The experts at Bijou Wedding Venues detail how to fill your venue space with props and attractions that your guests will love
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Welcome to the September edition of Ask Bijou. This month the team behind Bijou’s collection of exclusive use, country house wedding venues share their advice on spacing when it comes to your guest list. Do you have a question for the Bijou team? Email sarah.george@archant.co.uk to see the answer featured in a future edition of Ask Bijou…
September question: I’ve completely fallen in love with a wedding venue but I’m planning to have quite a small wedding and I’m worried my guests won’t 'fill' the space and it will look awkward. What can I do?
Bijou’s advice:
Wedding venues tend to have a minimum and a maximum guest number requirement. If your small guest list meets the minimum number requirement at the venue then you’ll certainly be able to make your wedding day work, one way or another. Here are our favourite ideas on how to make the best use of the space you have:
Interactive photo booth
We recently had a couple who transformed a corner of one of our country house venues in to a fantastic, interactive photo booth area, complete with a backdrop, box of props and a camera on a tripod to pose for. Think big when it comes to getting your guests involved.
Guest book display
There are so many creative guest book ideas around these days. To fill space in the room, consider setting up a guest book table, a gift/card drop table and possibly even a fully decorated cake table instead of having your cake on a traditional stand.
Dancefloor
Rather than have all of the tables moved after your banquet in order to create space for dancing, perhaps ask to have several tables pushed back with the dancefloor clearing in the middle. That way, guests will still have somewhere to sit and it will keep the room looking full.
Venue tip: If your venue doesn’t already offer one, and if space permits, ask about having a bar brought into the dancefloor area, so that guests can stay close by throughout the night.
Floral displays
You can never go wrong with flowers at a wedding, so discuss creating over-sized floral displays to feature at your wedding reception, with your floirist. Floral walls are hugely popular when it comes to a pretty backdrop for photographs, or, consider something along the lines of a floral arch in order to fill the room with focal points.
Live band
A live band will certainly take up a good amount of space in your wedding reception room. Guests will enjoy listening and dancing to a live band and good bands will focus on keeping your guests engaged throughout the night.
