You will experience excitement, happiness, and a rollercoaster of emotions on your wedding day that occur only once in your lifetime. And for a day as special as this, the perfect venue and flawless decor become exceptionally important. While the world is full of amazing ideas to throw a wedding party that wows your guests, choosing the right decor details, and implementing them as you imagine them can have you overwhelmed. But that’s not something to be afraid of, because it’s a process and a beautiful one at that! Looking for the ideas, choosing the ones that you love, and then giving the ideas a unique twist of your creativity, is what makes wedding planning an incredible experience. If you’ve been looking for creative ideas that say “wow,” then we have just the thing for you- lantern wedding decor! Here are some chic ways of bringing the beauty of quaint lanterns to your wedding:

Lanterns and Entry Signage  

Let’s start right at the beginning, and that is the entryway of your wedding. One of the easiest ways to use lantern wedding decor details is to use rustic or modern mirrored lanterns with your wedding entry signage. The choice of lanterns can be as per the wedding theme you have in mind. For example, if you are throwing a fall-themed wedding, you can use vintage lanterns, in pastel, and top them with pretty seasonal flowers and greenery. You can come up with a creative entry and welcome signage for your wedding guests by using a flameless candle and greenery inside the lantern and pairing it with bold welcome signage. You can use the same font style for your signage-laden lanterns as your wedding invitations! 

Another imaginative way to use lanterns is to line lanterns along the entryway, you can use paper lanterns or decorative metal lanterns that complement your wedding theme. To keep your wedding decor fresh and the use of lantern decor imaginative, you can make use of different colors for the lanterns for paths leading to your wedding ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception party!  For example, if you’re throwing a Thanksgiving-themed wedding, you can use alternating colors for the reception party with white and orange paper lanterns, for the wedding ceremony you can use peach-colored paper lanterns, and for the cocktail hour, you can use white paper lanterns. Paths lit up with paper lanterns add a beautiful touch of lights and colors. 

Wedding Ceremony Decor Ideas with Lanterns  

Wedding ceremonies are a celebration of two people starting a new life together and of shared joy. That said, wedding ceremonies allow you to be creative and use the event to bring out different colors, and styles. Wedding lanterns are a perfect way to add a unique style to your wedding ceremony. For wedding ceremonies, make use of minimal decor details. A simple, yet classy wedding ceremony idea that you can use vintage black lanterns with tea lights to light up the wedding ceremony venue. To improve the decor of your wedding ceremony, you can have the aisle lined with lanterns. To create a mesmerizing aisle with lanterns, blend woven greenery with flowers that you love and place lanterns, at equal distances, along the aisle.  To add a dainty touch to your aisle decor ideas, you can add small matte and gold wedding lanterns, with flameless candles. To add more delicate details to your wedding aisle, you can make use of some aisle runners. 

Apart from aisle decor, you can make use of some other imaginative ideas to light up an outdoor wedding ceremony venue! For an indoor wedding ceremony, you can have large wedding lanterns at the end of the aisle, with colorful accents. You can also have lantern accents. You can either add minimally designed lanterns peppered throughout the ceremony venue, or you can create a dazzling accent by gathering and setting up lanterns of varying sizes in a corner. For outdoor wedding ceremonies, you can make use of vintage lanterns, especially standing lanterns. You can sprinkle lantern details throughout the venue by using two large standing lanterns on either side of your beautiful arbor and by randomly placing small lanterns around the pews and aisle. A pro tip to using stand-up lanterns with arbors is to make use of bright flowers and greenery for arbor decor, then pair it with matte black vintage stand-up lanterns. 

The Cocktail Party Lantern Decor   

To build an experience for your wedding guests during the cocktail hour, creating the ambiance is exceptionally important, and nothing gives the ambiance a boost as some pretty lights. To add some charming lights to your cocktail hour, you can use lanterns with lights and empty lanterns for the decor details. Sure enough, lanterns make for the perfect decor idea if you’re planning a winter wedding. However, we’re here to tell you that despite the season, lanterns are always a good choice for wedding decor! With so many types of pretty lanterns for you to choose from, there’s always something for every wedding style. Similar to the fact that some color combinations work for every season and add timeless beauty to the venues, vintage lanterns, mirrored lanterns, and paper lanterns can help you add timeless charm to your cocktail hour. 

Looking for a chic decor idea for your cocktail hour? How about using lanterns with votive candles as vintage centerpieces. If you want minimal decor, then simply leaving the lantern centerpieces as-is will work like a charm. However, if you want to add some more touches, you can add some woven greenery to the centerpieces, this will create a nature-inspired look for your cocktail hour and works for both indoor and outdoor events! Another way to add lanterns to your outdoor cocktail hour is to use paper lanterns! You can use round paper lanterns with long tassels on the end!

Add Lights to your Reception Party  

For the last event of your special day, go all out with lights and lanterns! To beat the humdrum of the day, add lanterns to your wedding decor ideas and come up with something that will simply wow your guests! Finish the day with a bang by bringing in the big rustic lanterns for weddings and merging them with flowers and greenery to add a touch of elegant style! If you’ve decided to switch up your wedding themes with different events of the day, then you can make the reception party a lantern lover’s haven. If not, you can still add some lantern details with other decor ideas, and create a whimsical look for your wedding! To lay the groundwork for the lantern-laden decor, decorate the entry with minimal outdoor hanging candle lanterns at the door and a welcome sign. 

The reception venue’s decor can be a blend of string lights with beautiful lanterns of different sizes. If you want to add lanterns as table decor items, you can make use of small table lanterns and greenery, for a muted look. However, that’s not all you can do with decorative lanterns. You can make use of beautiful black decorative lanterns, fill them up with seasonal flowers and place a tapered candle on delicate French candlesticks on either side of the lantern! To make your reception’s centerpieces just perfect, you can make use of the flowers from your wedding decor details and your bridal bouquet for synchronicity. Another way to add the beauty of lanterns as centerpieces to your wedding reception is to make use of paper lanterns with stylish metal lanterns. 

For a modern touch, you can make use of mirrored lanterns or oblong, geometric-shaped lanterns. These types of lanterns add a charming touch of style to the decor of your reception venue. To make your lantern centerpieces look stunning, you can add some greenery to the table decor to make the lanterns stand out. Or you could choose rustic decor ideas like adding some fresh fruits for your guests to take a bit out of with minimal flower arrangements. Another way to add a natural, fairytale-like glow to your wedding reception is to have a ceiling of lights. You can make use of this for both indoor and outdoor wedding receptions! And with the ceiling of lights, you can make use of tall candle lanterns for weddings as additional decor. To add the charms of lanterns to the string light ceiling, add some small, decorative lanterns. This will add a mesmerizing touch to your venue, and a warm, fuzzy glow to the reception party, fitting a celebration! And if you want to add a personal DIY touch to your wedding, then you can craft some beautiful paper lanterns and use them with your wedding favors! With this, you’ll not only have the opportunity to bring out your creative side and create a hand-made wedding favor that is personal but also helps you to personalize every wedding favor for your guests, which will leave them with a warm feeling. You can choose different colors for each of your guests!

Lanterns for a Spectacular Wedding Exit  

When it comes to your wedding exits, why not end the wedding celebrations with wonderful lights? Decorate the exit route with woven greenery, or choose a beautiful runner made of pretty leaves and flowers, and pepper in the wonderful lanterns! You can make use of rustic candle lanterns with vine runners. This will add a beautifully delicate note to your wedding exit. Apart from the sparkler exit, you can use some delicate lights to create a faux tent to add that extra touch of glow. If your wedding exit is scheduled during the night, how about using some flameless candles to add more glimmer and shimmer to your exit. And if you’re looking for amazing wedding exit photos, how about adding bubbles to the mix as well? Swap out the send-off sparklers with bubbles! Can you picture the setting? Can you picture walking out of the wedding reception, hand in hand with the love of your life on a path with vine runners peppered with your favorite flowers, lit up with rustic lanterns, with bubbles floating all around you? Won’t it make for the perfect addition to your wedding photo book? 

Bonus Idea 1

We aren’t done with listing down chic decor ideas with lanterns just yet! To mark the beginning of your beautiful journey, how about adding something fun to the mix? If you love the scene with hundreds of paper lanterns in the sky from Disney’s Tangled, then this idea will resonate with you and your wedding exit ideas! Before you leave the wedding venue with your soulmate, how about saving some paper wedding lanterns to release into the open sky? You can watch the wind carry the pretty lanterns away. Better yet, you can create a fun activity of releasing paper lanterns with all of your guests. And then prepare for an Instagram-worthy wedding exit! 

Bonus Idea 2

Looking for an inspiring wedding decor idea with lanterns? How about creating a backdrop with string lights, and bespeckled mini lanterns for a photo booth at your wedding reception? You can have a beautiful, greenery-laden arch or creatively fashion an arbor with delicate drapes and some props from your engagement photo session to add a touch of synchronicity to your pictures! And to take the idea a step further, you can add a delicate wedding favors station alongside the photobooth! 

Your wedding day marks the beginning of a new chapter in your life and what better way to begin it than in the presence of light? Bram Stoker’s words, “There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lightcomescome to mind when we imagine a wedding glammed up with the glimmer of lights. The addition of light, regardless of where you do it, creates an uplifting ambiance and fuels joy, laughter, and good spirits worthy of celebrations for a day like your wedding day. To tactfully use the brilliance of lanterns in your wedding, plan the ideas, and then try them out at the rehearsal dinner. When you look for ideas with lanterns and lights, keep your partner in the loop. Talk about the ideas you love and choose to use the ideas that you love, as a couple. We hope these lantern-inspired decor ideas help you in your wedding planning.