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Transforming a Wedding Venue into a Party Venue

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Featured image for a blog post on transforming a wedding venue into a party venue
60th birthday party at Farbridge. Image shows the Barn set with a long table dressed in purple with candle lanterns as centrepieces, a table plan at the forefront and a starcloth backdrop at the far end

Transforming a wedding venue into a party venue

How do you transform a wedding venue into a party venue?  In this blog, we discuss how to style a beautiful Barn venue for a very special party.

Farbridge, near Chichester, is a beautiful setting for a wedding, hosting them throughout the year.  This former dairy nestles in the rolling countryside of the South Downs National Park, a quiet oasis of natural beauty.

Photos below: Promise Photography

Farbridge Barn near Chichester image shows the sign at the top of the drive overlooking the south downs national park
Farbridge Barns wedding venue near Chichester, image showing the view of the Barn from the car park
Farbridge Barns near Chichester image shows the view of the main Lavant Barn from the central courtyard

1. The perfect backdrop

The Barns offer a light, warm and airy atmosphere.

The Lavant Barn seats up to 150 for dining and boasts a gorgeous neutral colour palette. This offers the perfect backdrop for clients to add their own special touches.

We work regularly with Farbridge’s wedding clients to dress the venue, through our venue styling company Stressfreehire.com.

Clearly, our clients have chosen Farbridge because they have fallen in love with it.  And styling the venue draws on every aspect they love about the space.

We use venue styling to dress the rooms but also to highlight specific features, adapt areas to make them better suit their individual requirements and inject their own personality into their event.

Photo below: Charleigh Victoria Photography

2. Dressing a wedding venue

Weddings vary tremendously in style and substance, but they all share a common theme.  They all bring together friends and family to celebrate a life event.

Weddings often benefit from focal arrangements to dress the ceremony area, perhaps with a carpet runner and lanterns or flowers to line the aisle.

This sets the scene for the celebrations to come, draws the eye towards the couple and provides a pretty backdrop for those important photos.

Photo: Helen Cawte Photography

3. The room layout can define the décor

In the dining space, the décor you choose will depend upon the room layout.

Weddings generally feature a seated meal, with round or banquet-style tables being the most popular.

For smaller celebrations, draping can work beautifully to segregate the Barn into two distinct areas.  We often use drapes to frame the view down the length of the Barn and make the space appear less imposing.  Drapes can also be closed when guests first arrive, providing the “wow” factor when they catch their first glimpse of the dining area.

Beam decorations are very popular, highlighting one of the main features of the space.  We use lighting, draping, foliage and florals as beam decorations, either covering the whole area or providing impact in the form of a set piece.  This may mirror the shape of the tables and can also be used to make a feature of the “top” table.

Photos: James White Photography

Wedding at Farbridge dressed with white beam drapes and swag chandeliers

4. Parties may be more formal or informal in style

Parties and other celebrations follow a similar format, but clearly don’t generally include a ceremony! They may also be more formal or informal in their style.

With such a large space, Farbridge lends itself perfectly to a stand-up reception, with canapes, bowl food or serving stations.

But it is a grand space and works equally well as a setting for a formal dinner.

With options for private hire for guest numbers from 22 to 150, there are countless ways in which the venue may be used and styled.

Photo: Micaela Cianci Photography

5. A very special birthday celebration

We dressed Farbridge earlier this month for a very special birthday celebration, transforming a wedding venue into a party venue.

The brief was for an intimate dinner party for close family and friends.  As a male 60th birthday celebration, we wanted to transform the venue in a way that looked sophisticated and elegant.  But it also had to be markedly different from the weddings we usually dress.

We had 36 guests attending, so we opted for one long dining table.  We used 3′ wide tables to provide sufficient space for tableware and decorations, but which would be narrow enough to enable conversation to flow.

Photos: Promise Photography

60th birthday party at Farbridge with one long table seating 36

Designing something different

The length of the table enabled us to segregate the Barn into two, thus defining separate drinks and dining areas.

Rather than use a white or ivory drape, which is most popular for weddings, we wanted something different.  So we opted for a purple colour theme because we already had the drapes in stock.  The bold colour really switched up the look of the Barn and set the colour palette for the party as a whole.

Photo showing a 60th birthday celebration at Farbridge with a purple soft partition drape, starcloth backdrop and one long dining table.

Benefits of using draping

We also used another drape at the end of the Barn to reduce the length of the dining area.

A starcloth drape positioned centrally, rather than the full width of the room, allowed staff access on either side.  This also served to provide a striking backdrop as well as making the table appear longer.

The adjacent Meadow Barn, which has beautiful decorative doors, is normally used for wedding ceremonies and evening dancing. 

This was repurposed for the party as a green room for crew.  We used a blackout drape to neutralise the space and block out any light.  With a simple central opening this also made an easy entry/exit system for the crew to join the party as and when required.

60th birthday celebration at Farbridge showing purple and black drapes to segregate the lavant barn and hide the meadow barn doors

Choosing a colour scheme

We carried the purple colour theme through to the table linen.  This was then paired with stone linen for the bar area to complement the Barn’s own limewash chairs and soft furnishings.

As the party was taking place in October, we injected a highlight colour of burnt orange for an autumnal hue.  Using a print in the party colours painted by Doug’s sister, botanical artist Billy Showell, provided the finishing touch to the tables.  The print was used to create personalised menu booklets as well as featuring on the table plan and in the invitations.

60th birthday celebration at Farbridge showing purple and black drapes to segregate the lavant barn and hide the meadow barn doors

Keeping it simple

Overall, the décor used was very simple. 

We injected colour purely through the draping, table linen and table stationery.

No overhead installations were used and a lovely, warm ambience was created using lighting.  This comprised the venue’s own uplighters together with the light emitted from the starcloth backdrop.

Table and room decoration was provided purely in the form of candles.  Storm lantern clusters and tealight holders dressed the tables and the flickering candlelight was safely enclosed in containers.  The clear glass of the storm lanterns complemented the glassware on the tables, with both reflecting the candlelight to create a beautiful effect.

Additional lanterns lined the walls, whilst battery candle clusters dressed the sills and floor-standing carousel candelabra flanked the dining table.

60th birthday party at Farbridge with purple partition drape, black starcloth backdrop and orange botanical print table plan
60th birthday party at Farbridge with black starcloth backdrop, one long table filled with lanterns, floor standing candelabra and sill candle arrangements
Menu designed by Cuckoo chefs at Farbridge for a 60th birthday party
hat with print saying 60 never looked so good on the table at Farbridge for a 60th birthday party

Transforming a wedding venue into a party venue is just one tiny example of what we can teach you in the Venue Styling Academy.

Through our on-line, affordable training and mentoring programme you’ll learn all about how to transform spaces for events.

We show you how to get creative as well as how to handle the technical aspects of the job, so you can make an impact even at the smallest events.

Through our community, and the industry colleagues you will meet throughout your venue styling journey, you will be able to share ideas and resources, as well as gaining inspiration.

And we cover everything else you need to know in order to set up and grow your own successful business as a venue stylist.

By enrolling in our programme, you will learn new skills and grow your network, and your business, from day one!

Become a successful Venue Stylist

The Academy provides a training and mentoring programme dedicated to helping you make the right decisions when setting up, running and delivering your venue styling business.

Liz & Doug are a husband and wife team who have been running successful wedding and event related businesses for 29 years.  Stressfree – The Venue Transformers, was one of the UK’s first venue styling companies.

From working for big companies as consultants in the 1980 and 1990s, they went solo in 1995.  Doug and Liz believe that with the right know-how and support, anyone with the right attributes can become a successful venue stylist!

If you’d like to learn more from us on a one:one basis, our Power Session is just one of the other ways in which we can help you.

The contents of this blog are for general information purposes only. You may wish to seek professional advice in relation to specific circumstances.

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