Free-standing Wedding Decorations?

[Deleted User]

There is a venue that I love, but they do not allow decorations to be attached to the walls or ceiling. Free-standing decorations only. Balloons are allowed but highly discouraged. Three of the walls are floor-to-ceiling windows with a gorgeous view. The back wall is just a plain white wall. I am thinking about some uplights, but I would love to include colorful paper lanterns! Maybe I could rent some coat stands, put helium balloons in the paper lanterns, then attach them to the coat stand so they float?

AprilH81

If you have three walls of floor to ceiling windows I would not decorate the other wall.  I would just do centerpieces on the tables and let it be. Uplights would be okay, but they can get expensive.

I think anything else will look like you are trying too hard.  Sometimes it is best to not fight the room, especially if there is nothing truly hideous you need to camoflage. 

southernbelle0915

cmdebartolo said:

There is a venue that I love, but they do not allow decorations to be attached to the walls or ceiling. Free-standing decorations only. Balloons are allowed but highly discouraged. Three of the walls are floor-to-ceiling windows with a gorgeous view. The back wall is just a plain white wall. I am thinking about some uplights, but I would love to include colorful paper lanterns! Maybe I could rent some coat stands, put helium balloons in the paper lanterns, then attach them to the coat stand so they float?

Our venue had restrictions like this. And also a great view. We let the view do a lot of the work of decorations. We had really great centerpieces and several good floral arrangements placed on auxiliary tables. It was plenty. Honestly, guests don't care about decorations. I can't even remember the colors or theme of the wedding I went to two weeks ago and I'm pretty into weddings.

To the bolded: This sounds really cheesy, IMHO. I would not use balloons in any form. I don't think this would end up having the look you imagine.... Like at all.

If you're dead set on using paper lanterns, would your venue let you use them outside and/or as a way to light the path leading up to the venue? Here are some examples of what I mean:

Uplighting might be cool, but it's expensive. If it's in the budget, go for it. Otherwise, stick to the basics.

manateehugger

Let the windows do the talking. I agree the coatrack idea or something similar will look odd and like you tried too hard to throw as much as you could at the walls. If you haven't, look at pictures of your venue when it's been set up with tables and centerpieces and guests. Rooms fill up really quickly and people don't notice tons of decor unless its on the table.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the honest opinion. Thinking about it more I think the lanterns would be too heavy to float and then you just have a coat rack with things hanging on it, hahaha. I actually forgot all about table centerpieces. Duh!