Ceiling draping for wedding hall decoration can be a very large and intimidating job but with some proper measurements and planning, it can be done fairly inexpensively. Nothing transforms a space more than having material draped forming a fabric ceiling. This wedding hall decoration tutorial shows you an easy way to beautifully drape the reception area for a wedding.
My daughter had one very specific request when it came to the decor of her reception space. She didn’t want it to look like a church gym. I can understand that completely, but the problem remained that it WAS a church gym!
To completely transform the space, I knew I was going to have to learn the secrets of ceiling draping and for the walls as well. Outside of making her wedding cake, this one task was the thing I was the most nervous about. Many a night, I found myself wide awake at 2:00 am trying to figure out how I was going to get it to work. This was her most important of all her wedding decoration ideas.
The one stipulation I had from our church before taking on ceiling draping was that I needed to use the eye bolts that were already in the walls because they did not want any more added, which is completely understandable. With this restriction, we ended up using a tent design for our ceiling: one high middle wire across the width of the center of the gym and then draped it down to the ends of the room on each side, and then down to the floor. We used thin wire and turnbuckles to run the support across the three widths (middle and both ends), but be sure your middle height is at least a couple feet higher than your ends. Below is a picture of the center of the tent.
Below is a picture of one of the ends of the tent. We hung the three sections of wire first and then added the material. We started on one end on the floor, fed it up and over the end wire, across the middle wire and then down to the other end wire, then down to the floor. We got lucky because we used bolts of material that had 23 yards on each and that was the perfect amount to go the whole length, and give us a bit of material for a draping effect from point to point on the ceiling. No sewing required!
Once we had all the material hung, it came time to fine tune it all. We used small safety pins to attach the material to the two end wires and to pin together each strip of material so there were no gaps in our ceiling.
Our theme for the day when we were hanging this massive amount of organza on the ceiling and walls was “It doesn’t have to be perfect. It is going to be dark.” It is easy to obsess over every little seam and bump, but the reality is, once the party started and the overhead lights were turned off, and the uplighting was turned on, it was nothing but a glittery, magical space. Even I didn’t notice the not-so-perfect sections. During the day and with the overhead lights on, we were also a bit frustrated with how see-through it all was, but again, once the lights were off and the lighting scheme going, it was perfect. The shimmer in the organza did a great job of reflecting the up-lights around the room and the lights from the DJ as well.
The material I used to for the ceiling draping was a shimmer white organza that I bought from Gifts International. It certainly wasn’t the highest quality of organza I have ever seen, but that didn’t matter to me. I just needed the effect! I bought 460 yards and only paid $250. For those who don’t know, that is a killer deal.
So how long did all this draping and wall covering take? There were 6-8 of us working on it and it took us about 7 hours. Now, having done this once before, I think I could easily do it again in 4-5 hours. Luckily for me, my next oldest child is only 17, so I have some time before having to whip up this skill once again 🙂
This is awesome. I am trying to use material in my church for my wedding to drape from one end of the church to the next. I measured and it is 24 feet. Do you know what would be sturdy enough to hold the material up so I can use and create a middle entrance for myself (bride) in the church.
We used wire attached to eye bolts to hold up the material. We also tried a heavy duty fishing line, but it stretched too much and eventually broke. Good luck! – Carole
Hi. Cam u tell me the wire and eye bolt. Or a pic
Thank you so much for the tutorial. It looks awesome,
You are welcome Rae! I hope it was helpful -Carole
How big of a space did the tent make? Thanks
Danielle- I don’t have the exact measurements anymore but about 50 feet wide is my best guess.
Hello I purchased this organza material as you instructed. The left and the right side are folded I notice as I unroll the bolt. Did you leave those ends folded when hanging the material or you laid the material totally flat? Did you double up or single layer?
We left it folded because the organza was thin. Good luck!
please tell me exactly the type of wire and turnbuckle you used. I’m not sure where you used the turnbuckle. I never even heard of a turnbuckle!!! i love what you did, but i need some more specifics in order to do it myself for my party. Can i send you a photo of the room so that you can get an idea?
Janie- a turnbuckle was attached to one end of the wire and then the other end of the turnbuckle hooked onto the eye bolts already in the walls. The turnbuckle then turns so you can tighten the wire to make it tight enough so it doesn’t droop. If you don’t use a turnbuckle, you will never get your wire tight enough across the span of the room.
As far as the type of wire and turnbuckle, it all depends on how big of a span you have. Talk to your local hardware store and they can help you pick an appropriate size for both.
Looks great!
What type of material did you use?
Haley – I used a very inexpensive organza fabric. In the post, I have a link to the online store I bought the material from. -Carole
Hi,
This looks stunning. I’m in desperate need of transforming a hall into something great for my daughters 21st birthday. It’s coming up real soon and I’m keen to know where you purchased your rolls of organza from.
Thanks!
Roberta
Roberta- there is a link in my post directly to the website I used!
I can’t find the link that your order your organza.
Can you post it again?
Thanks a lot.
It is in the post….Gifts International was the company I used.
Hello Carole. I LOVE this! And it’ll really help me to decorate the tent for our wedding on our tight budget! If we get a tent that is 20’x40′ how much material do you recomend me purchasing? Thank you so much.
Lisa- that really all depends on how much material you want hanging down and how much you want to bunch it together. My measurements are listed and I ordered three extra bolts, which we used! If I would have had more, we would have used it. Order more than your calculations say you should
Hello I also have a 20×40 tent rented for my wedding in June and want to do this so bad to decorate it! !! How much fabric did it take u???
Hi Daydra! Good luck with your wedding. The article has the amount of fabric I bought
This is wonderful! Well done, you did an amazing job! Thank you for the clear instructions. Your daughter had a beautiful wedding reception 🙂
Thanks Frankie! I really appreciate your kind comment -Carole
How did you get away with drilling eye hooks in someones walls?
I have never been able to do that when I have hung drape and I hang lots of drape for weddings.
I have always been asked to stay away from the walls and not to use hammers or drills in someone else’s venue.
Hi Geri! The church already had some eye hooks into the ceiling and walls, then we got permission to add two more for our needs. And it wasn’t into the walls. It was a strip of wood trim that ran all around the walls, which made it quite sturdy and they didn’t worry about us damaging dry wall.
There’s currently a sale on their organza on the website you linked.. Is that about the price you paid for yours? I saw that you said you spent a little over $200 for the kind you got but the pricing on there is different now so I want to make sure I get the right kind.
I bought mine two years ago so I’m not sure. Any organza will work! Good luck
I could have written your remarks “awake every night at 2am”! Our daughter also agreed to use our church hall but wants the ceiling hidden. We settled on a centered circle with 12 rays of fabric going out. I ordered 250 yards of 108″ tulle. I found a formula for multiplying each length by 1.3 to get the right drape. I’m starting tomorrow on unrolling those bolts, cutting and sewing a casing on the end and feeding them onto a stuff wire circle of about 18″. Will suspend that with wire from the center hook that is already in place. For the ends of each ray I purchased Clik system magnets that will stick to the metal frames of the suspended ceiling tiles. Keeping fingers crossed but it all looks good on paper and in my head! :). We are borrowing cafe lights too to hang from these super strong magnets. Thanks for your ideas!!
Good luck Connie! It was so much work but the end result was worth it all.
I was wondering about the magnets. Are you using the Cultrual Hall?
I’m not sure what magnets you are referring to Nerell.
So much work!!!! How wide was your organza and do you remember how many widths you ended up draping?
It was a ton of work, but the end result was so gorgeous! We used the organza doubled over on itself like it came off the bolt of fabric just to make it a little less opaque. We bought 60 inch wide and 460 total yards.
Thanks! I am sorry to bug ya, but one more question…Did ya buy 10 yard bolts or 25 yard bolts. It doesn’t really matter except it would be easier to have the right length so I won’t have to cut and sew any of them. Thanks for your help.
It was 25 yard lengths but it will all depend on the size of the room you are using if that will be long enough on its own
Hi, I’m trying to drape an unfinished ceiling. The material I’m using is satin. I’ve read your comments but I’m still clueless as to what materials I need and the installation process. When you mentioned wire is that fishing line? Please what type of wire? Do I need to tack the wire to the rafters? I’m in need of some help!!!
Hi Lo! With using satin, it is considerably heavier than the material I used. You will need to do more than tack the wire to the rafters. You will need to screw some eye hooks into the rafters and feed the wire through it. Do not use fishing line because it will only stretch or bake. You can buy metal wire on a spool from a hardware store
Ok…. So I screw the eye hooks and then feed the wire. But how do I put the fabric up? Is it fed on top of the wire? Won’t the rafters be exposed? I’m trying to hide it. Ugh!!! I’m so clueless!!!! 🙁
The wire acts like the poles of a normal tent and yes, the material drapes over the stretched wire. run wire along all four walls. You then run the fabric up and over the wire on one wall, across the span of the room then over the wire and down the opposite wall. I worry about the weight of satin doing this if you have a large room. That much material will be heavy. Also, you will need a bunch of small safety pins to keep the material in place and slipping
You realize that is a minimum of 40 man hours plus material costs which equals approx a minimum of $1150. and you could hire a professional to do this for you for maybe $100-$200 more and not have to deal with it.
Just saying DIY is not always worth it!
Very true Kim but when you live in the middle of nowhere Minnesota, there are zero professionals to hire to do it :). It was us or no one!
Thank you so much for this! We’re having our wedding in a church gym as well.. and I really want something pretty for pictures. A church gym, to me, doesn’t seem like it would be very photogenic. This gave me a few ideas of something I’d like to try (and hopefully my fiance will go along with it!).
The link you gave to the fabric website is fantastic with the prices. So thank you again!
You are very welcome Rynnae!
If you already answered this I apologize in advance, but what were the gym dimensions you were dealing with
It was about 50 ft x 55 ft
You haven’t mentioned how you reached the top of the gym ceiling…did you have to use a cherry picker or scissor lift?
We never had to reach the gym ceiling Angie :). That is the beauty of this design. We ran wire along all four walls and draped it across the gym. The gym ceiling was easily 2 stories high but the draping was only one story high.
Thank you so much for this! It is exactly what my daughter wants to hide the fact that her reception will be in a cultural hall! I really appreciate all the detail that you included. It is so helpful to not have to reinvent the wheel! Now she just needs to pick which building, so we can measure and check for eye bolts!
Good luck Jeanae! It is a lot of work, but the end result was so worth it!
How did you attach the organza to the wire? I found the turnbuckle, eyebolts, and fabric, but Im not sure how you attach the fabric to everything? My venue has 3 hooks that look similar command hooks at a focal point and chain attached around the perimeter of the venue. I am looking to attach 4 panels of organ from the focal point on the wall (not the ceiling) and drape across the chains on the perimeter of the venue. Please help!
The way we had it draped, we didn’t need to attach it to the wire but you could certainly use some small safety pins. We did use some of those in certain places where the organza didn’t want to hang correctly. Good luck Monique!!
Hello! Was it the sheer organza or the crystal organza that you purchased and what is the details o the table covers?
Thanks
Hey there Tierra! We used crystal organza which was beautiful with the up-lighting. For the table covers, I purchased some inexpensive white tablecloths since our church had some but they weren’t in the best condition.
Hi if we have a tent 30×80 how much material do we need for draping the top?
Hey Ross! My head is still swimming from doing all the math from our own wedding. It isn’t ready to figure out yours 🙂 There are tips about how much material we ordered compared to the room measurements in the post. I always suggest ordering extra because too much is always better than too little! Good luck
How wide was the 460 yards of fabric that you used to drape the ceiling?
Hey Sherlita! We bought the 6 foot wide panels and used them folded over into 3 foot wide panels
Hi Carole,
Do you still have the organza?
Do you live in Utah?
And would you rent it out?
Hi Marie! I do have the organza, but I am a Mormon who doesn’t live in Utah 🙂 We are in Minnesota.
Hi,
I have been wracking my brain watching DIY tutorials on how to hang ceiling draping and figuring out the measurements. We are currently planning my son’s wedding and I feel like I wanna try ceiling drapery. I saw that you put the dimensions of the room at 50ftx55ft. Was the crystal organza doubled up for the entire room?
It is overwhelming for sure Michelle! We did double it for the whole room just to keep it from being so see through and it worked perfectly, especially since it came already folded in half from the store.
Hi Carole! First I would like to say thank you for this amazing tutorial, idea and the resource for materials. My question is out of the 460 yards order was all of that used on just the ceiling or was that ceiling and walls? Do you know approximate height you created with the tent? I plan to do this to drop the ceiling and I need to cover walls as well. Thanks!
Hello Leslie! This amount covered both the walls and the ceiling. The height of the tent was about 10 feet.
You have saved me from trying to think hard for two wedding receptions that I will be doing this for. Luckily, we are using the same material, so, yayyyy for sharing!! My daughter and I are both getting married this year and I will be testing this on her reception and perfecting it on mine. Hehehe. Thank you for sharing this information for people who don’t or can’t pay per hour for someone to come in and do this draping.
You are welcome and good luck with TWO weddings Sarah!
Hello! First I want to thank you for this amazing tutorial. You have helped me so much! I am looking to just drape the ceiling, but no walls. If I just used the wire in the center to drape the material (following the vaulted ceiling) how would you recommend attaching the material to the corner, where the vaulted ceiling and wall meet? Thanks for any advice!!
Hi Christina! What if you ran a wire along with corner of the wall and the vaulted ceiling and attach it again to that wire?
Can you tell me what gauge wire you used and how you fastened it to the turnbuckles? My sweet girl announced ten days ago that she is getting married at the end of the month, and I’m frantically trying to get everything ready.
Congrats Rebekah! The turnbuckles were attached by simply twisting the wire around one end. I don’t know what the gauge of the wire was. We actually tried fishing wire first but it broke ever time we tried to tighten it.
Thank you for all this wonderful information. Would you mind telling me how many bolts of this material you buy for that amount of space?
Hi Donna! This was 6 years ago so I’m not sure exactly how many bolts but according to my post, I purchased 460 yards.
Hi!
I love this idea! If I understood correctly, you used 23 yards from one end to the other. Does that include walls as well or just the ceiling? Also, how wide was each panel?
Thanks!
Hi Erin! That includes the walls and ceiling.
I will be draping the ceiling in the culture hall. I read that clothes line worked well for strength. I will be running it from backboard to backboard of the basketball nets. Then draping it like a tent. There are only sound boards that I can attach the other end to so I will be clipping the material ends to that.
Same as the light strings..
Haven’t done it yet !!!!
The space I’m working with is 67′ long x 42′ wide.
I’m using tulle
Good luck! I’m sure clothes line will work as well. I was just looking for something a bit thinner when we did it.