Specify for Scale
A large neutral ballroom punishes underscaled styling. Height in the centrepieces and generous proportion in the backdrop is what keeps the room from swallowing the design.
Sydney CBD
Hilton Sydney
Hilton Sydney on George Street holds a genuinely large ballroom and a heritage listed bar in the same building, which makes it two completely different styling jobs depending on which space you take.
Wedding styling from $5,000. Corporate events from $1,200.
The Spaces
One building, two very different problems.
The Grand Ballroom is one of the larger hotel ballrooms in the city, carrying wedding guest counts in the hundreds with an adjoining pre function area for arrival drinks. It is a big, neutral, capable room, and it comes with substantial built in AV including a very large LED wall.
Big neutral rooms are generous but unforgiving. They give you a blank canvas, which means nothing is provided for free, and they punish underscaled styling badly. A centrepiece or backdrop that reads well in a supplier photograph can look lost here. Scale is the first thing Shabz specifies.
- The LED wall changes the styling brief
- A large lit screen is a light source and a colour source. Whatever is on it will spill onto your styling, your linen and your guests. It either becomes part of the design deliberately, which can work extremely well, or it fights the palette. Deciding which, early, is worth more than any decorative choice.
- The Marble Bar
- is heritage listed and it is the opposite proposition entirely. The room is dense, ornate and already carrying enormous character. Styling here is almost entirely subtractive: a very light touch, nothing that competes, and no chance of attaching anything to the fabric of the building.
- Other spaces
- in the hotel, including the brasserie level and the rooftop bar, suit smaller and more intimate functions where the existing outlook and interior do most of the work.
Styling Notes
What Shabz plans for at this venue.
Shabz has styled events at this venue. This page describes that experience and what the space asks of a stylist. It does not describe any formal relationship with the venue, and Shabz is not presented as a preferred, approved or recommended supplier. Room details and inclusions were correct at the time of writing and should be confirmed with the venue directly.
- Bump in is the constraint
- A CBD hotel running events continuously gives short install windows, and access is through a loading dock shared with the rest of the hotel. Anything requiring a long build has to be checked against the actual window before it is designed, and a compressed window sometimes means additional crew rather than a simpler design.
- Heritage restrictions
- In the Marble Bar, nothing attaches to the building. Freestanding only, and lighting that does not require fixing. Those rules are confirmed with venue operations rather than assumed.
- Working with the in house AV
- Where the ballroom AV is already contracted, the styling and the AV rig have to be planned together, particularly around uplighting colour, screen content and where trussing sits relative to any suspended styling.
- Scale for the room
- In a ballroom this size, height in the centrepieces and generous proportion in the backdrop is what stops the styling disappearing. This is the venue where the difference between a catalogue piece and a properly specified one shows most.
What Works Here
Scale in the ballroom, restraint in the bar.
Design With the Screen
A large LED wall is a light and colour source that will spill across the room. Bring it into the design deliberately or the palette will be fighting it all night.
Light the Room Yourself
Neutral ballrooms give you nothing for free. Uplighting and focused light on the bridal table, cake and backdrop is what turns a capable room into a considered one.
Freestanding in Heritage Spaces
In the Marble Bar nothing attaches to the building. Styling is freestanding, light touch and designed to sit inside a room that already has a great deal of character.
Common Questions
Yes. This page describes that experience and what the spaces ask of a stylist. It does not describe any formal relationship with the hotel, and Shabz is not a preferred, approved or recommended supplier there.
It is a large light and colour source, so whatever is displayed will spill onto your linen, florals and guests. The useful approach is to decide early whether it is part of the design or kept neutral, rather than letting it fight the palette on the night.
Yes, with a very light touch. The room is heritage listed and already dense with character, so styling is freestanding, minimal and designed not to compete. Nothing can be fixed to the building.
It varies with what else the hotel has on. City hotel windows are short compared to suburban venues, so it is confirmed with venue operations before the styling is designed rather than after.
Yes. Gala dinners, award nights and launches, where sight lines to the stage and screen, centrepiece heights and a tight install window matter more than at a wedding. More on corporate work.
Let's Create Something Beautiful
Tell Shabz about your event and a considered response follows within 24 to 48 hours.
Prefer to talk it through?
02 9191 7381