Fabric, Sheers & Sashes

So you found your reception site. The space is great. It’s very affortable but what is missing? Are the walls bare? Is the carpet not the color you were hoping for? Are the chair seats blue and your theme is aqua? How do you warm up and mask a room that is perfect in some ways but needs that extra punch?  Add some fabric, sheers and sashes to make the room warmer. But how are you going to do that on a budget? The good news, you can achieve a professional looking room without it costing you bundle. I saved $850 doing it myself. 

Here is what you will need to make the look in the photo above: 

Sheer Backdrop Curtains

1. Shown here are 8 curtains. 3 sets are sewn together. Place two curtains together and sew the top seams together. Make sure you don’t sew the existing sleeve where the rod is suppose to go through. Once your done you will use the front panel to feed onto your curtain rod. I put a double on first then a single panel, then another double panel, single and finished it with a double panel.
2. On your double panels (the two sewn together) gather the front panel and tie a bow or sash on the front panel this creates the illusion of a double rod look.
3. Hang your curtain rods with the fishing leaders from the ceiling.  You have to have a drop down ceiling, piping so some type of ceiling grid to do this.
4. Wrap the leaders around the grid and hang the rods. We used one leader on each end and in the middle so they hung straight.
5. I finished the look off with floor lighting that we made.

Note: If you have a table, like I did in front of the curtains, then they don’t need to touch the floor. No one is going to see it hanging a foot off the ground and if they do so what! 

Use fishing leaders to hang things evenly from the ceiling. I used them for our lanterns and the curtain rods. Measure from the ceiling down and then by using different size leaders together you can achieve the appropriate hanging length.

Ceiling Draping

Ceiling Drapery $89.99 – 150 ft. of Iridescent Organza (ebay) 

Curtain Clips $14.99 – Bag of 14 (JC Penney) 

If your thinking of doing ceiling draping – you can do it yourself. It’s not as hard as it looks as long as you are going to keep it simple. 

I got 150 feet of Iridescent Organza Wedding Craft Fabric on ebay. I cut 2 – 75′ panels and draped them from one end of my room, crisscrossing in the middle to the other side of the room for $89.99. I bought the fabric on eBay at JDR Supply. The fabric was just gorgeous. 

If you want to know how to hang them from a panel or false ceiling – email me for details. 

Chair Sashes

Chair Sashes $85.00 – 100 White (ebay) 

I got my chair sashes (white) on ebay. If you are ordering the chair covers, most rental companies will include these for free. But if your like me, I couldn’t afford $3 per chair x 86. I just happened to stumble upon a deal on ebay that was clearing out their inventory. 

Although tying a bow looks easy, make sure that you practice tying your chair bows before your set up. It’s not as easy as it looks. It took 6 people 1 1/2 hrs. to tie 86 chairs. So have plenty of people on hand.