Wedding Decor Hire in St. Ives

Every St Ives venue has its own personality, and the decor that suits a 15th-century guildhall won't suit a riverside marina. Here's how I approach styling across the town's most-booked venue types.

For historic town-centre venues like Slepe Hall Hotel and The Golden Lion

St Ives' town-centre hotels are full of period detail: sash windows, panelled walls, original fireplaces, and gardens that spill out onto the Quayside or Market Hill. The mistake I see couples make is over-decorating these rooms and burying the architecture they fell in love with. Use the period features as your backdrop, and lean on soft, abundant florals and warm candlelight rather than competing with them. Think David Austin garden roses, eucalyptus, astrantia, and sweet peas in season. White or ivory linen, charger plates, taper candles in brass holders, and compact centrepieces give you height without crowding sightlines. For the evening, fairy light canopies behind a top table or above the dance floor lift the whole space without requiring rigging.

For riverside and waterfront venues like Cambridge Marina and St Ives Golf Club

The Great Ouse is genuinely one of the prettiest backdrops we work with, so the styling should give the windows and the view their due. Long tables running the length of the room work brilliantly here, dressed with eucalyptus runners, taper candles, and bud vases of seasonal blooms. Colour palettes that pick up the river feel right against the water: sage, blush, soft white, a touch of dusty blue. For ceremonies on the lawn or jetty, a free-standing floral arch (rather than draped fabric, which the wind has opinions about) is the photo every couple wants. Outdoor weddings on the Ouse mean wind contingency, so I always plan a Plan B with the venue before we finalise.

For the Norris Museum, the Corn Exchange, and St Ives' historic civic spaces

The Grade II Corn Exchange, the Norris Museum's courtyard with York House, and the 15th-century Guildhall are some of the most distinctive blank-canvas spaces in Huntingdonshire. They reward a more editorial approach: a single show-stopping installation rather than scatter-styled details everywhere. A floral cloud over a long banquet table, a sculptural ceremony arch echoing the room's proportions, or a concentrated palette (think dusty pink and terracotta, or all-white with greenery) lands much harder than busy table styling. Civic and museum spaces also tend to have rules around real flame and wall fixings, so we'll plan around those early. Less, done beautifully, almost always wins in these rooms.

For barn and country venues near St Ives like Bassmead Manor Barns

Just outside the town, towards St Neots and Huntingdon, you've got proper exclusive-use barn venues with original beams, courtyards, and gardens to play with. These spaces lean romantic and seasonal. Abundant garden-style florals (peonies and stocks in early summer, dahlias in late summer, hydrangeas through autumn), trailing greenery down long tables, hanging installations from the beams, and aisle markers leading out into the grounds all work beautifully. Natural palettes feel honest in a barn: cream, sage, blush, oat. If your venue allows hanging installations, a floral cloud or fairy-light canopy from the central beam is the single most photographed setup I do in this kind of space.