Is it over the top to decorate private dining room?

[creamcrackerdmum]

Getting married next month very excited!

We're only having a small ceremony at a registry office and have booked a private dining room for after.

I was saying I'd like to have some flowers for the table and put out some seating cards.

SIL seems to think it's a bit over the top to bring flowers and seating cards to a restaurant.

What does everyone else think?

We've got the room from
3:30-8:30

That’s not over the top! It’s a lovely idea and totally normal for a small wedding. I would do the same. Congratulations and enjoy your day!

Perfectly normal. Though you could possibly make your life easier and get the hotel to do it for you. They can also buy at trade prices but then you might have to pay vat, whereas if you go to a small florist you might save yourself some cash

Totally normal. We had our wedding breakfast in a friends restaurant and brought place cards etc.

No I don’t think that’s OTT. Although when you say small, I wouldn’t do seating cards for, say, 6 people.

Flowers seems nice but check with the restaurant what they already provide table decoration wise. Place cards depends on number of guests, under 20 it's seems unnecessary, both environmentally and cost

Oh that's good then! I still want to make some kind of an effort and the little things matter. Their is 11 of us and I just don't want everyone to go in before us and sit anywhere.

100% not over the top, it sounds perfect. Enjoy

Def do place cards. Even with a small number it will help if people are seated in a structured way and polar opposites not seated beside each other.

100% talk to the venue...They will be super helpful.

We hired a whole restaurant rather than PDR but they happily provided/created seating cards. They also had stunning flower arrangements which coincidently matched my wedding bouquets.
They also arranged and put out certain things in advance for us like a wedding book and some favours for guests and best men /bridesmaids.

Enjoy!!!

Definitely do place cards even for 11! It makes it feel more special and also means you can thoughtfully seat people, spread the chatty ones out so that there is a nice table conversation vibe. A friend of mine had a wedding like this and they had lovely flowers and candles and it was really gorgeous.

Yes, definitely do a seating plan and give it to somebody who will ensure guests sit where you’ve assigned, then no place cards are necessary and you don’t have to worry about that.

Just a handy tip to consider in advance - We went to the restaurant for a chat with the sommelier to select in advance the wines we’d order, depending on what people wanted to drink on the day, we knew we’d serve wine with the meal. We chose a Sauvignon blanc and a favourite red just to save that bit of unnecessary distraction at the lunch table trying to read the wine list.

Guests then ordered their own pre lunch drink when asked, but when we sat down to eat there was red and white immediately for those preferring wine while others ordered their preferred beer, etc.

We also asked for menus to be printed without any prices so guests could choose exactly what they wanted.

The idea was that although we were the hosts, we wanted to be as free to enjoy it as much as our guests.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

I do place cards at Christmas Dinner at home for 4.

Do what makes you happy

When you say "next month", don't forget to check with the Hotel/restaurant what Christmas decorations they might already have up at the time. My friend got married in December on purpose (as opposed to November say) as the private dining room in the local beautiful hotel would already be decorated with incredible foliage and candles etc for Christmas!

No that sounds normal.
Personally, I would also have a balloon arch and a Mr & Mrs easel 😉 to add to my colour scheme.

@BentCandle Ooh I didn't think about that!

Sounds very similar to my wedding. We had a private room from 12.30pm to 7pm. 25 guests. I had flowers and place cards on the tables. It was lovely.

I’m planning something similar. We have a private room and I’m going to have place cards, favours and some decorations laid out. While a small wedding can be more causal than a bigger more formal affair it’s still good to have a seating plan as not everyone knows each other and you’d want to decide where bride and groom sit as well as who’s next to you.

It’s fine. We got married in a church, had a Masonic lodge as a venue and I ordered flowers and balloons. No bother. As long as the venue knows.

We had a private dining room at the venue where we married. We had flowers for each table and place names. I don't think that's over top.

We filled our room with masses of lilies, potted roses and balloons. Stars on the tablecloth, orchids on the tables……… We went all out and it looked great!

We had the room from 4pmish until 11.30 but it was just a private dining room above a restaurant, seating for up to 40 people.

Completely normal to do flowers and seating cards. Decorate as much as you want.

We did this op! 18 people in total. I didn't go mad but there were pretty tea lights on the table, colouring in books etc for the children and little jam jars i'd decorated myself with flowers in. Ooh and name cards and a simple bit of bunting just to finish it off. The restaurant were totally fine with this and even helped me lay everything out the night before. It cost me under £20 to do in total & I think it looked lovely. Do it!