The Ceremony
Arbour or backdrop built and weighted for the site, aisle dressed with the walkway kept generous, seating angled so guests at the back can see, and a signing table that is not the venue trestle. More on ceremony work.
Wedding Decorating
Wedding Decorator Sydney
Decorating is the physical half of the job. Somebody has to carry it in, build it, dress it, light it and take it away again at midnight. Shabz does that work personally, and it is the part that decides whether the plan on paper survives contact with the room.
Wedding decorating is quoted within wedding styling, from $5,000.
Decorator or Stylist
Most people mean the same thing. The distinction is still worth knowing.
Couples search for a decorator and a stylist interchangeably, and in practice most Sydney businesses answer to both. There is a real difference underneath the vocabulary though, and it changes what you should be asking for.
- Styling is the decision
- What the room will look like, what the palette is, how the ceremony relates to the reception, what gets built and at what scale. It happens months before the day, on paper, against your venue.
- Decorating is the execution
- The install. Sourcing the pieces, booking the delivery windows, building the structures, dressing forty tables to an identical standard, hanging what the venue allows, and getting all of it out again after the last guest leaves.
- Shabz does both, which is the point
- When the person who designed the room is also the person installing it, nothing gets lost in the handover. There is no moment where a decorator looks at a stylist's drawing and says the venue will not allow it, because that was settled at the design stage.
If you already have a design you love and just need it built, that is a decorating brief and Shabz will quote it as one. If you want the whole thing shaped from the start, that is wedding styling.
What Install Day Actually Involves
The part nobody photographs.
- Bump in
- Arriving in the window the venue has agreed, through the access the venue actually has. A loading dock shared with a function finishing at two, a service lift, or a long carry across grass. This is confirmed in writing beforehand, because it decides how many people are needed and how long it takes.
- Build
- Structures assembled and made safe. Arbours weighted for the conditions, backdrops squared and level, anything suspended checked against what the building permits. A structure that looks right and is not stable is not finished.
- Dressing
- Linen laid and pressed, tables set to one repeated standard, centrepieces placed at a height people can see across, glassware and place settings squared. At scale this is where the hours go, and where consistency separates a room that reads as considered from one that reads as rushed.
- Lighting
- Positioned and aimed before the room fills. A bridal table in shadow will not photograph no matter how well it is dressed, and it is far easier to fix at four in the afternoon than at eight in the evening.
- Final walk
- Every table checked from a seated eye line, not standing over it. Sight lines to the stage confirmed. Anything crooked straightened before the doors open.
- Pack down
- Shabz returns after the event and everything hired goes back to the supplier it came from. Nobody in your family is loading a van at midnight, which is a smaller promise than it sounds until it is one in the morning.
What Gets Decorated
The surfaces and structures that carry a wedding.
The Reception Room
Entry moment, bridal table, guest tables to one consistent language, cake and stage areas, plus draping or ceiling treatment where the building permits it. More on reception work.
Florals in Position
Shabz is a decorator and stylist rather than a florist. Arrangements are produced by a florist chosen for your direction, then placed, secured and adjusted on site so they sit correctly in the room.
Everything Hired
Furniture, linen, glassware, structures and lighting sourced through a supplier network rather than held by Shabz, so the pieces suit your room instead of one company range.
Common Questions
A decorator does the physical work of dressing your venue: sourcing the pieces, delivering them, building the structures, laying the tables, positioning the lighting and packing everything down afterwards. A stylist decides what the room should look like. Shabz does both, so the design and the install are held by one person.
Decorating is quoted within wedding styling, which starts from $5,000. What moves the number is the size of the room, the guest count, how much is being built rather than simply placed, and how long the venue gives for the install. See the pricing page.
Shabz does not hold hire stock. Everything is sourced through a supplier network built over six years, which means pieces are chosen for your room rather than limited to one inventory, and you still deal with one point of contact. How hire works.
Yes. If you have the look settled and need it sourced and installed properly, that is a decorating brief and it is quoted as one. Send through what you have and Shabz will tell you honestly what the venue will and will not allow.
Yes. Shabz is Sydney based and works across the city and Western Sydney, travelling regularly to Newcastle, the Hunter Valley and the Central Coast. Travel within Sydney is included and regional travel is itemised separately.
Shabz returns after the event and the hire goes back to the suppliers it came from. Pack down is part of the booking rather than an extra, and it is not left to your family or your venue.
Let's Create Something Beautiful
Tell Shabz about your event and a considered response follows within 24 to 48 hours.
Prefer to talk it through?
02 9191 7381