If you need ideas to decorate a wedding reception hall, you have come to the right place. We would like to share some simple ideas and common sense design practices that we hope will start a growing conversation about new and refreshing ways to enjoy that memorable experience in your wedding reception hall. There is a laundry list of details regarding each step, so we are covering the general principles that will make your wedding reception a hit. We invite you to comment and add some of your own tips or experiences. With that said, let’s get started on those ideas to decorate a wedding reception hall from concept to completion.
Ideas for Decorating a Wedding Reception Hall
There are some preliminary steps that should be taken when decorating any reception hall for a wedding. First, when choosing the space, you want to keep an objective mind. The space must comfortably accommodate all the guests' needs, such as sitting, dancing, and listening to toasts. The reception hall should be within the budget with close attention being given to any additional fees or hidden costs. If you haven't discovered already, weddings tend to be unnecessarily expensive. While planning when to actually decorate a wedding reception hall, clarify all hours of access to the hall to allow for ample setup time and space.
Another simple-yet-important tip is to find out if the venue allows open flames. Candles, smoke, moving water or any other simple but sometimes dangerous effects can be prohibited. Some wedding reception halls only allow candles if they are contained in a holder or floated in water. Once you find out those basics you still want to consider placement in relation to your guests' movements. You wouldn’t want to be on America’s Funniest Weddings because cousin Jodie’s very large hair caught fire. There is an excellent resource here written by Annalise Kaylor, that details the many things to consider before trying to decorate a wedding reception hall. Once the venue has been booked we can move on to the budget and its effect on the décor.
Budgeting for the Reception Decorations
Because each wedding is different, we only have a few general tips about budgeting for your wedding reception hall decorations. Wedding reception décor is a very subjective experience and if you’re not the Bride or Groom, you will need their creative input in order to ensure a successful event. If you are the Bride or Groom, congratulations you have some ideas to decorate a wedding reception hall, now it’s time to budget for them.
To start, give yourself an honest number that you can stick to. You should begin your wedding decoration idea shopping at a wedding rental center in your area. Although expensive, these stores are filled with wedding reception hall decoration experts that can give you good ideas and set your expectations for prices. If you are the creative type that really wants to customize the wedding reception décor, you will want to figure out the cost of all the reception hall decorations as accurately as possible. Screen backings, lighting, table items, food displays and any pieces that will be hand made or customized will need to be assembled and will need time and money. With the proper planning of time and money, the rest will be fun!
Decorating Ideas for a Wedding Reception Hall
Coming up with ideas to decorate a wedding reception hall can be overwhelming to some. To others the ideas may come easy, but the challenge will be in pulling them off. The single most important aspect to decorating a reception hall for a wedding is planning the tables. People come to weddings to celebrate a beautiful moment with friends and family, and are found most often eating, drinking and conversing. These acts are all usually done at the table. Pick up an inexpensive pad of graph paper from your local office store, or download and print a graph paper template and start by drawing the seating first. Use measurements taken at your hall and relate them to the grids. Drawing out the tables are a bit tedious, but the time spent on paper will save hours of stress when actually setting up the wedding reception hall. Double check the sizes available to you. 71” round tables are pretty standard and can be found at all types of rental centers.
Ok, now that we know where the guests are sitting, we can stimulate our creative side. Try looking at different wedding reception hall events for ideas. You might ask the venue if you can stop in on another reception in order to get some ideas about placement and decorations.
The internet is always a good resource as well. Here are some things that may help you get ideas for decorating your wedding reception hall.
Lighting and emotional experience are always a great place to start. For inspiration think about the feeling you get at a trendy nightclub versus a romantic dinner. Think about how your theme will be reinforced by how you set the lighting. Ira Levy of Levy Lighting in New York says "It's key not to treat lighting as an afterthought". Planned lighting allows the designer to introduce different moods and contexts to different areas of the space. Another simple but important note to mention is that if there is too much light, your guests may not know when or where to start dancing.
People will find decorations that they can interact with, more memorable than traditional wedding decorations. You may want to design your theme around interactivity. New ideas to decorate a wedding reception hall can be found everywhere you look, so don’t hesitate to pull out a little notebook and write them down as they come. Here are a few wedding decoration ideas:
- Colored paper can be folded into interesting origami for table displays
- Custom Risers are easier than you think! You can project colored lights (or lights with colored gels in front of them) onto white or colored risers to create interest.
- You can also buy a few yards of linen to drape on the risers, but since you own the linen (you usually rent the riser) you can use custom stencils and fabric spray paint to really customize the experience.
If you’re of the Nature loving side, use natural elements in your theme. Here’s an idea for decorating a wedding reception hall using nothing but natural elements (very inexpensive, but you need some time to complete). Go out to the woods or forest and find various branches and logs. Think about size and style. Then take the branches and logs of your favorite shapes and apply $10 wood spray finish in a can. Now you can use gold and silver twine or white ribbon to bundle certain branch groups together. These can add interest to your backdrops. You can screw branches down to a base or drill a hole into small logs and make custom candle holders, food displays or interesting stand alone decorations to hide un-appealing lighting fixtures.
Remember that ideas to decorate a wedding reception hall have been around for ages. There are some tried and true methods that can be generic but can provide a very satisfying experience for most of your guests. Risers, a DJ, Buffet tables, and a dance floor are basic elements that work no matter whose getting married. We understand that you want more than just the basics, why else would you be looking for ideas in the first place?
Decorating a Wedding Reception Hall: The Big Day
There are tons of pitfalls to avoid when dreaming up ideas for a successful reception hall design. Let's cover a few tips here to help avoid some common problems people face:
- Bring as many people to setup as possible. It seems like a no brainer, but it's better to have a few people standing around while the wedding reception hall is being decorated quickly than it is to have the few people you brought scrambling meanwhile the hall is coming together too slowly. That one tip alone will save you time and stress.
- Make sure key people know where the Fire extinguishers are as well as the emergency exits, just in case things don't go as planned.
- Make sure you comply with the maximum room capacity, you don''t want your wedding reception to be remembered as "Tight as a New York subway car at rush hour"
- Absolutely remember to have a plan for what and when your entertainment will eat. If you don't feed them they may not be able to give you that top performance.
- Read what to expect the day of setup.
Ideas to decorate a Wedding Reception Hall are free!
When it comes down to ideas to decorate a wedding reception hall, factors like budget, time and creativity drive the design. Although receptions take place everyday, the end result of your design can still be very different, new, fresh and memorable. It is the job of the designer (whoever it may be) to help shape the experience with lighting, space, food, theme and execution. A successful wedding reception hall design can satisfy on multiple levels. The bride and groom are usually the most grateful, but there are various levels of satisfaction in seeing all of the guests talk about and interact with the reception hall design you have created.
We hope this was helpful and look forward to many comments and more of your ideas to decorate a wedding reception hall.
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