Decor

We had ceiling fans and were still able to put up lights, you just have to alter how much your draping them and perhaps keep the fans off. Our before and after, there’s only one string of lights lit in this one though.

Balloons can be a great inexpensive way to bring some colour and texture to the venue. Pinterest has some great ideas for using balloons for décor. We have done a few for parties with friends (much more scaled down that the elaborate ones on there) and they can look really polished and nice. Plus it gives you a nice focal point so you don't need to have them everywhere. Maybe just a feature spot or two for people to use as a backdrop for photos.

Another option would be to have tall centerpieces that draw the eye in and don't worry about the walls and celling. Just having a few points that pull the eye can be enough and for me I prefer that over my attention being pulled in every direction.

Ours is a community hall too. We are doing a lighted ceiling drape - thankfully, our venue has exposed I beams for securing the draping to.

We are doing up lighting around the hall - I think it will add to the overall visual appeal but also make the hall not quite so dark once the lights go off for the dancing to start!

We'll have a fully decorated candy buffet for folks to enjoy all night - we're incorporating tiny fairy lights and tropical leaves in the decoration of this.

Adding some signage is a great idea, Tyanna mentioned pallets which are an easy thing to make! We designed our signs on the computer and had the printed out through vistaprint and they turned out awesome!

If you can't do anything on the ceiling, try and make sure you have a statement centerpiece, so peoples eyes are drawn towards them, not up.

I like the idea of streamers and balloons.

Drapery along the ceiling (around the fans) would make your venue look elegant! As Tyanna mentioned, you could also incorporate fairy lights along the drapery to give it a romantic feel. If you're certain the ceiling isn't doable, then you could line the walls with a sheer fabric instead like this (as opposed to streamers).

You could also buy (or rent) glass cylinder candle vases of 2-3 different lengths, which you could fill with water and add tea light candles to in order to tie the look together. I'm sure you could find glass cylinder candle vases at your local dollar or craft store.

Get some palletsand turn them in to fun sayings or signs for the wedding. They're big and take up space, but they're also super rustic looking!

You can also get fairy lights at dollar stores and use them we are making string lanterns and putting fairy lights in them instead of renting a chandelier!

Your idea of balloons and streamers do work if you don't want much decorate. Its simple and easy to remove after the party.

We’ll be having a memorial table but nothing extra ordinary outside of the norm. Our ceremony and reception venue is a botanical garden so we don’t have to really add to the decor.

We are doing painted palettes with stuff like “our story” on them and maybe some fancy surfboards (our wedding is beach themed). I’ve seen things on Pinterest that are like dollar store table clothes cut up and knitted at the top and drapes down. That might be inexpensive? We’re also thinking about buying a few uplights because it makes the whole space look swankier than it is