Wedding Props

No, I haven’t come over all ghetto (ala Marcia Hines) on your asses. I’m talking actual wedding props. Having decided to go with the DIY wedding (scaled back from a moment of insanity that saw us temporarily book an entire city block and a circus) one of the challenges is how do you turn a slightly daggy venue in a killer location into an approximate replica of a stylish city bar? My first thought when this request came up was to hire a velvet rope and a gorilla, and wait for overdressed pretentious people on drugs to turn up and act like wankers. Hey, it seems to work quite well for transforming previously shitty locations in Sydney into allegedly groovy bars. Of course we had to put this idea aside when we realized that the possibility of finding a reasonable number of overdressed people on the central coast was approximately zero.

Back to plan B, which involves importing our own friends, family, booze, and props. I knew people went to a lot of trouble with wedding decorations, but I kind of always assumed that you just told the venue what you wanted. Or something like that. DIYing is a little different.

Tracking down 10 bar tables, bar stools, low couches, ottomans funky lamps, etc to hire isn’t that easy. Function hire places don’t do it, especially outside of Sydney. They’re more of the “did you want round tables or rectangular tables” types of outfits. Wedding hire places generally have ugly chairs covered with hideous pillowslips topped off with bows that look like they were swiped of Little Bow Peep’s frock, and often can’t understand why you don’t want everything in white. Furniture hire places aren’t mad on hiring stuff for only a weekend, especially with the thought of intoxicated wedding guests spilling red wine all over them.

So after weeks of stress, despair, and tears (and I’m just talking about me here) it was fantastic to find the lovely folk at Sydney Prop Specialists who not only have the coolest stuff, but gave us a great deal too. Now I just have to figure out how I can work the life-sized rhinoceros, Dr Who red UK phone box, and the pair of 4 meter high Nubian slaves into the reception.