Audit the Inclusions
Read the package line by line before designing. Replacing competent included items with something marginally different is the least valuable thing a styling budget can do.
Lidcombe
Westella Renaissance
The Westella Renaissance at Lidcombe, also known simply as the Renaissance, carries large weddings across several rooms with a recently refurbished Grand Ballroom at the centre. What makes it interesting to style is how much it already includes.
Wedding styling from $5,000.
The Space
Large rooms, and a lot already provided.
The Grand Ballroom is the main room and carries guest counts into the several hundreds, with smaller spaces alongside it for more intimate functions. The building went through a substantial refurbishment, so the finishes are relatively current rather than dated, which matters more than it sounds.
The inclusions change the brief. This venue includes a meaningful amount in its packages, which has commonly covered items such as table centrepieces, chairs, dance floor and a bridal table setting. That is genuinely useful, and it means the honest advice here is different to most venues.
Where a venue already provides competent centrepieces and chairs, spending your styling budget replacing them with something marginally different is poor value. The better use is to put the money where the venue gives you nothing: the ceremony backdrop, the entry moment, lighting, and anything above head height.
The trade off with inclusions. Included items are chosen to suit every wedding, which means they suit no wedding precisely. Shabz will look at what your package actually contains and give you a straight answer on which pieces are worth keeping and which are worth replacing, rather than assuming everything must be swapped.
Scale. A large ballroom with high ceilings needs styling specified against the actual volume. This is the recurring failure in big Western Sydney rooms: pieces chosen from a photograph, delivered, and immediately looking undersized.
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.
- Audit the package first
- Before any design work, the venue package is read line by line so nothing gets paid for twice. This regularly frees up a meaningful part of the budget for the elements that actually change the room.
- Large cultural weddings
- The room scale suits the guest counts common at Lebanese, Afghan, Greek and Indian weddings. Where an entrance procession or effects are planned, the route and the smoke detection permissions are confirmed with the venue before the floor plan is fixed.
- Protect the dance floor
- In rooms that seat several hundred, the temptation is to fill the plan with tables. At weddings where dancing runs most of the night, the floor gets sized first and the tables arranged around it.
What Works Here
Spend where the venue gives you nothing.
Buy Height
Venue inclusions almost never cover anything above head height. Backdrops, suspended work and lighting are where the money changes the room rather than adjusting it.
Own the Entrance
Packages cover tables. They rarely cover the arrival. The entry moment is usually the highest return per dollar available in a venue like this.
Protect the Floor
At several hundred guests with dancing all night, the dance floor is planned first at a size that looks excessive on paper, and the tables go around it.
Common Questions
Yes. 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 a preferred, approved or recommended supplier there.
It depends on what you want the room to feel like. Included items are chosen to suit every wedding, so they suit no wedding precisely. The most useful thing a stylist does here is tell you which inclusions to keep and put your budget into the ceremony, the entrance and the lighting instead.
Yes, and it is usually the right call. Shabz will audit the package line by line and give a straight answer on what is worth keeping, rather than assuming everything must be swapped out.
The scale suits the guest counts common at large Lebanese, Afghan, Greek and Indian weddings. Where an entrance procession or effects are planned, the processional route and any smoke detection permissions are confirmed with the venue before the floor plan is settled.
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