Your essential guide to event furniture and equipment hire.
Your essential guide to event furniture and equipment hire.
Organising a commercial event means sourcing the right items in the right quantities. This guide covers what you need for each part of the event — the dining room, bar, outdoor areas and back-of-house kitchen. Expo Hire supplies all of it from 11 depots across England and Wales, with live stock and pricing online.
Organising a commercial function takes clear planning and accurate numbers. This guide covers the equipment you need for conferences, university balls, festival VIP areas, and other large events. You can check live prices and live stock online at any time, then place the order without waiting for a quote. Our team sends clean, tested equipment from 11 depots across England and Wales. On delivery day, you receive GPS tracking and an SMS ETA. Clients such as the BBC, ITV, HSBC, Cambridge University, and the Commonwealth Games hire from our stock for major events.
You need the right mix of tables and chairs before you can set a floor plan. A 6ft round table seats 10 guests and suits banquets, gala dinners, and award nights. A 5ft round table seats eight guests and fits tighter rooms or smaller dining groups. Our round tables fold for transport and storage, so venue teams can move them between loading bays and event spaces.
If you need long runs for dining, buffets, or registration, use 6ft or 8ft trestle tables. These sizes seat six to eight or eight to ten guests. Many event teams join trestles to build reception desks and service counters. Allow at least 1.2 square metres for each seated guest, then add extra width where catering staff need to move between tables. Finish the setup with linen hire that matches the tone of the event.
Your chair choice shapes the room and affects how staff handle the turnaround. Chiavari chairs suit formal dining, weddings, and award ceremonies. Black frames fit evening functions and corporate events. White frames suit classic marquee receptions. Limewash frames work well in barns and country houses. Staff can stack Chiavari chairs up to 10 high when they need to clear space after dinner, and you can choose seat pad colours to match the rest of the room.
If you want a softer, curved look, choose the Wishbone chair. Brand launches and fashion events often use this style. The oak Cross Back chair fits barn venues, vineyards, and marquee receptions where timber finishes matter. For conferences and large audience layouts, many organisers choose modern stacking chairs because crews can set them out fast and link them where fire rules require it. We also supply the EventPro® range, built for repeated commercial hire use. You can book chair hire without paying a security deposit.
Standing receptions need places for guests to gather, set down drinks, and talk. Event teams use bar furniture to break up large open rooms and create clear service points. Poseur tables give guests somewhere to stand with drinks, and bar stools add extra seating near the bar.
Modern venues often use chrome high stools, while timber-led schemes suit natural wood stools. If you need a working bar, choose modular counters so staff can serve drinks, run tills, and manage queues. Evening events often add LED bar units to tie the bar area into the venue lighting or brand colours. Our checkout shows the delivery charge from £40 based on road distance from the nearest depot to your venue.
Long events work better when guests have somewhere to step away from the main room. You can build breakout areas with sofas and lounge furniture for meetings, waiting areas, or informal networking. A pair of three-seater sofas creates a simple meeting point, while coffee tables give guests space for drinks, brochures, and laptops.
Sports hospitality teams and festival organisers often use lounge furniture in VIP areas and private boxes. If you need a layout that bends around awkward spaces, use modular cube seating. Crews can arrange the units as benches or grouped seats, and the faux leather finish wipes clean after heavy use. You can browse our wider furniture hire range for matching armchairs and tables. Orders over £1,000 can use our 25% advance deposit option.
Outdoor events need equipment that stands up to weather, footfall, and uneven ground. This section covers the basics for festivals, sporting events, and garden parties. Outdoor furniture helps you turn patios, lawns, and terraces into usable guest areas. Food festivals and beer events often use outdoor table and bench sets because crews can place them fast and clean them down between sessions.
If you need audience seating, plastic folding chairs work well for outdoor performances and temporary stages. Drainage holes help after rain. When the temperature drops, add patio heaters to keep guests comfortable into the evening. Gazebo hire gives cover to catering points, ticket desks, and DJ booths, and weighted footplates help keep each unit stable.
Temporary kitchens need commercial appliances that can handle service pressure. Caterers and venue teams hire ovens, hot cupboards, and refrigeration when the on-site kitchen lacks capacity. Six-burner gas ovens support boiling, roasting, and holding multiple pans at once. Hot cupboards hold plated meals at serving temperature during speeches, staged service, or venue delays. Upright fridges and chest freezers give chefs space for ingredients, desserts, and prep work.
For drinks service, many teams add water boilers so staff can serve large volumes of tea and coffee from a standard 13-amp socket. Our depot team tests and certifies each electrical appliance before it leaves for site, so your kitchen crew can put it straight to work.
Large dining events depend on careful counting. You need the right quantities of crockery for your menu and service plan. Formal dining often needs 10-inch dinner plates for the main course, 8-inch plates for starters, and 6-inch side plates for bread. If you serve soup or desserts, add the right bowls to match. Many caterers order around 20% above guest count to cover breakages and service losses.
You also need the right cutlery for each course. A formal place setting often includes a table knife, table fork, starter knife, starter fork, dessert spoon, and soup spoon. Buffet service usually needs extra forks and spoons because guests move between stations and often set items down. We also offer a Send It Back Dirty service on catering equipment, so your staff can pack items away after use and let our depot team handle the washing and sterilising.
Your drinks list drives the glassware order. A standard place setting often needs one water glass and two wine glasses per guest. Use a larger bowl for red wine and a smaller one for white. If you plan a toast or drinks reception, add champagne flutes. Bars that serve beer can use nonic pints, tulip glasses, or dimpled mugs, depending on the look you want.
Cocktail service needs the right shapes too. Highball glasses suit mixed drinks and long serves, while rocks glasses work for spirits over ice. Martini glasses suit classic cocktails. We deliver glassware in protective crates with individual compartments, which helps bar teams store and return stock safely. Every order includes our Free Minor Damage Waiver, which covers small accidental chips and cracks.
Before you place the order, check your floor plan, menu, and guest numbers one more time. Our website shows live stock for your dates, so you can add the right tables, chairs, catering equipment, and bar units in one order. The basket calculates delivery based on your venue location, and you can confirm the booking online without waiting for a call back. You can also collect from our Birmingham depot, Monday to Friday, between 7am and 3pm. Choose your dates to check availability and book.
Six things no other hire company in the UK offers. We deliver and collect seven days a week — no other hire company does. We are the only hire company to offer live order tracking for both delivery and collection; track your driver in real time by order number and postcode. We check live stock and logistics availability before your order is confirmed, so every order is 100% guaranteed to arrive exactly as placed — no substitutions, no shortfalls. You choose morning or afternoon for both delivery and collection. We never charge a security or damage deposit. Every hire includes a Free Minor Damage Waiver at no extra charge — other companies charge 2–3% of your order total for the same cover. And with the widest product range in the event hire industry, most customers can source their entire event from a single supplier.
