Creating the perfect atmopshere for your wedding day

Date: 29th January 2022

It can be so exciting and also a little bit daunting to be in the last planning stage of your wedding. By now you’re likely to have secured most, if not all, of the more practical elements and can focus on making sure the day will flow nicely, has a hint of your personalities, and just feels right.

Everything about your big day should be a reflection of you as a couple. A lot of that will fall into place naturally with venue and food selections, but creating the right atmosphere will also stem from how you want your day to be. Some couples want a very relaxed and easy feel to their day whereas others might want it to have much more of a party vibe throughout.

Once you have an idea of style for your day there are lots of things you can do to set the mood whilst adding hints of your personality along the way…

Ideas to add personality

Adding something from an activity you’ve done together or your hobbies is a really nice way to instantly add some of your character to your special day. This could be something simple like using books as an element of your table centres or to dress your cake table if you like reading, or on a larger scale like one of our lovely couples who used a sail as their table plan to reflect their love of being on the water!

The style of these additions will also help to set the mood for the day, lots of candles and foliage surrounding a tent peg would set a great relaxed tone to the day for a couple who enjoy camping whereas table centres that feature lots of colour and mirrorballs would suggest a much more lively day.

The importance of background music

A lot of thought is often put into music selections for the ceremony and evening entertainment but it is often overlooked for the drinks reception and wedding breakfast.

With the timing of the drinks reception you can often benefit from lots of natural light and using any outdoor spaces that your venue might have but this doesn’t mean you can’t have music to set the tone. Acoustic musicians are a great option for a relaxed atmosphere and in spaces where power is a little more tricky; but did you know that you if you wanted to create your own playlist or have a DJ you can hire sound systems that run completely from battery?

For the wedding breakfast lots of venues now have sound systems so that you can create a playlist and easily connect to which gives you lots of options for different songs and music. If you are having a marquee wedding or your venue doesn’t have a sound system you might want to look into different options to have some music during the day. It may be that you work with musicians to play different sets throughout the day, or your evening entertainment are happy to arrive a little early and set something up for you. To keep everything with one supplier and use a specialist you may wish to explore the idea of using an event production company who can look after all of the technical bits for you and can liaise with different performers/entertainment so they all use the same equipment and there is much less setting up and taking down throughout the day.

One thing to remember for the drinks reception and wedding breakfast is that your guests will all want to talk to one another so you probably don’t want it to be too loud. If you have carefully chosen some performers or a playlist you want to make sure that everyone can hear the music but also don’t want it to be too loud so that you and your guests are having to shout just to have a conversation. To give you a great coverage of the space at a nice comfortable level you will need to consider the distribution of the sound system, this will depend entirely on your venue but is so important to create the best atmosphere – it also makes such a difference to the speeches too if you’re using microphones as it means it will be nice a clear and all of your guests will hear every word!

How to use lighting to create atmosphere

Lighting plays such a key role in creating the perfect atmosphere throughout your day and there are so many things you can do to make sure it fits perfectly with your venue and style.

The key thing to consider with lighting is the time of year that you are getting married. The length of our days varies so much and is often one of the biggest factors when we are discussing lighting options with our couples. The same lighting set-up in the same venue is nearly always going to be much more value for money in the winter months than the summer months.

Did you think to look at how much natural light there is in the different spaces that you will be using for your big day when you viewed the venue? This could be a striking feature of your whole venue or perhaps the different spaces within the venue have different characteristics. If you are looking to include lighting for your wedding we would recommend making a list of the different spaces that you are using, noting down what activities are happening there (ceremony, drinks reception, wedding breakfast etc), the time of day you will be in the space and how much natural light there is…

Once you have the outline plan for the rooms and whether they might need additional lighting you can then start to think about style. We’ll do another blog about the different styles of wedding lighting later in the year but for now a couple of tips for three more popular designs…

Fairylights are a simple but beautiful way to add some twinkle to your big day in an understated and elegant way. With the nature of fairylights the small lamps can get lost in rooms with lots of natural light during daytime so you might want to refer back to your room plan and check that it is a worthwhile use of your budget. That being said though, fairylights suit most venues and look absolutely stunning in darker spaces or at night time and can add a truly magical feel to the day.

Festoon lighting works well across most themes and gives a lovely glow and warmth to any space. One thing to consider with festoon is whether to have white or black harnessing (the harness is the cable that the lamps are connected into) as this can have a massive impact on the styling for your day; it will be somewhat lead by the venue and where you are hanging the festoon. Another thing to check is the lamp spacing to ensure the festoon will give you enough light and the effect you are hoping for. Festoon is a beautiful addition to the styling for your wedding day and benefits from being very neutral so it is a great option to give you chance to be more creative with florals or other décor without it clashing.

Uplighting is a brilliant way to add some colour into a space and highlight character features of your venue. You can really add some of your style and personality with colour and most uplights that are available will offer colour mixing capabilities so you can find a shade to compliment the theme and styling for your big day. If you are using the same space throughout the day for different things, changing the colour of uplighting can be a really simple way to transform the space – perhaps having a more neutral, blush colour palette for the ceremony or wedding breakfast and then changing to a more vibrant colour later for the evening reception. If you are hoping to include a change of colour for the uplights do check with your supplier about how this will work especially if you and your guests will still be in the room whilst you would like the colours to change. For some uplights to change colour someone would need to go round to each fixture and change it individually. It is quite a slow and not very smooth process but you can often add some additional control equipment to create a nice fade between one colour and another giving a really lovely effect.

Some other lighting styles to suit different styling and venues include filament lamps, paper lanterns, Moroccan lanterns, geometric lanterns, pin spots, break-up washes, and mirrorballs.

Whilst it might seem that there are a lot of things to think about and options to chose from, your suppliers can help you work through ideas and options to create something perfect for you and your big day. Your chosen venue will always be a key factor in the styling and will lead a lot of the décor choices; some designs look absolutely stunning in one venue but just don’t work at all in another!

We would always recommend another venue visit before finalising your ideas. If you have quotes from suppliers its so great to stand in the space and visualise how your day will look – and if your chosen suppliers can join you too so that you can talk through different options and possibilities you will come away feeling so confident that everything is going to be just how you want it. Don’t worry about meeting two suppliers at the same time if you are limited on when you can get access to the venue, it can actually be really useful! It gives us a chance to talk through what we have designed and really make sure that the overall concept for your big day all works together; a chat about the logistics of how it is all set-up and who will do what first is always super helpful too – especially if you don’t have a wedding planner to co-ordinate everything for you.

Let’s face it, whatever you do, all of your guests are there because they want to share your day with you and they will have such a brilliant time regardless BUT with those extra finishing touches it will be a day that they will remember forever.