Decorating the town hall

[Gem]

Hi guys,

Its the MIL's 60th soon so they are having a bash and have hired the town hall for the occasion. I have been nominated to decorate on the night (Largely down to me being the least flakey of the offspring/other halves I think.) which is not something I have ever done before. I don't really know where to start.

MIL is well turned out and I think she would love something a bit fancy but I am on a bit of a budget.. I doubt home made bunting would go down very well.. So far my only thoughts have been some streamers, banners and maybe some balloons..

I would hate to have agreed to do this and end up making a dogs dinner out of it so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Gem

[JillStephens7]

Flowers are always lovely and if it's over the summer maybe some of the guests will have some nice roses or what have you in their gardens? And greenery from the garden can be used to nice effect, ferns, fancy grasses and such like. The hall may have vases, along with tablecloths?

If you are anti-cut flowers then some prettily potted up plants could be quite splendid, flowering or otherwise to suit her taste.

We ended up buying flowers for our wedding in the end and only spent £32 to do the hall AND church ... from Booths if I'm allowed to say that? You can order the flowers you want from them in advance and they buy some locally where they can.

flowers.jpg (71.35 KiB) Viewed 1759 times

Can't think of anything else at the moment ... other than to ask the staff at the hall what other people have done?

xx

[JillStephens7]

Oh, something we did for a friends fiftieth a few years ago was select some nice photos showing different times in their life and blew them up and put them on the walls. They looked great and it created a nice chatting point for everyone at the party too.

[kit-e-kate]

Here's a good cheap thing you can do- (we did this for our wedding, it looked ace!, i might try and post a photo...) Get yourself to your local floristry suppliers and they should have "quick bows" in every single shade and colour you can think of! Team them with some wide florists ribbon (curled maybe?) and voila! Or you can google for "florists pull bows" and get something online. They have long ties on them so are super easy to attach.
Good luck!
Kate

[kit-e-kate]

Car Cake2.jpg (77.3 KiB) Viewed 1753 times

Sorry! the only one i could find that really showed off the bows was this one! But we did have them tied to chairs at the end of the aisles and bunches of them tied high up onto columns in our reception room. It did look great- honest! Hope this gives you some idea of what i'm on about! : )

[Gem]

Some lovely ideas! I think I will be blowing up some pictures of her and her family but I have to be careful to find nice pics! I love the idea of flowers but I didn't grow any this year (would have if I had known!). Will have a think and see if I know anyone whos garden I can raid. I like the bows as well, will certainly be a bit fancier than paper streamers.

Gem

[JillStephens7]

Ooh can I come to your next party Susie

Looks fantastic!