Manchester weddings need a hire list covering chairs, tables, crockery, cutlery, and glassware, with quantities matched to the venue and guest count.
Manchester weddings need a hire list covering chairs, tables, crockery, cutlery, and glassware, with quantities matched to the venue and guest count.
Manchester has no shortage of wedding venues, from converted mills and canal-side warehouses in the city centre to country houses and hotel ballrooms across the wider North West. What most of them have in common is that they need hire equipment to supplement whatever the venue provides. Whether that's extra chairs for a ceremony, a full table setting for 200 guests, or catering kit for an outside caterer, getting the hire list right early makes the rest of the planning considerably easier.
Seating is often the first hire item couples think about, and for good reason: it's the most visible piece of equipment in the room. Ceremony seating typically runs to 80 to 150 chairs depending on the guest list, set out in rows with an aisle. For a reception dinner in the same venue, those chairs need to move to round tables, which means the layout and the chair style need to work for both configurations.
Chiavari chairs remain one of the most popular choices for weddings in the North West. They're light enough to move quickly between a ceremony and a reception layout, they stack well, and they suit both formal and informal venue styles. Ghost chairs work well in contemporary loft and warehouse venues. Crossback chairs suit rustic barn settings. Expo Hire's chair hire range covers all of these styles, delivered to venues across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire, and the wider North West.
Round banquet tables seat 8 to 10 guests each and are the standard choice for wedding receptions. For 120 guests, that's 12 to 15 tables. For 200 guests, 20 to 25. Couples choosing a top table rather than a sweetheart table will need a long rectangular trestle for the wedding party, typically seating 8 to 12. Additional trestles work well for the buffet, gift table, and cake table.
Some venues in Manchester supply tables but not chairs, or vice versa. It's worth getting a clear inventory of what the venue provides before placing a hire order, as there's no point paying twice for equipment already in the room. Expo Hire can supply tables in a range of sizes to suit any floor plan, from circular banquet rounds to long rectangular formats.
Table linen is one of those categories where hire is simpler than buying. For a 20-table wedding reception, you need 20 tablecloths sized for the table diameter, typically 132-inch rounds for a standard banquet table, plus napkins for every cover. That's a significant volume of fabric to launder and press if you're purchasing it outright. Hire linen arrives laundered and pressed, and goes back dirty after the event.
White and ivory remain the most popular linen colours for weddings in the North West. Coloured linen, particularly navy and burgundy, appears regularly as an accent. Chair covers and sashes add to the hire list if the venue's existing chairs aren't being replaced with hire chairs. The key is deciding early whether you're using the venue's furniture or bringing in hire equipment, as it changes the whole linen specification.
A three-course wedding dinner for 120 guests needs at least 360 pieces of crockery: dinner plates, side plates, and dessert plates. Add soup bowls if there's a starter soup, and coffee cups if coffee is being served at the table. Hire crockery in plain white china is the standard choice. It suits every food style and venue type, and it keeps the food as the focus rather than the tableware.
Cutlery quantities work out at three to four pieces per cover per course, depending on the menu. For a starter, main, and dessert with bread, that's typically eight to ten pieces per cover. Multiply by the guest count, add a 10% buffer, and that's the order quantity. Expo Hire's cutlery hire covers all standard place setting configurations, from simple two-course dinners to formal multi-course settings.
The standard glassware spec for a wedding dinner includes a white wine glass, a red wine glass, and a champagne flute per cover. Add a water glass if there's table water service. For the toast, allow one flute per guest regardless of whether they'll also use it during the meal. Most weddings also need glassware for the drinks reception, where consumption is higher and glass-to-person ratios should be generous.
A working rule of thumb is 2.5 to 3 glasses per person across the whole evening, accounting for glasses left on tables, glasses taken outside, and breakages. For 150 guests, that's 375 to 450 glasses as an order quantity. Expo Hire hires glassware in matching sets, which matters at a long table where mismatched glass heights are visible from across the room.
Manchester weddings in the summer months often include an outdoor element, whether that's a drinks reception in a hotel garden, a ceremony under a pergola, or a marquee reception in country house grounds. For outdoor setups, furniture needs to handle variable conditions. Folding tables, wooden bistro sets, and rattan-effect chairs all work well for outdoor drinks receptions and informal areas.
Expo Hire delivers to venues across Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire, and the wider North West. England and Wales are within the delivery area. Couples booking outdoor venues should confirm the ground surface in advance: stone terraces, lawns, and gravel paths all have different requirements for furniture legs and layouts, and it's worth checking this before finalising the hire list.
The simplest approach is to start with the venue inventory. Get a full list of what the venue supplies, note anything you need more of or anything not included, and build the hire order from there. Most venues in Greater Manchester can tell you exactly what they provide for events. Working through chairs, tables, linen, crockery, cutlery, and glassware in order gives you a complete list without gaps.
Booking hire equipment three to six months before the wedding date is sensible for summer events in the North West, when demand is highest. Expo Hire works with couples, caterers, and event planners across Manchester and the surrounding areas. Contact the team with your guest count and venue details to get a quote.
Choose from our vast range of catering hire, furniture hire and exhibition hire products. Select from the categories listed below or use our great search function above.
