decorating your own venue??

ladies i'm after inspiration...

a lot of brides on here talk about village hall weddings or doing up their local social club and i would LOVE to see pics to help inspire me. what are you doing in terms of decorating your venue and how are you managing it - ie night before / on the day / relying on staff at the venue??

we've been on a venue hunt for what feels like forever and having seen umpteen possibilities our search is whittling down. we've got a few more to see in the next fortnight then we've commited ourselves to booking by sun 7th feb. there are 2 places we have already seen that we both really like - but one of them i would want to decorate a bit & try to give it a personal touch - a little but inside & outside.

do any of you have pics or budget recommendations - i really can't see us being able to afford to bring in any venue decorators.

thanks in advance

xxx

This is what im doing!

We are getting married in a castle but then onto a pavillion so basically its a massive room, they provide tables chairs etc and we get caters in.

I have got a wedding co-ordinator so she puts mini tents in entrance with flowers and butterflies in an archway I can use her to do whole thing or pick out bits, she will drape the celing and put ivy on stair case fairy lights everywhere, chair covers and sashes and so on....

I wanted to do my own bit for table decs so i'm buying lots of tea lights to go around my center piece with crystal confetti so its really pretty.

I'm having low lighting so all the candles and fairy lights will give the feeling of the room, fairy tale kinda thing!

This lady will set up most of it but I guess I will take my bridesmaids the day before to help me set up tables.

I looked at venues like hotels but the decor in most put me off, I wanted a blank canvas to do my own thing.

It sounds an expensive way to do things but its only £380 for room and thats day before and after to set up and take down, the cost to decorate will be in the region of £1000 so. When you think of a marquee which wasmy first idea but at around £5000 before you even start decorating its a massive diffence and well worth looking into!

[Modified by: welshprincess! on January 25, 2010 02:01 PM]

Hi hon, this is what we are doing too. Our local community hall has become THE place to have your wedding reception, as you can totally put your own stamp on it! We are just going to have lots of twinkly lights, probably a spice/cream theme and lots of nice lighting. We are going to make it more personal, with some banners the local kids groups make for everyone who gets married there. Im quite glad i will have some input into how it looks and will be able to fiddle with it to get it just right!

Those photos look lovely with the tealights and cables. Real fairytale and warm.

A little tip that we're thinking of doing. Most people tend to have just white table linen which is provided by the venue your caterer. We've been material hunting and went to our local Dunelm Mill. They have some gorgeous material in our colour theme and we're thinking of getting some lengths pre cut to act as a table runner across each table. Not only will it help with our theme but it will also create another feature point to our tables. When you consider our guests seat for at least an hour, it will look really good.

We're decorating our own venue the day before the wedding. We wanted the day and the venue to be personalised. Ours is a lovely venue with lots of exposed brickwork but it's pretty much a blank canvas. I am really looking forward to making the place look pretty with my team of helpers! My thoughts are as follows:

You can never have too many pretty lights - fairy lights, tea lights.
(I have been saving those little ramekins that come with posh desserts for candle holders - you can decorate them with ribbon, paint etc)

I shall be making table runners in retro/cath kidston style material to brighten up the white table cloths.

Might splash out on a Diptyque scented candle to add to the ambience.

Spring flowers in simple vases. Nothing over-styled.

Bunting - Loads of it. Homemade (thank you MIL!!)

Turning black metal posts from floor to ceiling into maypoles. Cheap florists ribbon and flowers.

And did I mention....lots of lights!!!
x

[Modified by: retrokentbride on January 25, 2010 02:28 PM]

you've all got me feeling a little less stressed... thank you soooo much!! welshprincess! your pics are fab - really romantic!

we've been venue hunting since last October - looking at village halls, quaint pubs & inns etc, etc. although everyone seems to suggest village halls as a quirky low key reception venue many of the ones we have been to see are a bit sad looking if you know what i mean. there have been some nice options but for most they are a good drive away from our church. also with our wedding being on a sunday we haven't got the luxury of being able to set up and clear away the night before as many b2bs have said they were offered by their venue. it's starting to get me down a little and i'm feeling somewhat deflated that our wedding on a budget is such a challenge?? we've found 2 lovely golf clubs that are high on our shortlist but one does need some decor inside as far as i'm concerned.

love the idea of fairy lights & candles galore in the venue - MIL2b said she wasn'r sure about this through the day though as the wedding is in july so they might look at bit rubbish?? aaaargh!!! feel like i'll crack up at this rate!!! get married in 160days and i'm freaking out!!!!! :\( x

Heres a few photos of our villiage hall after we decorated it for our reception. Our theme was black, ivory and silver with butterflies.

babybutterfly those pics are so helpful!! can i ask what the outside of your venue is like? was that even a concern for you? i know people are inside for the majority of the day but i'd still like the outside space to look nice - both the entrance & the patio area (obv i'm referring to a couple venues i have in my head).

retrokentbride i meant to say that i LOVE that your having bunting!!! i want to make loads and loads of it - MIL2b thinks it should only be in outside spaces - is your inside ot out or both?? xx

Heres a photo of the outside of my hall. I was quite lucky that is set amongst lots of fields so there was lots of outdoor space.

For some reason I dont seem to have any photos of the outside decorations, but what we did was decorate the entrance with fairylights and outside we lined eitherside of the pathway with garden torches you get cheap in pound shops and we also saved all our glass jars for a few months before the wedding and tied string around the rims and then hung them from the trees with tealights in them. It looked beautiful. I wish I had a photo to show you. And the best thing was it was really cheap to do lol

We are decorating our venue on the day as we're marrying abroad and so we have the time. We're having the venue set up the tables/chairs & we're putting out the centrepieces, cake etc. on the right tables. We're also having papel picado on the walls as our wedding is Mexican/Day of the Dead themed and it's very bright! The centrepieces include lots of candles that should go well with the dimmed lights at the venue, and the DJs lights. We're working with the caterer on the day to set up the buffet table around half hour before everyone arrives!

babybutterfly you are teasing me! we've been collecting jars for months now - have so many piling up in the garage and i want to tie ribbon round them and put flowers and candles in them (not both in the same obv) ha. so reassuring that other b2bs had the same issues to tackle and had a beautiful day with the same ideas as we are having. h2b and i want something very personal and kitsch - not a cardboard cut-out wedding like a lot of the ones we have been to... don't get me wrong they are beautiful in their own way but we want the day to be a reflection of us and our relationship xx

yes thats exactly what I said! I hate when you go to hotel weddings where they have the same wedding planner who just decorates everyones wedding the same! I went to 3 weddings at the same venue one year and everything was exactly the same! It was so boring and impersonal!
We decorated everything ourselves and I made a lot of my decorations because we were on such a tight budget. I was so pleased with how it turned out and all day people kept saying it was nice to go to a wedding which was a bit unconventional. We had the sit down meal but we had a hog roast instead of a 3 course meal which everyone loved and we had cupcakes instead of a wedding cake which also doubled up as desert. We decided to keep some of the traditions of wedding receptions but add our own stamp to them. I hope you get to do the same. And if you get stuck for ideas let me know cause I have loads! lol