter colorful flower petals along the sides of walkways.

3. Use fabric liberally on chairs, between aisles and around any rented furniture, such as the gift table or wedding arches. Wispy tulle gives a fairytale appearance to a venue, and ribbon literally ties it together with your wedding colors.

4. Coordinate with the venue rather than fight it. Design your color palette for your wedding using the colors you already have available, even if they are ugly colors. Complementary colors will mute the more unattractive colors on the walls or seating. Blues can draw the eye away from oranges, and pinks and corals make dull brown seem more warm.

5. Use candlelight rather than harsh, fluorescent lights. Drape sheer and solid fabric along the walls, and string white Christmas tree lights so that it lets off a festive, subtle glow.

6. Use plants and flowers to brighten the venue. Floral arrangement bring your wedding colors to the venue, but can get costly when used in abundance. To cut costs, include potted plants around the venue. String lights around the trunks of tall, potted trees like palms, or use hanging ivy as a lively addition to elegant archways or around columns.

7. Use a cohesive theme in the decorations that keep the eye focused on the theater you're presenting, rather than the backdrop provided. If you want an elegant venue, use candles in an ornate candelabra, tall Grecian columns and tall urns. For a more romantic setting, use roses and fabrics with crystal accents like candle holders.

References

• The Knot: Wedding Receptions: 17 Ways to Spruce Up Your Site Read more: Wedding Receptions: 17 Ways to Spruce Up Your Site
• Wedding Flowers and Reception Ideas: Wedding Backdrops
• CBN: Cheap Ways to Have a Fabulous Reception