what would you do with this?

[RLG]

Presenting… my reception room. Pros: not a hotel, exposed brick, hardwood floors, neat wood columns. Cons: its a little dark. We are having a cocktail reception with a live band, so there wont be a huge number of large tables for center pieces. Has anyone in their searches seen anything amazing similar to this room?


edited to fix my massive typo

 

[RLG]

Room from the other side.

 

[RLG]

Flowers????? I think maybe I could do something like this myself to help with the costs. I''m just not sure on the timing. How far in advance can I do these?

 

[RLG]

Flower photo from Martha''s site. What else could I do to dress this place up that wont cost a fortune.

 

[calidaisy]

how about candles?
i think they make the reception seem so intimate and romantic.

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Second vote for candles! This place is kind of like a clean slate, but I think with tons of votive candles you can bring a great feeling to do the room. http://www.cudge.net/ has great prices from what I''ve seen. Is there any way you could hang something from the ceiling? Or could you set up large free-standing candelabras?

 

[FrekeChild]

I would have lots of tea lights, fairy lights hanging from the ceiling and something similar to this: link

I love your venue, seriously, I think it''s fabulous. I would have draping fabric panels hanging in a cool design-not completely covering the ceiling or anything because it has that awesome industrial feel, but enough to give it some oomph and lighten it up a little bit. What are your wedding colors.

 

[RLG]

Thanks guys.
Sarah and Calidaisy, the venu provides some votives and tea lights. I think I will ask them how many they provide so I don''t have to buy so many. Thanks for the link for the candles.
Freke, I would love to do something like that but the ceilings are not really as tall as they look in the pictures. As for colors, I really don''t have any right now. I do love the muti-colored flowers in the picture. I am hoping that jcrew will keep some of their brides maids dresses in the dove gray color they have. I like that its still neutral but not black and would look nice for an evening wedding. If thats a no go the dresses will be black.

 

[diamondfan]

that is a really cool space. I think glowing light and some cool draping would be great, but I assume you want to work with that industrial sense, not totallyget rid of it. I think you can make it look amazing!

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

I like Freke''s suggestion, but instead of hanging from the ceiling, maybe you could just drape them around the columns? I think it would be really cool to have the lights around the columns in your pics on to shine through the fabric, I love the way that looks. That would add some light. Also, wood floors and brick walls mean the space will be very loud, and having some fabric to absorb it might help.

 

[RLG]

I love how no one seems to love the christmas lights on the columns. It just not me then. I hadn''t considered the sound aspect of the room. Thanks for bringing that up brazen_irish. With a live band it might be quite loud. I will have to keep working on this.

 

[IrishBreakfast]

Yes! Lots of candles! It will look like a completely different room. When is your wedding RLG? Do you have much more time to plan?

 

[Gypsy]

How long before the reception do you have to set up? How long until your reception to buy stuff on sale?

If you have a nice amount of time before the wedding to set up and decorate the place. Here''s what I''d do.

I''d go with Freke''s idea of LOTS of fabric and fairy lights and add silk flowers to the pot. You get totally get fabric cheap. Sign up on JoAnn fabric.com they give out 50% off one FOLD of fabric one time. A bolt is a fold. Cheap chiffon or tulle will be sheer enough to show fairy lights through it. Twist the fabric up with some lights and BAM. I add some silk flowers (Micheals 50% off coupons) into the mix on the columns so it looks like flowers coming out of that wood, wrapped in fabric and lights.

Then I''d do a ton of cheap colored paper lanterns with LED lights from the ceiling. And then do LOTS of candles on the tables, like 6 votives per table (again you can get long burning candle packs at Michaels 50% off with a coupon. And if you have the coupon and find candles you like there BedBathBeyond will price match too with a Michaels coupon in hand) and small BRIGHT low centerpieces. Like MUMS. Cheap, plenitful and easy to DIY as they are pretty forgiving and hearty flowers. I just did some nice small table arrangements for my mother''s dinner party tonight with three hydrangeas in each arrangement. So one small vase, wrapped in colored ribbon with three white hygrangeas in each.

And if you can afford it, I would rent COLORED chair sash. One for each table... in a solid fabric (not sheer) and use one per table as a runner. for a pop of extra color.

 

[Rhea]

I love it!! I wish I''d been able to find something like that for my wedding. I wouldn''t put too many flowers around it. You picked a modern, open space for a reason and I wouldn''t hide that. I think fairy lights up the columns and candles would look great.

 

[Gypsy]

Yeah. I looked at the space again. Nix the silk flowers on the columns or anywhere for that matter. Not right for the space. I stick flowers everywhere (okay so that's not true... unless its a vase of fresh flowers which I almost always have you'd be hard pressed to find a flower in my house). At least for weddings, I tend to stick them everywhere. I would do the mums for the centerpieces though. I think they suit the space. If you are in summer zinnas and dalias would be lovely too. Winter the ranunclus are lovely, but I really like the mums. I'm also not liking white or pastel fabric. Or even sheer fabric. Unless you did all whites to contrast with all the dark, which could be a cool monocromatic modern look to contrast with the dark space. If you wanted bold though, I'd pull the colors of those flowers you posted in a do fabric in those shades. Bright pinks, reds, oranges th

 

[Rhea]

Gypsy, I love the idea of all white flowers to contrast with the space. I''d probably pick a single type of fluffy flower sat in small bunches low on the tables. I''m not well known for having good taste though.

This venue is fabulous! I''m incredibly jealous!

 

[doodle]

the two most popular wedding venues in my hometown are an old mill and a former iron works, so finding pix of similar venues took me exactly eleven seconds, haha. thanks to my florist, kim nelson; the following are all pictures from her site that i "borrowed" so you could get a visual of how various colors and styles would look in that kind of setting. hope this helps!

 

[doodle]

another...

 

[doodle]

...

 

[doodle]

all white with ostrich feathers...if you''re into this look, feathers can be a really affordable alternative to flowers, too.

 

[doodle]

last one...i like how the bright colors pop against the wood!

 

[doodle]

hoping this one''s a little larger...sorry for the 800 posts!

 

[Pandora II]

I have loads of wooden pillars as well - but not as beautiful as yours.

I''m buying loads of fake ivy garlands from ebay and winding them up the pillars and then wiring in fruit and flowers in our colours, plus the battery operated white LED fairylights.

I can then sell the whole lot on ebay afterwards - and recoup some money.

For centrepieces, I have wire baskets on 75cm wrought iron stands with ivy wound round the top and down the stand. The baskets will be filled with pineapples, bunches of grapes, oranges, lemons, apricots etc.

 

[RLG]

Thanks everyone. The wedding is in May 2009, so hopefully that will give me some more flower chioces that are in season. Gypsy I love how you have such complete visions when you post. I will check out mums for flowers. I had been looking at the rannunculus because I like how they are a very full looking but in a more organized way than peonies are. Plus I think they maybe cheaper. The white table cloths and black chairs have to stay because there is no sit down dinner and I cant really justify renting those items when the party starts and 9pm and people will hopefully be walking around and dancing. Doodle this building is an old mill as well. Thank you, thank you for all of the photos. Those were just what I was looking for.

 

[ponderer]

My girlfriend created these pillars of light for her reception. I think she used a very inexpensive sheer fabric and embroidery hoops to create the pillars ( no sewing, I think). She then hot glued the gerber daisys on. She put an up light she got at Ikea at the bottom to illuminate the column. She also placed the up lights in the corners of the room for more lighting.

The effect was very nice.

 

[RLG]

pandora- I love that you are using fruit in the center pieces.
ponderer- thank you for the photo. I was having a hard time imagining what others were saying about draping the columns with fabric. That is such a cool look. I really like the bright colors. One question though did she have to set and clean those up herself?

 

[ponderer]

RLG,

Those are not colums draped in frabric, but hollow fabric faux columns hung from the ceiling, but you would get a similar effect with christmas lights wrapped around a column and then wrapped in fabric. If you really like it I could email my friend and get the details on how she made them.

Although we did set up some of the room, everything hanging from the ceiling was there when we got there, so I dont know if her florist did it or if the venue did it.

 

[Gypsy]

There are all types of mums, you can do some football mums in there. They have large heads and take up more space per stem-- they are super fluffy. You can mix in some spider mums as well, button mums. They are really affordable too. Thank you for the compliments. I love your venue though, I really do.

In May though you have a LOT of afforable flower options, its a nice time of year so I may revise my advice (if I may). Hydrangeas are pretty plentiful, springy, take up a nice amount of space per stem (so they are pretty affordable). And you can order them in bulk from costco.

 

[RLG]

Gypsy you just go ahead and keep suggesting things. I really appreciate it.
ponderer thanks for the offer. If I go this route I will take you up on your offer and please do compliment your friend on her lovely decor.

 

[RLG]

I have had my ah-ha moment. Half way down on this blog that Octoberbride2008 posted in another thread:
http://www.ourblogoflove.com/index.cfm?catID=19&StartRow=19 the sheer fabric drapes gathered along the brick wall. I think that is totally what I''m looking for.