Questions to Ask Wedding Decorator
Twenty questions for hiring a wedding decorator: what a quote covers, what is rented, how much of your venue can actually be changed, who installs on the day, and who takes it all down at the end.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Can I see photographs from a wedding you did at a venue like ours?
Why ask it
Portfolio images are shot in the best rooms a decorator has ever worked in. Asking for a comparable space, similar size, similar ceiling, similar amount of ugly carpet, shows you what they do with ordinary conditions rather than ideal ones.
Would you describe your work as having a style, or do you build whatever the couple brings you?
Why ask it
Both answers are fine; a vague one is not. Decorators with a signature look produce their best work inside it and their worst outside it. If they claim total range, ask to see two weddings that look nothing alike.
What does this quote include, and what tends to appear as a separate line later?
Why ask it
The usual late additions are delivery, labor beyond a set number of hours, a second crew for a room flip, and replacement of damaged rentals. Getting them named now converts a surprise into a decision.
Which items are rented and which do we keep at the end of the night?
Why ask it
Couples routinely assume they own things they are hiring, then find a charge for a vase that went home with a guest. The rented list is also the list of things someone has to count and return by a deadline.
If you had our budget, where would you spend it and what would you skip?
Why ask it
This is the question that separates a designer from an order taker. A useful answer concentrates money where guests spend time and stops decorating places nobody looks. A useless one says everything is important.
How much of this venue can you actually change?
Why ask it
Some rooms resist decoration: fixed lighting, patterned carpet, low ceilings, a colour on the walls that fights everything. An honest decorator will tell you what will still be visible in photographs no matter what they hang.
What have you seen not work in this space?
Why ask it
Anyone who has worked the building has a list, and it is more useful than their inspiration board. If they have never been there, ask when they will visit, and whether that visit is billed.
Do you arrange flowers yourself, or work alongside a florist?
Why ask it
This decides who owns the look when the two disagree. Two separate suppliers both choosing colour and scale without a lead produces a room that reads as two weddings, and neither will accept responsibility afterwards.
How many hours do you need for setup, and does our venue actually give you that window?
Why ask it
Venues often release the room far later than decorators would like, particularly when there is an event the night before. A decorator who has not checked the access time is quoting for a day they may not get.
Who will be on site on the day: you, or a crew?
Why ask it
The person who designs is frequently not the person who installs. If a crew is doing it, ask who leads them, how long that lead has worked with the decorator, and who you call if something is in the wrong place.
What happens if a rental arrives damaged or in the wrong colour that morning?
Why ask it
Substitutions are normal; how they are handled is not. Listen for whether they hold spares, have a backup supplier, or will simply tell you at the door that the linen is now ivory instead of white.
How do the ceremony pieces get moved to the reception, and who moves them?
Why ask it
The flip is the most common source of extra cost and the most common thing nobody assigns. If the answer is that the venue staff will do it, confirm that with the venue rather than with the decorator.
Given the ceiling height and sightlines here, what is the tallest thing you would put on a table?
Why ask it
It is a technical question with a right answer, and it reveals whether they think about the guests' experience. Centrepieces that block conversation across a round table look excellent in photographs and ruin dinner.
How do you handle candles and open flame, and what does the venue allow?
Why ask it
Fire rules vary and are often stricter than couples expect: enclosed flame only, or none at all. A decorator who quotes for open tapers without checking is creating an argument on the day with the venue manager.
Are you insured, and can the venue receive a copy of the certificate?
Why ask it
Venues increasingly require proof of liability cover before a supplier is allowed to load in. A decorator who hesitates here may not be able to work your venue at all, which you want to learn now.
What is the last date I can change a detail without paying for it?
Why ask it
Order deadlines with wholesalers and rental houses are real dates, not negotiating positions. Knowing them tells you when your colour decisions genuinely close, which is usually earlier than the couple assumes.
If we need to reduce the budget partway through planning, what is the first thing you would cut?
Why ask it
The answer tells you what they consider decorative rather than structural. It also tests whether they will scale the design down cleanly or simply remove items and leave gaps in the room.
What do you need us to supply, and by when?
Why ask it
Photographs, table plan, place cards, guest count, and often the personal items you want displayed. Each has a deadline, and missing one usually means the item does not appear.
Who takes everything down, when, and where do our own items end up?
Why ask it
Breakdown often happens after midnight or early the next morning, and personal items get boxed by whoever is nearest. Name the pile they go into and the person who collects it, or expect to lose something.
Have you ever turned down a wedding, and what made you say no?
Why ask it
A decorator with standards will describe a budget that could not deliver what the couple wanted, or a venue that made the plan impossible. Someone who has never declined anything is either new or will say yes to your unrealistic idea too.
Hiring and briefing a wedding decorator
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
What to bring to the first conversation
Photographs of your actual venue, empty
Not inspiration images: the room itself, in daylight and at the time of day your reception starts. Wall colour, carpet, ceiling height and window position determine most of what is possible, and no design conversation is real without them.
A number you are willing to say out loud
Decorators design to a budget, and one that stays hidden gets guessed at high. Giving a figure, and saying whether it includes flowers, gets you a proposal you can act on rather than a proposal you have to dismantle.
Your guest count and table shape
Round tables of ten need a different centrepiece from long tables of twenty-four, and the count decides how many of everything gets multiplied. A design priced against the wrong count changes materially later.
Two or three things you care about, and one you do not
Naming something you are happy to skip is more useful than another photograph. It tells the decorator where they are allowed to save money, which is where your priorities get funded.
Reading the quote
- Check whether labor is a fixed sum or an hourly rate with an assumed number of hours.
- Look for delivery and collection as separate lines, particularly for a venue outside their usual radius.
- Confirm whether the room flip between ceremony and reception is included or quoted as extra crew.
- Ask what a damaged or missing rental item costs, item by item, before you sign.
- Find out whether the quote assumes a set access window, and what happens if the venue shortens it.
- Check whether flowers are priced at current market or at the price when the quote was written.
- Ask what portion is non-refundable and at what point in the calendar it becomes so.
Signals worth slowing down for
A proposal with no numbers on it
Mood boards and adjectives cost nothing to produce. If a decorator will not attach quantities and prices to the design after a second meeting, you cannot compare them with anyone else and you cannot hold them to it.
Agreement with everything you say
Someone who never pushes back on a colour, a scale or a budget is planning to solve the mismatch later, on the day, by leaving something out. Mild disagreement early is a good sign.
No knowledge of your venue and no plan to visit
Access times, loading routes, fire rules and what can be attached to a wall are all site facts. A decorator working from photographs alone will discover these on the morning.
Vagueness about who is actually installing
If the crew is subcontracted and unnamed a month before the wedding, the quality of your room is being decided by whoever is available that weekend.
How the conversation usually goes best
- 1Start with their work in a comparable room, so the discussion stays inside what is achievable.
- 2Give the budget and the guest count before asking for ideas.
- 3Ask what they would spend it on, then ask what they would cut, and listen for consistency.
- 4Move to logistics: access hours, crew, the room flip, breakdown.
- 5Finish with contract questions: insurance, change deadlines, damage charges, cancellation.