Bride squad banners

Pre-strung is the word that decides this page. A banner that arrives on its string goes up in two minutes with two pieces of tape. A banner that arrives as loose card letters and a reel of ribbon is a job for whoever checked in first, it takes far longer than it looks, and it is done sitting on a hotel floor with the letters in the wrong order at least once. Both kinds are here and both are worth buying, but only one of them can be bought the week of the weekend.

Length is the measurement people skip and then regret. A banner sized for a mantelpiece looks lost across the back wall of a rented living room, and two short banners hung end to end never line up. Read the length on the card against the wall you actually have. Backdrops are a different purchase again: they are bought so that everybody has one place to stand, and one of them replaces a great deal of the rest of this shelf. If the room has a plain wall and a lamp, a backdrop and a garland do more for the photographs than a full set of table decorations.

This page is one slice of the Bride Squad rundown, cut by the job rather than by the shelf the pieces sit on.