Styling a wedding in the Midlands

Most of what goes wrong with wedding styling is decided weeks before the day, in a hire agreement or a line of a venue's rules that nobody read out loud.

Wedding styling is the part of the day people notice and the part nobody is taught anything about. You are asked to choose linen, centrepieces, chair treatments, lighting and signage, usually without having seen any of it in a real room, and usually while the venue is quietly enforcing rules you have not been told.

This guide covers the practical side of that. Not what looks nice, which is yours to decide, but how the machinery works: who does what, what is hired and what is bought, what venues will and will not allow, and where the money actually goes.

What this covers

Start with what a stylist actually does, because the word covers four different jobs and the quotes you receive will price them differently. Then hiring décor, which is where most of the budget goes and where the contracts have teeth.

Venue restrictions is the page to read before you fall in love with anything. Candles, drapes, fixings, confetti and setup windows are all governed by rules that came from a fire risk assessment or an insurer, not from a preference, and they are not negotiable in the way people hope.

Then the components: table styling, chair treatments, linen and textiles, lighting, signage and stationery, flowers and foliage, and ceremony styling.

Finally the parts that decide whether the day runs: setup and turnaround, seasonal considerations, and styling a marquee or a barn, which is a different discipline from styling a room that already has walls.

What this is not

No prices, no supplier listings and no recommendations. Décor pricing depends on quantity, distance, season and what the venue makes you pay for, and a figure published today would mislead by next spring. Where a supplier matters we say to ask them directly.

There are no photographs of other people's weddings here either. The images that circulate in this industry are frequently reused without permission, and a styled shoot photographed for a magazine is not a useful guide to what a real room looks like at seven in the evening.

The three things that catch people out

Hire is not purchase, and the agreement says so. You are responsible for the items from delivery to collection, including breakage, wax, candle burn, staining and anything that walks off with a guest. Read hiring décor before signing anything.

The venue's rules outrank your plan. A room with a fire risk assessment that prohibits naked flame will not permit candles, whatever the photographs on the hire company's site show. See venue restrictions.

Setup is a time window, not a task. If the venue gives you three hours between the ceremony room being cleared and guests arriving, everything you have planned has to happen inside it, and the person doing it is either paid or is your family. See setup and turnaround.

Where to start

If you have a venue and a date, read venue restrictions first, then budget. If you are still choosing, read what a stylist does so you know what you are buying when someone quotes you. And there is a list of questions worth putting to a stylist or hire company before you pay a deposit.