Decorating a big hall for a 40th party?

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Any good ideas, dos & don'ts please? I'm helping a friend in a couple of months and she's on a budget. Will have 2h to do it before guests come.
We've had a good look on pinterest and she loves all the hipster weddings-in-barns-type thing; light bulb strings (so expensive though?!) and chalk board signs. It's not a sit-down do but I'm thinking little tables with battery tealights in jam jars? There will be cocktails and light bites + perhaps a candy buffet. DJ in one area. She's also thinking about a loose Gatsby and/or Casino and/or Prohibition theme, are ostrich feather arrangements tacky? Too expensive? Unethical? It's a nice looking hall with beams but she's worried it's going to look bare.
Many thanks in advance.

Get some bunting on those beams. You can get about 10 meters of hessian and lace on amazon for around £15

Have a look on eBay for used wedding decs. Also look on Pinterest for a Pom Pom garland tutorial - I made them for my wedding and was really effective. I’m not a huge fan of feathers I think it’s a bit dated but that’s personal preference. Also look for enormous balloons-often used as wedding centrepiece. The light up balloons you get in supermarket are cool too.

Check the hall rules as to what they will & won’t allow. We don’t allow anything blu tacked to the walls, but the doors of the storage cupboards are fair game & we have permanent hooks for bunting/lights.

The big age ballons or her name spelt out. Also do a huge Happy Birthday as 2 separate balloons.

these ones. Take up lots of space! and look great.

A Friend collected loads of spirit bottles (like jack Daniels etc) and bought battery fairy lights which were attached to a cork cheaply from Amazon they looked great on each table.

Thanks all! V helpful.
Anyone know who's cheap for nice looking chunkier fairy light strings? Wilko had lots at Xmas but not now.

Primark often have loads of fairy lights but check what they will allow in terms of extension leads or battery powered ones.

Thank you, very useful. There might be a little mobile casino, do you think bunting made of big playing cards would be dead tacky? How about those sparkly drapes-thingamijigs?
Thing is she likes a bit of glam AND rustic/hipster. She's such a lovely friend, I just want her to love it and it not costing too much.

I would say no to the sparkly drapes things if she likes the hipster glam look. But yes to oversized helium balloon letters or numbers for style and filling the space.

Fairy lights never go as far as you'd imagine once you're dealing with bigger rooms, so plenty of those.

Are you on Pinterest at all? It's great for rustic but sparkly inspiration.

Yes, on pinterest, thank you. She (and I) likes those big lightbulb type light strings (featoon lights?) and they do not come cheap ...

festoon, sorry

Maybe try Hobby Craft or The Works?

Maybe also dunelm or The Range for lights

These are very cheap. You could have several sets....

Sorry, you’ll have to search on eBay...link was too identifying.

LARGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY SELF INFLATING BALLOON BANNER BUNTING PARTY DECORATION UK

Fairy lights, raid everyone’s Chrismas decorations and string warm white/ clear lights around the room. Definitely have some sort of seating, tealights on the table.
When is it? Jam jars of wild flowers? Outdoor table lamps maybe, they can be reused.

Thanks all, you're lovely.
It's mid autumn.

I had a sort of rustic big party for my 40th and I borrowed a big string of lights from someone. If you know anyone in local government/the rotary club etc put out feelers because those big old lights are often knocking around for use at fetes etc.

Good point! The ones I'm looking at (that she loves) are from Lights4Fun and would come to hundreds to make any sort of impact.

A lady I know had the jam jars with fairy lights on some tables and a little pumpkin display on others also with fairy lights. They made bunting from strung leaves and had paper Pom Pom decorations also hessian and lace bunting. It sounds a bit naff but with the balloons and some fake tea lights it looked amazing. Sainsbury's have some hippy chic stuff in the sale at the min I think it's aimed at weddings but would still work.

Thank you, sounds lovely! I think the lights will be crucial.

Mid autumn, bunches of grapes, clementines and nuts as table decorations. You could spray paint autumn leaves ( or leave them natural) for decorations.

Is there anyway you can get in earlier? We decorated a relatively small hall with fairy lights etc and also brought in food etc, blew up balloons and it took us hours!

Check the rules! We don't allow anything to be pinned to walls. We also only allow tea lights in proper holders - fire regs may even require battery operated lights

Totally, I'm thinking batteries all the way! We will have 2.5 h tops.

Home Bargains have LOADS of wedding stuff, really cheap. There are lots of hessian type things, little jars, blackboards etc. They can obviously be used for birthdays too!

Hobbycraft do nice things too in the same theme, but a little more expensive.

You'll be able to do it really nicely I'm sure for not a lot of money.