Decorating a Huge Wedding Reception Venue?

jsmla

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 19, 2001
Our daughter is getting married next July and has booked a reception venue near the church. It's basically a huge (7000 sq ft) empty room with Greek columns and very high ceilings. The venue is providing tables and chairs. Supper will be buffet style and there will be a live band.

DD is in her last year of an out of town residency and has very little free time so I'm doing a lot of the research/footwork.

Our wedding budget is fairly average and I'm stumped at how to warm up this venue without going way over budget. The church is very elaborate so we aren't planning on doing a lot there. DD would like to use lanterns.

Help!!!!!!!!!!
 
I'd go to Joanne's and use a 50% off coupon (or wait til you see 20% off even sale prices) and buy a LOT of white or offwhite tulle. Then go to Walmart at after-Christmas sales and buy a lot of white lights. Not sure if you will have a ladder or other ability to hang things on/from the ceiling - but if you could drape some tulle with lights in it (also checkout the electricity options and availability at the venue) around the room it will likely warm it up quite a bit.
 
Agree with the above. It can really make a difference. My stepdaughter had her reception in a country dance hall that didn't look like much at first glance-- with tulle and lights draped from the center of the ceiling and wrapped around some of the poles, it looked really great. We had tealight candles and simple flower arrangements on the tables.

If the venue doesn't provide linens, consider buying them instead of renting-- it adds some work with ironing, but you can save money, and then re-sell them on Craigslist or at a bridal garage sale (if they have them in your area) and re-coup some of your cost. We bought white tablecloths and satin table runners for about 70% the cost of rental, then washed and re-sold them to recoup about half our money.
 
Lots of tulle and lots of lights. We had a backyard reception for my brother and his wife (who were going to forego a celebration entirely because of cost) and made the yard look pretty nice. We bought a metal arch at a garden store and wrapped it in tulle and lights and it made for a perfect backdrop for pictures.
 


I would look into professional lighting, rather than just white holiday style lights. When I got married last year, I got quotes for lighting in the ballroom where we had our reception. For a few hundred dollars, they could cast a warm amber glow on all of the walls or other colors. Our reception ended up being too early in the day to really benefit (there was a huge wall of natural light). But if the room doesn't have any windows, it really makes the space more intimate and and gives it that party vibe. You can also look into draping if you want to give it a little more impact. And it might even be less expensive than buying tons of holiday lights and tulle. Something like this:

https://lightupmynightdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/hughsfinal0745.jpg
 
Can the venue supply any pictures of how previous guests have decorated it? That might help you get ideas of what would work and not work, and what you like and don't like.
 
I had a January wedding but tip might help. I was able to get a bunch if free decorations when stores took down their holiday decorations and were just going to throw them out. If you see a store while shopping that has something she would like just ask.
 


Thanks for the advice!

I've seen the fabric draping but didn't realize it was a DIY possibility. The venue has 20 ft ceilings. I need to speak to the coordinator.

The venue provides lighting and we've pretty much decided on a warm golden ivory. They also provide linens which are white. I was thinking we might add an overlay in a color.

Any table decorating suggestions? Tall floral arrangements will be out of our budget. Her style is fairly conventional with an edge to feminine classic. She likes peonies but they will be out of season and very expensive at the end of July,

It is an evening reception.
 
At a family wedding recently the mother of the bride made the containers for the centerpieces herself with a cut glass bowl glued to a cut glass candlestick. It sounds cheesey but once the flowers were added it was beautiful! The oasis (the green foam that cut flowers are stuck in) was wrapped in foil so through the glass bowl it looked like mercury glass. The arrangements were low so it wasn't in the way of seeing across the table.

Anyhow.... check out PINTEREST and any local bridal resale groups (usually on Facebook) for ideas and inexpensive items. Start looking now to see if perhaps any of your local craft stores have any summer leftovers on clearance... it may be a bit too late, but it doesn't hurt to check. If she has her colors chosen she could start looking for ribbon, etc.

If you aren't opposed, start checking out the thrift stores..... tall glass cylinders for candles or arrangements are insanely expensive new, but you may be able to find a few at a time for just a dollar or two at the SA or GW. .........P
 
At a family wedding recently the mother of the bride made the containers for the centerpieces herself with a cut glass bowl glued to a cut glass candlestick. It sounds cheesey but once the flowers were added it was beautiful! The oasis (the green foam that cut flowers are stuck in) was wrapped in foil so through the glass bowl it looked like mercury glass. The arrangements were low so it wasn't in the way of seeing across the table.

Anyhow.... check out PINTEREST and any local bridal resale groups (usually on Facebook) for ideas and inexpensive items. Start looking now to see if perhaps any of your local craft stores have any summer leftovers on clearance... it may be a bit too late, but it doesn't hurt to check. If she has her colors chosen she could start looking for ribbon, etc.

If you aren't opposed, start checking out the thrift stores..... tall glass cylinders for candles or arrangements are insanely expensive new, but you may be able to find a few at a time for just a dollar or two at the SA or GW. .........P


LOVE the bowl/candlestick centerpiece DIY idea! DD loves flowers and it seems like a cost effective way to add color.

I've looked at Pinterest and images of the venues but have no idea how to recreate them-I'm not at all crafty or artistic. In pictures the decor looks either too plain and empty or far too $$$.

It has huge floor to ceiling windows on two sides and I saw empty it on a sunny day. It looked extremely plain and utilitarian. I'm hoping nighttime lighting will be kinder?

I am a serious wedding planning novice!
 
Oh, and I would pop into a few different weddings before hand. Just wear nice clothes and go look around, no one will notice.
 
Pinterest has SO many ideas and inspiration! You can save things to your board and it's free to sign up
As someone said Joann often has sales for 40-50% off a single item. It says in small print on the coupon that this includes a single cut of fabric. So you can buy the whole bolt and use the coupon... I got 5 yards of fleece fabric awhile ago (before the fleece sales) for a project I was working on for about $20. Hope that helps!
 
Pinterest great start. We got the table cloths for my friends wedding on ebay half the cost of renting and then resold them on ebay.
 
I had my reception at a restaurant. We got linens and they had candle votives. I spend maybe $30 on table scatter at Pier One to go around the candles. I made my own table numbers using cardstock, ikea picture frames, and foam stickers I had picked up on clearance at target (it was a fall wedding so we did a fall theme, so they had pumpkins, apples, leaves in all colors, and all had glitter accents). That was all we needed as we had 100 people in the restaurant so it left more room on the tables for food. Flowers are what everyone does but can only be bought so far in advance and can cost alot. Anything not living can be prepped months ahead of time. Candles give a nice glow and with reflective elements (glass scatter, mirrors, bowls etc) it can make tables sparkle.

If you pick colors and general theme you can start shopping now. As others mentions after Xmas is a good time for anything white or silvery, after valentine's for anything pink/red, easter for pastels, warm colors would be around the corner with fall clearance. My wedding was very low key as far as decor but everyone had fun so its one thing I think people spend too much time and money on these days. People remember the food, the DJ, how much fun they had, but rarely do they talk about centerpieces ten years later :)
 
Oh and I forgot favors can be table decor too. I got really lucky and found Ghiradelli gift boxes on sale on their website and stacked a code that was good on sale items. I got them in gold and red swirl design. We got stickers from Vista print and then went out on the place settings to add color. People were super impressed and it was only a few dollars in the end. If you are flexible pick out an idea and start shopping around. You can even find fancy candies on sale after Christmas with expiration date a year in advance and then just repackage to save money.
 
Thanks again, I really do need all of the help I can get!

We have a mother/daughter planning intensive scheduled for Christmas. She really has almost no time off-14 hour shifts and 24 hour on calls.

I'm thinking her theme would be best described as Southern/NOLA. Either hurricane lamp chimneys or lanterns and magnolia leaves have been mentioned. The groom is pushing for seersucker suits. Probably not going to happen with an evening wedding but that's the feel they're going for.
 
OP--I just wanted to wish you good luck! Planning a wedding should be fun, but I could see how it can be overwhelming to look at Pinterest, JoAnne's, etc. and see all the ideas, especially if crafting isn't your strong suit. If you do look at Pinterest, consider sorting using the word "budget" in your search.

Someone suggested walking around at weddings for ideas--would it be possible to visit this venue, to see another reception, and get an idea of how they handled the specific space (high ceilings, plain, etc.)? It's possible the contact person at the venue has photos they can show you, as well. Do you have a crafty friend who might help you out for free or nominal cost?

For now, I would just start collecting ideas. Whether you tear pages from magazines, create a board on Pinterest, or find other ideas online--whatever works for you. Then when you get to sit down with your daughter, you can show her what you've found--maybe sort by theme (room decoration, linens, centerpieces, etc.). When you start to see patterns in what she likes/dislikes, it might come together fairly easily.

BTW, one of the best budget weddings I attended, the centerpieces were all molded chocolate in the bride's colors. Of course, the mother of the groom was a chocolatier, but still, it was a wonderful use of what skills she had, to create something lovely for the wedding.
 
Most of my wedding was DIY. I didn't rent anything except for the chairs (the venue's chairs were super ugly and I hate chair covers), but rather purchased most items and resold them afterwards. I 100% needed real flowers. It just lends an elegance to an event that I don't think you get another way. But we were very strategic with how we used the flowers. We used small mercury glass vases with metal handles, each with a small bouquet. During the ceremony, they were hung from the chairs at the end of alternating rows. During cocktail hour, they were moved to the tall cocktail tables, during the reception, they were brought inside and used to decorate the bar, the guestbook table, the seating card table and the cake table. We had larger bouquets at each table in mercury glass footed bowls that I bought on eBay ($156 for 12, resold for $150). These were all saved in the venue's cooler overnight and used to decorate the tables at our farewell breakfast the next day.

I bought many things and resold them for about what I paid originally, including wooden plate chargers, lace table overlays, vases, votive candle holders. My mom and I sewed the navy linen napkins because I really wanted linen over cheap polyester. The ballroom was very large and we only had 35 guests at our wedding, but they spaced out the tables and we had a sweetheart table that served as a nice centerpiece for the room.

You can make a big room more intimate, just need to get creative.
 

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