The contract is signed, the deposit cleared, and the only image of the room is a wide-angle shot on the venue's website that was clearly taken during a different decade. You have a date, a headcount, and no idea what the walls are made of.
Decorating a rented hall sight unseen is mostly a purchasing problem. Buy for the parts of the room you can predict.
Get answers before you get a shopping cart
Email the venue coordinator. Most will answer all of this in one reply.
- Can anything go on the walls, and with what? Painter's tape, pins, and removable hooks all get treated differently.
- What is the ceiling? Height, and whether it's a drop grid, open beams, or drywall with sprinkler heads you must not touch.
- How many tables, and what shape? A 6 foot banquet rectangle and a 60 inch round need completely different covers.
- What is the earliest load-in time and the hard load-out time?
- Is there a ladder or step stool on site, or are you bringing one?
- What is already in the room that you can't remove? A stage, a pillar, mirrored walls, a mounted projector screen.
That last question saves more parties than any other. Rooms come with features.
Decorate the tables and the floor, not the walls
Walls are the one surface a rented hall has rules about. Tables are yours.
Packaged 1-Ply Metallic Party Table Skirt runs 14 feet at a 30 inch drop, enough to wrap the front and both sides of a standard 6 foot banquet table. Metallic Party Spray Centerpieces stand 19 inches and need no support at all. A Purple Party Carpet Runner is 24 inches by 15 feet and ships with double-stick tape, and no venue has a policy about the floor.
If you want height, buy something freestanding. The Wedding Celebration Arch builds to 11 feet from four 33-inch poles, three connectors, and two clamps, and it stands on its own without a single thing attached to the building.
Ceiling height you cannot confirm
Buy things that work at more than one height. Metallic Fringe Ceiling Curtains are 19.5 inches by 16 feet and cut down to whatever the room turns out to need. Gleam 'N Party Curtains at 8 feet by 3 feet hang full in a tall room and trim in a low one. Anything with a single fixed drop is a gamble.
Honestly, skip the ceiling on a first visit to an unfamiliar room. Guests look at eye level and at whatever is behind the food. Ceiling work is the most effort per unit of notice, and you'll be doing it on a borrowed step stool.
The contingency kit that goes in the car
Pack this whether you think you need it or not. Painter's tape, gaffer tape, a pack of removable adhesive hooks, fishing line, binder clips, scissors, a box cutter, zip ties, a handful of 6 oz balloon weights, and one spare table cover.
Every item on that list exists to solve a problem the room invents on the day. The balloon weights in particular travel well and cover you when the only place to anchor a bunch turns out to be a bare floor.
When the room isn't what you pictured
Walk in, take one lap, and pick a single focal wall or corner before you unpack anything. Put most of what you brought into one 12 foot span, ideally behind the food or the cake, and leave the rest of the room thin.
A room reads as decorated when one area is dense. Spreading the same supplies evenly across a hall makes it look like you ran out, which is exactly the impression you were trying to avoid.
Freestanding pieces, curtains, and table skirting live in general party decorations and accessories, and the covers that fit whatever tables the venue rolls out are in solid color party tableware. Send the venue your questions first, then shop the answers.
If you have not ordered with us before, PARTY10 takes 10% off a first order. Spend part of what it saves you on the contingency kit.