
Buying Guide for Wedding Decorations

Why buy wedding decorations?
While all weddings are beautiful, they can sometimes feel a bit generic. It’s important to have a few elements you and your partner chose to make the day feel like yours. Plus, most wedding decorations are affordable, easy to hang or display, and can give your wedding a little oomph. Buying wedding decorations offers several advantages for your wedding celebration. Purchasing decorations allows you to personalize your venue, reflecting your unique style and preferences, while creating a cohesive theme or color scheme that represents you and your partner’s personalities. Additionally, carefully chosen decorations significantly enhance the visual appeal of the venue, transforming a plain space into a stunning setting through elegant centerpieces, beautiful flower arrangements, or charming lighting. These decorations also play a crucial role in setting the desired mood and atmosphere, whether you envision a romantic, whimsical, or sophisticated ambiance.
Furthermore, wedding decorations provide captivating backdrops for photographs, adding depth, color, and texture to create stunning compositions and lasting memories. Beautifully decorated venues also leave a lasting impression on guests, making them feel welcome and immersed in the celebration, enhancing their overall experience. Certain wedding decorations can become cherished keepsakes, such as personalized signs, guest books, or decorative elements with sentimental value, serving as reminders of your special day. While buying decorations may involve an initial cost, it can be a cost-effective option compared to renting or hiring decor items, especially if you plan to use them for future events or sell them afterward. Ultimately, the decision to buy wedding decorations depends on your preferences, budget, and vision for your wedding, with the goal of creating a beautiful and memorable celebration that reflects your love and style.
What should you consider when buying wedding decorations?
- Theme: Here’s the thing—most wedding decor is beautiful, but to avoid having your reception look like the party store exploded all over it, keep in mind your general theme or aesthetic. From art-deco to boho glam, shabby chic, there are wedding decorations that can fit your vibe.
- What Your Venue Provides: Most reception halls offer basic rental packages or decor like votives and tablecloths. Weddings are expensive enough, so make sure you don’t have any cross-over. For instance, if they have a floral arch, you don’t need to snag a garland of your own.
- Ease of Display: Get clear with your venue on who is responsible for putting up which decorations. Weddings get complicated between your caterer, florist, and venue, so you don’t want any items that will get lost or stress you out on the day of. Look for items that come with all assembly parts, are easy to set up and takedown, or can just be set on a table for a gorgeous display.
Should you have all DIY wedding decorations?
While DIY weddings are increasingly popular, they can also take wedding stress to a whole new level, and the truth is, they don’t always save money. You might find yourself breaking even between the cost of materials, time spent, and cost of repairs and mistakes. Buying a few key pieces of wedding decorations can give your day the customized DIY feeling without all of the panic and paper cuts of doing everything yourself.
Our Picks for the Best Wedding Decorations
SHYMERY Flameless Votive Candles
Get all of the flicker and none of the flame in this 24-pack of LED votive candles.
Pros: If you’re looking to create an enchanting ambiance, these LED candles are an excellent choice. Evening weddings are enhanced by flickering candles, but many people forget that someone has to light every one of those candles, keep them lit, replace them as they burn out, and clean up the wax at the end of the night. This 24-pack of LED candles does away with that need, and they’re also not going to send your party up into literal flames. These candles beautifully mimic the appearance of real candles with their wavy edges and emit a realistic-looking light that effectively illuminates your space. What sets these candles apart is their long-lasting lighting time. They can work up to 200 hours, twice as long as similar products. Moreover, the batteries are easily replaceable through the label at the bottom, ensuring their extended use. In summary, purchasing the SHYMERY 24 Pack Flameless LED Votive candles will provide you with a convenient, safe, and captivating lighting solution that adds warmth and romance to any occasion.
Cons: LED technology can sometimes exhibit variations in performance, leading to slight differences in burn time or brightness among the candles. This means that you may notice some candles burning for slightly less time or having a dimmer appearance compared to others within the set.
Bottom Line: If safety and reliability concern you or your venue doesn’t allow lit flames, these are fantastic solutions. They won’t blow out, burn fingers, or catch your dress on fire.
Brightown 12 Pack LED Fairy Lights
LED string lights that can be used on archways, in jars, or along tables.
Pros: These fairy string lights can elevate centerpiece decor, be draped along with the gift table, or be strung through your wedding arch if you’re having an evening ceremony. They add a touch of elegant whimsy and can be reused for various events, from the engagement party to your big day and beyond. These lights feature 20 LED bulbs per pack, each made with high-quality 7 feet long flexible silver wire. The silver wire is soft and bendable, allowing you to effortlessly shape and wrap it around various objects like wreaths, trees, plants, or flowers, making them ideal for weddings and other decorative purposes. Furthermore, these fairy lights have an IP65 waterproof rating, ensuring they can be used both indoors and outdoors. The lights are designed with safety and energy efficiency in mind, emitting a soft warm glow that remains cool to the touch. With 72 hours of battery life, you can enjoy extended usage without frequent battery changes.
Cons: Because these are electric string lights, you can’t trim and tailor them as you would with normal garland, so you’ll need to have a good sense of how much you need and where. It’s important to note that while the string lights themselves are waterproof, the battery pack is not.
Bottom Line: If you’re looking to add a touch of enchantment to your space, these fairy lights are an excellent choice. With an impressive battery life of up to 72 hours, these fairy lights will effortlessly illuminate and enhance any event.
Pros: Maybe your venue has a bare-bones arch or you’re creating your own for the big day. In that case, this faux wisteria garland makes any ceremonial arch look lush, glamorous, and natural. You can get it in light purple, pink, purplish red, or green and white. They also look great on top of table runners. With its impressive 7.2-foot length, this wisteria offers ample coverage for your decorative needs. Crafted from environmentally friendly plastic for sturdy stems and silk cloth for the flowers and leaves, these wisteria vines exude high-quality craftsmanship and a realistic appearance. Furthermore, wisteria holds a traditional symbolism of love and happiness, allowing you to infuse your decor with deeper meaning and create visually stunning displays. Whether you use them to fashion table garlands, flower arches, or nearly anywhere else on your big day, these artificial wisteria flowers will look great.
Cons: In some cases, the flowers can fall off, so don’t be afraid to use a hot glue gun to keep things secure.
Bottom Line: Weddings can never have too many flowers, but they can get costly quickly. This faux wisteria arch provides beautiful, workable flowers and foliage to enhance a wedding arch or table decor. Its size, material, and natural appearance make it a perfect choice for various occasions and settings.
Floroom Artificial Flowers 25pcs
These exquisite roses will effortlessly enhance your ceremony's decor.
Pros: Consider this set a Pinterest wedding must-have. Crafted from soft and high-quality PE foam, these roses possess the exquisite look and feel of fresh flowers, adding an air of elegance to any setting. With each rose head measuring approximately 3 inches in diameter and a flexible wire stem of about 8 inches in length, these roses are perfect for DIY projects. Whether you’re designing bouquets, centerpieces, boutonnieres, cake decorations, or any other floral arrangement, these roses provide you with endless creative freedom.
Cons: The slight size variations and minor color differences between different dye lots can result in an inconsistent appearance, potentially affecting the overall aesthetic of your arrangements. This may require additional effort to ensure a cohesive and visually pleasing display.
Bottom Line: For every wedding occasion, these roses are the perfect choice. Elevate your floral creations with their lifelike beauty and enjoy the endless possibilities they offer.
Decor365 Champagne Gold Glitter Dots Garland
Here's 52 feet of hole-punched shimmering streamers.
Pros: These simple paper decorations add shimmering elegance to any wedding venue. They are ideal for venues with exposed wood beams or tents. Crafted with high-quality cardstock and hand-sewn with sturdy silver string, these blingy circle dots add an elegant touch to your home or party. Their versatility makes them suitable for a wide range of events, from weddings and baby showers to birthdays and Christmas celebrations. With easy assembly and durability, these garlands can be hung or attached to various surfaces. Choose these circle streamers to infuse your venue with a touch of glamour.
Cons: Setup can be a pain. Someone will likely have to get on a ladder, which is not something all venues offer.
Bottom Line: Shimmering gold glitter and metallic finishes on these paper dots help to bring a touch of glamour to any event and can add color beyond the typical whites and ivories of most receptions.
Final Thoughts
Even when your venue has most of the basics covered, adding a few personal touches to your wedding decor has a big impact. You can use wedding decorations to make a beautiful gift table, enhance a photo booth, and give a wow factor. Take time to select some of the best, high-impact wedding decorations to take your wedding day to the next level.