We are completely spoilt here in Devon with beautiful spots to hold your wedding, whether it is a clifftop marquee setting or one with a stunning beachside view, a coastal wedding can be one of the most stunning ways to celebrate.

When it comes to marquee weddings, flowers are one of the most crucial and important aspects of the day to get right. A completely blank canvas to decorate, it can often seem overwhelming when you are newly engaged and beginning to plan your big day. I am here to help you break down the important elements of dressing a marquee with natural, elegant and of course seasonal flowers for your coastal wedding.

country church wedding flowers:

Quite often with marquee weddings, the wedding ceremony is a church service, often in a local church close proximity to the marquee. It is a chance for the couple to celebrate their wedding in a traditional religious setting, followed on with the more flexible, blank canvas of planning a marquee wedding celebration. My couple here were married in September at the beautiful Lee Bay church, in North Devon. The church is one of the prettiest I have ever seen with intricate, detailed paintings decorating the inside of the church. The church interior actually inspired the colour palette for the whole day, and my bride being a talented illustrator, knew the huge significance and importance of this. The attention to detail was second to none and you will see from these gorgeous photographs from Joshua Gooding just how many details and special touches the couple focused on throughout the special day. Planned perfectly by Natalie, Hyland Weddings.

How to dress a church entrance with flowers:

The entrance to your church should be one of the areas that you really concentrate on decorating with flowers, it is the first welcome your guests will see on arrival and letting them into a glimpse of what they can expect decor wise throughout the rest of the day. We created a show stopping floral arch surrounding the church entrance, full of September seasonal flowers and British foliage. Flowers like dahlias, hydrangeas, roses worked so well alongside foliage like abelia, snowberry and eucalyptus. Not only did the archway look stunning, it smelt fabulous too with so many guests complimenting, with local villagers even saying ‘ohhhh, it must be someone famous getting married!’ There was a complete buzz around the village!

Where to place flowers inside a church:

The altar is a key place to decorate with flowers for your church wedding. Framing the area where you both will stand for the duration of your ceremony is super important. You can do this in lots of ways, from large statement urns of vases complete with a beautiful arrangement, or potentially there may be space for an archway or floral pillars here too. Floor standing meadow arrangements or milk churns also work well in country church settings like we used here full of natural foliage and blousy blooms. Lee Bay church is special in the fact it has lots of ornate candlesticks spaced throughout the pews, so we attached sweet little posies with complimenting ribbon to each candlestick, as well as the pews. These little bunches worked so well en masse and replicated the tiny paint symbols and motifs on the coloured church wall. Windows ledges are also another important place to not overlook, so we filled gorgeous ceramic vases full of flowers to really create a cohesive look within the church.

bride and groom at altar surrounded by stylish pew ends in country church

Dressing a marquee for a Croyde coastal wedding:

The marquee, provided by Hambledon Marquees, was situated literally overlooking Croyde Beach, which is arguably one of the best views in North Devon! The marquee decor needed to complement this amazing view, and you just couldn’t compete with it! Our brides sensitive colour palette of soft blue and pale pink was feminine yet with a nod to the coast and so we had plenty to work with here. In order to bring the romantic and soft colour palette inline with the late September season, we added in a tiny pop of red in the form of berries throughout the flowers. Focusing on a wide range of seasonal foliage, this also made sure the colour palette was seasonal yet romantic & elegant.

Your marquee entrance is a great place to start with decoration, we created full floral pillars to dress either side of the marquee making a true statement. This softened the entrance and really led guests into the marquee, where they were instantly hit with the most amazing bar I have ever seen. Fizzy Pheasant are just a joy to work with, having worked with them a few times (although sadly never having partaken in any of their cocktails due to always being on duty!) I have heard from many people they are absolutely delicious. We wanted to create a beautiful scene with the bar filling baskets of gorgeous overflowing foliage and blooms, to again further the decoration of the entrance part of the marquee. Ceramic bowls were placed on the bar to again create a really full and cohesive look.

marquee bar under flower chandelier with a flower installation surrounding the bar

The importance of floral chandeliers in a marquee:

Marquees provide so much flexibility when it comes to floral decoration, but flowering in the ceiling is really somewhere you do not want to overlook. Marquees have huge expansive ceilings, and alongside lots of careful lighting flowers can provide much needed atmosphere and interest to a ceiling. There are lots of things to be mindful of when contemplating marquee ceiling installations, like the number of poles your marquee has, whether your marquee company will install special mechanics for you to create, will you bring your own hoops/planks or do the marquee hire out, how heavy will your installation be. These are questions that your wedding florist will take care of, but when booking a wedding florist do make sure they are highly experienced in dealing with marquee weddings.

We created two large scale flower hoops in the marquee, full of the most delicious seasonal ingredients. Buckets of foliage, huge trailing rose hips, large muted hydrangea branches and soft accents of pink in the snowberry. The combination of colour, texture, and tone suited the pale ivory backdrop of the marquee perfectly adding just the right amount of warmth and interest. Top add further detail to the ceiling we created metres of natural foliage garlands to delicate hang throughout, these were placed in a carefully considered way to ensure they looked stylish and not random, yet thoughtful and random… that is harder than you think! By using trailing ferns we could create a subtle botanical feel to the installation, which carefully complimented the larger more statement flower chandeliers.

stylish high end marquee with flower chandeliers, trailing foliage garlands and delicate bud vases in Croyde marquee

How to dress your marquee wedding tables:

When contemplating your wedding table decorations, do think about your table layout and ask your marquee supplier or wedding planner for a marquee layout design. This is not only helpful for yourselves, but also for your wedding florist who will need to determine the number of tables, the size and the shape. Round, long, banquet, rectangle…. extra large round, and quite probably a mix of a few combinations! The list really is endless, so once you have your layout determined that is when you can think about table florals. Another point to consider is how heavy are you flowering the ceiling, and how much of a full flower look would you love? Quite often couples opt for lower arrangements on the table such as ceramic bowls or vases if there is a lot of flower decoration going on in the ceiling. Alternative tall arrangements give height and granduer and can be a more formal way of dressing your marquee, a mix of both works fabulously allowing your eye to be drawn throughout various parts of the marquee. It is aesthetically pleasing on the eye and softens the whole space, however I do understand how some couples prefer just one of the other keeping their tablescape look the same throughout.

Our couple in our Croyde marquee chose a mix of glass votives filled with delicate seasonal flowers such as astrantia, oxypetalum, roses, cosmos, dahlias, rose hips and lots of stunning foliage. By using votives in various heights you get an interesting mix throughout the centre of the table making the tables feel considered yet natural. We added in touches of coloured glass to in the form of pale pink and blue, to add an extra layer on interest. Coloured linen, napkins and the most beautifully illustrated table names by Georgie really elevated the whole tablescape.

If you are planning a wedding marquee in the South West and looking for wedding flowers, I would love to hear all your big day plans! Do look through the blog which has so many helpful articles such as ‘The complete guide to planning your marquee wedding flowers’ alongside so many beautiful real life marquee wedding examples. Instagram is also full of plenty of behind the scenes at a busy wedding florist and daily flower inspiration!