Expert advice from our team at The Old Vicarage and our friends in the wedding industry on how to optimise your small wedding venue, whether you're planning your special day with us or not.
In our eyes, there are no downsides to a small wedding venue. If anything, we think that a more intimate space makes it easier to bring your friends and family together, create a rich, ambient atmosphere and achieve a unified aesthetic across the different touch points of your scheme. But, we understand that with less space comes the need to make important decisions on the planning of the day, flow of the rooms and decor choices that feel effortless and chic - not cluttered or overwhelming.
At The Old Vicarage, we work with cohesive, lighter colour palettes, paired back furnishings and a balance of contemporary design to complement our period features to ensure that our smaller wedding venue fits the bill just so. From a conservatory bursting with natural light to high ceilings that elongate our historical rooms, we’ve been perfecting the art of accentuating space for years.
The Sunday Floral Studio, Ellastrations, Alba Tableware, Pear & Bear Photography
Whether you’re imagining your special day with us, or you’re looking for tips on how to decorate and make the most of a small venue generally, we hope these ideas will help you plan the event of your dreams. And, if you need more advice, our team is always on hand and we have a calendar of open days for you to come and see the place for yourself and discuss how to transform it into a unique backdrop just for you, thanks to the advice of our local suppliers and wedding experts.
Make the most of your flowers
Nikki McKinney, founder of The Bell Jar Flowers shares why she loves working with small wedding venues and The Old Vicarage in particular.
There are so many ways that you can use floral arrangements to create an impact, especially in a smaller wedding venue, but one easy tip from florist Nikki McKinney of The Bell Jar Flowers is to make the most of your ceremony flowers. “In a smaller venue, I always especially encourage repurposing flowers from the ceremony and using them again at the reception. This is more easily done at a smaller venue as the space is much easier to access and move the flowers across, with not as much space to fill. To aid this, I create light and easily-moved designs and have always found The Old Vicarage so helpful in achieving this for the wedding party. The fact that couples have exclusive-use of a more personal venue means that this is all the more possible.” Not only is this method waste-friendly, it can save you budget and actually create a more fluid feeling of continuity throughout the day.
Don’t be afraid to lean into the lack of space
Instead of pushing against the closeness of a small venue, enjoy it! Remember, you chose it for a reason and there's so many ways to make it work for your day.
You might be thinking that the best way to work with a smaller venue is to create the illusion of space - but actually, bigger isn’t always better. If you’ve chosen a small wedding venue for a reason, lean into that and enjoy the intimacy it affords. One way to do this is by using installations to lower the ceiling and create a close, cosy vibe. Imagine a central dining table, dressed to perfection, and above a canopy of linen or silk fabric or perhaps a cloud of foliage or suspended flowers. Using decor which complements your day’s aesthetic to create an almost immersive experience for your guests can take the mood of your event, and in turn the ambience and atmosphere, to the next level.
Favour long dining tables
We use stretching tables to elongate our dining space and make it easier for guests to connect, talk and feast family-style.
If you’re dealing with a smaller reception area, we’d recommend not going for multiple round or rectangular tables, and instead choosing a banquette-style dining experience instead. With smaller tables, precious space can be lost in between seating and when we’re trying to create an effortless flow throughout the room, chairs backing against each other and a cluttered, overwhelmed feel, is the opposite of what we want to achieve. Instead, stick with the elegance of a long dining table, with a continual dressing of decor, flowers and candles throughout, perhaps with a waterfall fabric effect on the ends to push that illusion of length.
Enjoy the role of scent in a small space
Bianca Newton, founder of Glass & Wick, shares her expert advice on why scent is such an important tool, especially in a smaller wedding venue.
The role of scent in a wedding day is becoming more and more prominent, adding to the list of ways we can not only personalise this momentous event, but create memories which will last forever. Now, we’re finding that couples are taking the time to consider the type of scent they want associated with their wedding; from light and fresh notes, to springtime florals, to heady, rich aromas. However, if tying the knot in a sprawling country house or perhaps an outdoor venue, scented candles and diffusers will understandably get a little lost. While, in a small venue, a carefully planned collaboration between wax burners, candles and diffusers can layer an incredible symphony of scents, to hit just the right note for your day and really wow your guests. Think gliding into a dining room alive with the fragrance of English roses and fresh freesias, lifting the atmosphere and mood in a way which can’t be attained in a much larger venue.
Bianca Newton, founder of Glass & Wick, shares her own experience: “When my own husband and I got married, we (of course) scented our wedding day. From the church to our evening reception, we filled our venue with scents that we love, and nothing takes us back to our day more so than those scents. As well as scenting your venue, you could go the extra mile and purchase candles or wax melts in your wedding day scents as gifts or even favours for your wedding party, so that your loved ones can relive the day, too!” If you are wondering how to layer scents for your special day, Bianca and her team offer a bespoke wedding service, but to get you started she explains: “The most effective way to scent your venue is layering various products. Generally speaking, strategically placed burners with wax melts provide the most impactful scent throw. This can then be complemented by candles on tables, mantles and windowsills to bring that comforting glow and a subtle infusion of a secondary scent that sits perfectly alongside another.”
Optimise natural light where possible
For us, there's almost nothing more important than the way natural light fills, illuminates and uplifts a space. Our advice is to make as much of it as possible within your celebration.
Lighting is one of the most important parts of creating atmosphere in a space, wherever you are. But, of course, in a smaller environment, natural light can have an even bigger impact in terms of opening up the room, making it feel spacious and inviting. At The Old Vicarage, our conservatory is a stunning example of how important natural light can be, and we’ve chosen to accentuate this with a neutral colour palette across walls and furnishings, to reflect the light around the space. By holding important moments of your day, such as the ceremony, in areas where natural light is at its best you can actively make that a feature of your proceedings.
Create a journey for your guests
Award-winning Textile Artist Mia Sylvia Herrod is a long-time friend of The Old Vicarage and one of our favourite suppliers to work with on giving our venue a unique feel.
Even if your venue is petite, you can still create a journey for your guests by leading them through the space and zoning different areas. At The Old Vicarage, we love working with textile artist Mia Sylvia Herrod, whose award-winning work has transformed venues all over the world using organic, hand-dyeing methods to create installations, overhead canopies, statement tables and feature archways, and so much more! Her unique pieces add another element to the backdrop of an event, and we are particularly in awe of the way she has shaped The Old Vicarage for styled shoots, open days and weddings.
Mia shares: “Fabric can be curated to take guests on a journey, creating a sense of mood and atmosphere at pivotal moments throughout the day. You can do this in almost any venue, but at The Old Vicarage the conservatory works really well when transformed into an intimate, romantic dining room with generous waves of organically-dyed linen, dripping down the tables with a few choice pieces overhead. Especially if part of your day is outside or spent in the lounge area, an installation like this will really surprise guests and bring a totally different feel to the seated meal."
Design centrepieces with height variation
Work with your florist on table arrangements and centrepieces that suit a dinner party atmosphere.
To create an aesthetic that feels full of depth, use layers throughout every element of the scheme - from colour palette to scent. But, when it comes to centrepieces we find that an intimate dining experience is made only more beautiful with carefully planned florals, sitting at varying heights throughout the table. The aim is to keep things fairly low to ensure that the space flows and guests aren’t cut off from each other, but it’s important to mix things up in terms of height, shape, texture and flower variety. Whether it be clusters of roses or footed bowls of tall, elegant lilies, work with your florist to include variety to make the experience feel intimate and rich, instead of one dimensional. You can also incorporate fruit, vegetables, objects and art in between the arrangements to continue this sense of flow, and avoid too much contrast.
Fill the space with candlelight
Design a lighting scheme using candles to switch up the mood of your celebration come evening.
We’ve already mentioned the importance of light, but as the evening draws in, candles are a must have - especially in a smaller venue where their presence can really be felt. Different types of light can bounce around a space and really bring it to life, and in a smaller room, an amassing of candles can transform it into a romantic wonderland with an ambience which will have your guests feeling really in the moment. There are so many ways to go from stunning silver candelabras which have well and truly made a comeback, to clusters of pillar candles at different heights or use windows, mantlepieces, side tables and floor corners to make the whole room glow, while leaving tables free for food.
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