40 fabulous ideas for dazzling decorations!

• Be creative with your flower vessels. You don't have to go for standard vases to display your floral arrangements. Try a conch shell for a beach-themed wedding or slimline vases with one long-stemmed flower for understated elegance.
• If you're going for strong colours in your bouquets and floral arrangements, tie this in with your tables by using bold colours on overlays on top of white tablecloths
• Look into your families' backgrounds to see whether there are any fun traditions that you can incorporate into your day. If you've got Brazilian roots, have a lambada competition. If you've got West Indian heritage, try the limbo!
• If you use versatile decorations they can double as favours to save you money. Try perspex hearts filled with pink and white marshmallows for example.
• Use a string of battery-powered fairy lights to weave through your floral arrangements.
• If you can't afford all the elements required to turn your decoration ideas into reality, consider hiring accessories such as chair covers, table linen, candelabras and vases. Some events companies have showrooms in which you can see exactly how each table would look.
• Don't underestimate the impact that just one or two striking items can make on each table, especially if you use dramatic colours. Coloured glasses look great when contrasted with white linen.
• Using tall centrepieces in a small function room will help you achieve the illusion of space.
• Draping textured fabric over walls in a larger space helps to make the place look more cosy. Don't get carried away until you've run the idea past the venue though.
• Make a marquee look distinctive by hiring silk linings in your colour theme to hang over the canvas.
• Remember to factor in space for your cake table so that it doesn't end up squashed in the corner. You can decorate the stand with fruit if you don't fancy floral enhancements.
• If you're not a big fan of flowers, hire sculptures to use as centrepieces. Or fill vases with multi-coloured glass pebbles or chocolates covered in multi-coloured metallic wrappers.
• Flank your flowers with thin strands of fibre optic lights that change colour for a warm Christmassy feel.
• Get photos of you and your groom scanned, from birth to recent times together, plus pics of members of both your families. Then you can post them up all over the venue - it's a great talking point and you can include any family members who may have passed on. You may have to pin them to exhibition boards rather than directly onto the walls.
• Even little details can make a big impact; people really notice the simple finishing touches such as tying a ribbon or cord to each chair or lighting a scented candle at every table.
• If there are certain areas that look a little bare, hire comfy sofas for guests to lounge about on after the meal.
• Get creative with your seating plan by asking an artistic friend to design something that has a special meaning for you and your groom. If you love penguins, name each table after a different breed. Or if you're big fans of 80s pop music name each table after a band from the era, giving you scope for using pictures of pop stars with dodgy hairstyles too.
• Old fashioned sweets are very 'now', so why not fill each guest's wine glass with them? People will have no trouble mixing with strangers as they reminisce over Flying Saucers and Sherbet Dips.
• Arrange for a pinata to be made - this is a Hispanic tradition where huge papier mache balloons of sweets are filled and hung from the ceiling; guests can only eat them once they've knocked them down.
• Decorate the room with balloons but make sure there is at least one for each guest - then later on you can ask guests to make a wish before a mass balloon release. This makes for a great photo and doesn't cost a penny.
• Instead of a guest book get your photographer to take a snap of each guest arriving. When everybody gets to the reception have the pictures pinned to a board so that people can find their own snap. Ask everyone to write a message to you on the back of the picture and then pop it into a box in the centre of their table. This saves you buying expensive centrepieces full of fresh flowers.
• Take a trek through your local parks and forests and scour the ground for pine cones, brightly coloured leaves and conkers to decorate each table with - perfect for an autumn wedding.
• Collect handfuls of blossom and pick bluebells to scatter over tables for a spring wedding.
• If you'd like to prettify an entrance or walkway put tea lights in jam jars and place them at either side of the path.
• Instead of flowers as centrepieces, use long-stemmed cocktail glasses filled with ball-shaped candles to match your colour theme.
• It's all very well making the inside of your venue look beautiful, but what about when you're outside? Try outdoor flame torches, or flambeaux, to make the evening go with a bang.
• Alongside your seating arrangements include a short biog of everybody who is sitting at the top table, including embarrassing photos, how you know them, funny anecdotes and nicknames. People who haven't met them before will feel more involved when it comes to the speeches.
• For centrepieces, use tiled mirrors as well as candles and flowers - the reflection will create a wonderful effect.<
• Decorate chair backs with ribbons and tie place cards to them.
• Instead of a traditional seating plan, why not have a glassine envelope with each guest's name on it and inside they find their table name or number?
• Instead of a centrepiece, why not decorate your tables with a garland?
• Scatter rose petals underneath an organza tablecloth.
• Think twice before creating elaborate centrepieces as tables can start to look quite messy with the combined effect of favours, place cards, glasses etc.
• You are better to have a few large floral arrangements (one in each corner for example) than trying to place lots of smaller ones everywhere you see a potentially 'dead space'.
• A hot trend among celebrities right now is hanging Chinese lanterns, which create a cosy warm glow and look very pretty.
• Either make centrepieces high enough to see under or low enough to see above so that guests can easily talk over the meal.
• Alternating either the size of your points of interest or the main colours used on tables will give your room an extra dimension. Don't go overboard though or it will just look like you couldn't make up your mind.
• Though you might not think of it in this way, your cake is one of the most important ways of decorating the room, so don't neglect it. Remember to ask your florist for help with this.
• Give the kids a theme of their own at their table - think Buzz Lightyear, Harry Potter or Star Wars and style accordingly.
• There are lots of things you could use for ice-breakers to help your guests gel; you can buy wedding trivia quizzes or, if you have time, make up your own based on your history together.

Many thanks to Wedding Helping Hand for their contribution to the reception ideas above. For more decoration inspiration visit www.weddinghelpinghand.com

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