The usual problem with an anniversary room setup is not that there is too little in it. It is that the lighting is wrong, the colours are too many, and nobody stood in the doorway before deciding where things went.
Turn the ceiling light off
An overhead light flattens everything and puts a hard shadow under every balloon. Fairy lights, candles and a lamp will make the same setup look completely different, and they cost very little. If you do one thing from this list, do this one.
Two colours
Red and white, black and gold, or a pair of pastels. Add one metallic. The instinct at an anniversary is to use every romantic colour available, and the result photographs as noise. Restraint reads as expensive.
Build for the doorway
They will see the room from one position, once. Stand there before anything is fixed to a wall and decide what should be in that frame. Then put the effort into it rather than distributing decoration evenly around a room, half of which is behind the camera.
Height, not floor space
Floor petals and candles look good in person and disappear in photographs taken from standing height. A backdrop on the bed wall, an arch, and ceiling balloons are what read in an image. If the floor work matters to you, plan for a photograph taken from a chair.
Foil numbers earn their place
The number of years is the one piece of text worth having, and it dates the photograph permanently — which for an anniversary is the point.
What we set up for anniversaries, at home, on a terrace or at a restaurant: anniversary decoration in Kolkata.
