Guide · Wedding

How to plan wedding décor purchases

Décor is a quantity problem before it is a shopping problem. Many of its lines scale with the number of tables, and much of what is possible comes from the venue rather than from taste — so the two things to settle first are what the venue allows and how many tables there are.

No account needed — this covers décor you are buying or hiring yourself

Updated

Wedding

A template in the iPhone app. It opens a 8-item checklist under the editable project name Wedding décor.

How to open it

Ask the venue before buying anything

A venue decides more of this list than any shop does, and the questions it answers are quicker to ask than to guess at.

  • What the venue already supplies — linen, glassware, candle holders and easels may be included there, or available to hire.
  • How many tables there are, and what size and shape. Round and long tables need different quantities of almost everything.
  • Whether open flames are allowed, and in what form. That decides whether candles are a purchase at all.
  • What may be fixed to walls, ceilings or furniture, and how.
  • When you can get in to set up, who is allowed to do it, and whether anything can be left overnight.
  • When it all has to be out again, and who is collecting it.

The last two decide more than they appear to. Décor that has to be collected by ten the next morning needs a named person who is not either of you.

Count the tables, then the list

Once the table count is known, much of the décor list is arithmetic — which is also why a late change in numbers changes several lines at once.

Per table
Centrepieces, linen, candles and anything that sits on a surface. One extra table is one extra set of each.
Per place
Favours and anything carrying a name. These are the lines that move whenever the numbers do.
Per room
Signage, lighting and anything at the entrance. Fixed quantities, decided once.
One of
The guest book and the larger signs. Easy to settle early, and easy to forget entirely.

Order slightly more than the arithmetic says for anything breakable or easily lost in transit, and keep the spares separate from the set so they are still spares on the day.

What has a date on it

  • Flowers are ordered early and arrive late

    Ordered well ahead but needed fresh, which leaves little room for a late change. Settle the colours and quantities early, and confirm the delivery date with the florist rather than assuming it.

  • Anything printed needs final wording

    Signage carries names, times and directions, and a reprint is both a cost and a delay. Printing waits on the information being genuinely final.

  • Hire has two dates

    Hired linen and larger pieces arrive on one date and go back on another, and the return date can be the easier of the two to overlook. An item carries a single deadline, so the second date belongs in its Notes.

  • Lights need testing and power

    Fairy lights want unpacking, testing and counting before the day — and somewhere to plug in that the venue has agreed to.

Hire, borrow, and the morning after

Much of this list is wanted for a single day, which is reason enough to ask what needs owning at all.

Hire
Linen, candle holders, larger structures, and anything you would otherwise store for one day’s use.
Borrow or pass on
Someone who has married recently may still have much of this list and no further use for it, so it is worth asking before buying.
Buy and resell
If something has to be bought, keeping the boxes keeps open the option of passing it on afterwards.
Decide the morning after now
Who collects what, and where it goes. It is a decision rather than a purchase, which is why it is the easiest one to leave until the day.

Open it as a plan

Everything above works on paper. If you would rather keep it on your phone — with each line carrying its own price, priority, notes, deadline and a link to the thing you found — the iPhone app ships a Wedding template that starts you with a 8-item checklist instead of an empty project.

  1. Add a project

    In the app, tap the + control in the centre of the tab bar. Its accessibility label is “Add a project”.

  2. Start from a template

    The “New project” sheet opens. Use the “Start from a template” row rather than typing a name into an empty project.

  3. Pick Wedding

    Choose the “Wedding” chip. The sheet says how many starter items it will add and pre-fills the project name, which you can edit here.

  4. Create project

    Tap “Create project”. The project opens with its checklist already written, and every line is yours to rename, delete or re-prioritise.

Wedding is the chip in the template picker. The project name arrives pre-filled as Wedding décor, and that part is yours to change before or after you create the project.

What the Wedding template starts you with

Suggestions, and this template is décor specifically: the things on tables and walls rather than the whole wedding. A line the venue has ruled out is worth deleting rather than leaving on the list as something you cannot do.

  • Table centrepieces
  • Flowers
  • Candles
  • Signage
  • Favours
  • Table linen
  • Lighting / fairy lights
  • Guest book

What you can change. Every line is a suggestion: rename it, delete it, or add something the template never mentioned. Priority is one of Urgent, Normal or Can Wait, so nothing has to be deleted to be put off.

Coming soon on theApp Store

Plannli is an iPhone app. Nothing on this page needs it.