Minimalist Wedding Ceremony Backdrops

Minimalist wedding ceremony on your mind? We’re giving you all the tips and tricks, ideas and inspiration to inspire your minimalist wedding ceremony and its decor, by rounding up some of the modern and minimalist backdrops we’ve featured over our year at Polka Dot Wedding.

A minimalist wedding backdrop, like everything else in this style, keeps the focus on you; it’s modern, it’s edited, it’s curated, and there is no fuss. So how do you pull it off? How do you style your day?

Opt for geometric shapes

Geometric shapes (like this one in Allison & Tom’s wedding are a brilliant place to start with a minimalist wedding backdrop. Using metal or wood, use a shape that is bold and demands attention. One doesn’t even need to add flowers to make a geometric backdrop a showstopper for a wedding (though these pieces always welcome floral adornment).

Header photo & above photo by Doxa Visual via Allison & Tom’s Contemporary & Coastal Wedding

Use a single type of flower or foliage

Still, want to use plenty of flowers and greenery? Why not limit yourself to just one, for a beautifully curated look. This one from Kate & Trenton’s Romantic Wedding With A Muted Colour Palette is a beautiful example. Simple brown fronds, cascading diagonally across the wall create a beautiful backdrop, that suited the industrial but understated style of the venue.

Flowers by Two Wild Hands Photo by Jordan Knight, via Kate & Trenton’s Romantic Wedding With A Muted Colour Palette

Pair organic shapes with modern details

Beautiful bare branches like these below (or with just a few flowering buds on them) give a space an organic vibe, but what about pairing these organic-looking branches, with something modern like a stunning gold candelabra? The clean silhouette still plays into a minimal vibe, but adds a little glam, a little glow, to an otherwise natural backdrop.

Flowers by Lara Rose Botanical Stylist Styling by Photo by via “Embracing The Ephemeral” A Modern Luxe Wedding Editorial

Suspend!

There is no reason to say your backdrop has to rise from the floor. Floral designers are magicians (we’re convinced) and suspending your wedding backdrop, can add a clean, minimal vibe to your wedding – eliminating the support structures needed (as with an arch for example). This allows your foliage or flowers of choice, and of course, you, to take all the focus.

Flowers by Signature Floral Design Photo by Christine Lim Photography via Ethereal Naturalis Wedding Inspiration

Go sculptural

You don’t need to embrace dreamy, cascading details for a minimal ceremony backdrop. In fact, one might say minimal wedding styling leads to more arty details. So why not add a sculpture as your backdrop instead? Groom Matt (of Suzie & Matt’s Joyful Autumn Wedding at Abbotsford Convent) made this sunset sculpture for the backdrop of his wedding day, but one could be inspired by any modern, bold art piece to act as a backdrop for a wedding.

Photo by Gold and Grit Photography via Suzie & Matt’s Joyful Autumn Wedding at Abbotsford Convent

Opt for draping

You don’t even necessarily need to add flowers, if even one bloom is too much. Consider marking your ceremony spot with simple, beautiful draping. Opt for heavy fabric, even something a little transparent, to allow maximum draping pleasure.

Photo by Kylie Knight via Jeff & Sig’s Elegant Melbourne Pub Wedding

Play up the architecture of your space

There are so many wedding venues with stunning architecture, and to be honest, it sometimes seems like a shame to cover it up. Why not make it the focus? Flank it with simply with potted trees (like Sara & Michael) did) or a little draping, even candles. This beautiful doorway, with incredible glass panelled windows, is so much of a statement, that it deserves all the visibility it can get.

Photo by Bulb Creative Co via Sara & Michael’s Modern City Elopement At Recoleta

Use tone in tone

If you still want to go a little way with flowers, stick to tone-on-tone colour schemes. White on white was used in the wedding of Monique & Daz with a few hints of toffees and blacks for interest. White vases, white floor, with white flowers and leaves giving all the drama and texture while playing up the modern, minimal vibes.

Flowers by Lovestoned Styling Photo by Matt Godkin Photography via Monique & Daz’s White On White Coastal Wedding

Stay low

Our last idea? Stay low. There is nothing to say your wedding backdrop has to take every part of the space behind you. Instead, opt for something low to the ground. It lets you play with flowers and colour a little more while still keeping the focus on you, and the styling minimal.