Decorating the Reception Hall- Help?

Shawnee11507

FI and I are having our wedding at his parents' parish hall. There is one other photo in my bio. The space is rather large (more than we'll need) and reminds me of a High School Cafeteria (I guess because of the floor, lighting, and bare walls). How can I make it less cafeteria-ish?

Our budget is very small. I am not feeling so creative. Suggestions on how to decorate the space? Good web-sites for buying things? There is also some space on the windowsills to put something.

Thanks

~mRm~

Are the black areas of the windows shades? Do the lights dim at all or must all of the overhead be on at once?

I personally would soften the room as much as possible, by dimming the main lights and using candles if you are allowed to. If those are shades in the windows maybe lower them halfway and puts assorted glass votive holders with either real candles or battery operated tea lights on the sills. If you have it in your budget for linens and chair covers, that may pull it all together nicely too.

Best of luck.

Sue-n-Kevin

MRM's suggestions are pretty good.

First, I think you need to find out what the venue's rules are. Some don't allow real flames from candles, so you have to do LED battery operated candles.

With a small budget, you are a bit restrained. The key flaws to this area are what you've described: cafeteria feel, lighting. Anything you can do to fix them will help. If your budget doesn't allow for linen rentals, you can get plastic table cloths and skirting here:

www.downtowncrafts.com . You just need 2 sided tape to hold the skirting on, and the tablecloths can be cut to fit.

You don't mention your color scheme, but because the walls are white, and the chairs black, if you use black & white, with maybe an accent color, you won't have to cover the chairs.

If possible, if you can use other lighting, you could keep the overhead lights off, or maybe they have a dimmer? If not, use all the flattering lighting you can from candles on the tables, and do without the overhead lighting.

Good luck. Hopefully someone on the local wedding board near the venue has some ideas about places that can supply materials to help you.

gigipurr84

This will take time and effort, but not a lot of money: Get cloth, curtains, or some kind of large drapery to hang from the ceiling if you can, covering the bare walls. A way to do this could be to hang it from the walls instead of ceiling, using hooks that affix to the walls through suction or mounting tape, so that they can be removed. Even just doing this to one side will be a huge difference. This will have more impact than any candles or decorations. For added changes, buy (or rent) a few large battery operated lights that you can put on the floor next to the drapery and shine them from the floor up to the ceiling. This will give great lighting, and make the space not at all like a cafeteria. Instead of spending money on more little things, concentrating on this one thing will give a big impression.