Hotel ballrooms offer up a large amount of amenities that makes it difficult for some couples to say no. Any venue that allows your guests to stay in the same place as your event is always promising. Hotels offer up a small army of workers ready to meet your needs. Other venues only come with a Venue Coordinator and On-Site Manager the day of your event. However, I’ve seen my fair share of hotel ballrooms that make me question who designed this space. You arrive into a ballroom and your eyes glow from the beautiful chandeliers, crown modeling and textured walls. Then you look at the carpet and cringe. You look at the chairs and wonder if you’re being Punk’D. As wonderful as the amenities are, you are left with a design challenge for your next event. So how do you bring your design to life under these circumstances?
Change The Floor
I like to change up how a room looks with a mixture of large and small design elements. Flooring can get expensive if you decide to lay your own carpet over the “bold” carpeting of hotel ballrooms that spans over 100 feet. However, it can be done. Another alternative to flooring is by dressing up your dance floor. How many times have you attended an event and seen that notorious wooden dance floor? You have this beautiful design and then a wooden dance floor. Really venue? I recommend that you cover it with vinyl wrap.
Change The Table
We have come to be way too comfortable with round tables in the event industry. I personally would recommend a mixture of both square and circular tables. I also recommend different styles of tables. Certainly linen choices can enhance the look of a room, but nothing can compare to beautiful glass or mirrored table. You can get great seating with these types of tables and it adds drama to the overall look of the room.
Change The Lighting
Even if you can’t cover the carpet of a hotel ballroom, you can certainly change what people look at. Event lighting is one of the key factors to creating a wow effect. The most important part about lighting is that up-lighting should never be your sole source of lighting. I have seen too many images of dark event spaces with up-lights highlighting the design. You cannot see the design that way and your event is not a night club. Hire the proper lighting company to ensure you have Instagram worthy images. We love our DJs, but they are not lighting professionals.
