Expert Advice from wedding guru, Sharon Naylor

Answer:

I like to see tent poles covered, or at least spiral-strung with little white lights [experts may call these fairy lights if they just stay on, or twinkle lights if they blink. For a classier look, go with fairy lights!] Floral designers are wire-wrapping little flowers to these string lights wrapped around the poles.

I'd advise against using tulle AND lights, since old strings of lights can heat up and burn the tulle or cause a fire. But tulle is super-inexpensive to creatively wrap tent poles, and you can again twist on little accent flowers, or other accent pieces like inxpensive tiny silk butterflies from the craft store, snowflake ornaments and so on.

Lighting inside the tent does a lot to transform the space, so see if your lighting expert can use toned lights, such as an amber wash or a pale blue light protected up onto the tent ceiling. Or lavender, or pink, whatever your colors are.

Some brides and grooms with a bigger budget can afford to create a fabric 'ceiling' to cover the mechanics of the tent underside, but it looks lovely to run wire in a criss-cross pattern across the 'ceiling' line, and then hang on long and shorter wires a selection of inexpensive little crystals [they catch the light and sparkle like stars] as well as small fresh flowers [ask your florist what's inexpensive, locally-grown, in-season]. I'm also seeing lots of florists and wedding coordinators with EXTRA STOCK in their warehouses, such as boxes of little silk orchids or blue glittery butterflies from other weddings they've done. Ask if you can see these items and perhaps use them at a big discount. At my own wedding, we got to use some of our florist's leftover stuff [silver centerpiece bowls!] for FREE, saving us hundreds of dollars. Keep in mind that many wedding pros like to clean out these boxes of forty or fifty little accent pieces before they gather dust, and many would like to make you happy by letting you take them off their hands! Don't be afraid to ask!

Also possible to hang from the underside of the tent: colorful streamers. I like the metallic ones in bright colors, not those cheapie little ridged ones that look like gift-wrap. They even had that decor in the Sex and the City movie when Carrie and Miranda go for their New Year's dinner. It's super-inexpensive and it makes for a bright decor accent!