Christmas Party Equipment Hire for 160 Guests in Southampton

The brief was ambitious. The partners wanted the dinner setting to feel genuinely festive and formal — not like a standard hotel package — but also to transition smoothly into an evening party without the room feeling wrong. That meant thinking carefully about furniture layout, linen choices, bar setup, and how the space would read once the dinner tables cleared.

For 160 people across a blank commercial space, the hire list was substantial.

The Dinner Setting

Tables & Chairs

We laid the room for dinner on 6ft Round Tables seating ten per table — fifteen tables, with a clear run of space left along one wall for the evening bar and a designated dance floor area at the far end that would be activated once the dinner service finished.

For the chair, the client wanted something that would look right in both the dinner setting and during the evening when guests were moving freely around the room. We recommended the Black Banqueting Chair with Black Seat Pad — a clean, upholstered stacking chair that photographs well under event lighting, suits both a formal dinner and a party atmosphere, and stacks efficiently when the room is reset for the evening. Fifteen tables at ten chairs each plus the top table, with eight spares for the bar area.

A raised top table for the senior partners ran across one end of the room — ten chairs on a run of 6ft Trestle Tables dressed to the floor, elevated on a low platform to give them visibility across the room during the speeches.

Festive Table Dressing

The colour brief was deep red and gold on black — classic Christmas, executed with quality rather than novelty. We supplied:

•       Black 132″ Round Cloths from the Expressions range, floor-length on all fifteen round tables

•       Black Napkins, folded and placed at each cover

•       Red Table Runners from the Expressions range across each table

The top table received Black 144 x 90 Cloths from the same range, with Gold Napkins in place of black — a slight step up in finish that picked out the gold in the room’s lighting rig without requiring a completely different linen scheme.

China & Cutlery

China

For a corporate dinner of this kind, we specified Goldline China throughout — a white bone china range with a slim gold band that works perfectly within a gold and black palette and reads as premium without being as formal as full fine dining china. Full place setting: dinner plate, side plate, soup bowl, and dessert plate. White china coffee cups and saucers for the post-dinner coffee service.

Our team advised the organiser that for this sort of event the gold banding on the crockery would pick up the gold in the room’s lighting rig and table runners. It’s the kind of detail that makes a room look considered rather than assembled.

Cutlery

We supplied Robert Welch Iona throughout — the same contemporary, well-balanced pattern used across our corporate event range. Full formal place setting per cover, with serving pieces for the catering team.

Glassware

For 160 guests at a Christmas dinner running through to a late bar, glassware volumes are significant and need to be planned across the full arc of the evening.

Dinner service

•       Riedel Restaurant Champagne Glasses — for the arrival drinks and the toasts

•       Riedel Restaurant Cabernet/Merlot — red wine at dinner

•       Riedel Restaurant Riesling/Sauvignon Blanc — white wine at dinner

•       Riedel Restaurant Water Glasses — on the table throughout

Evening bar

•       Highball Glasses and Rocks Glasses for spirits and long drinks

•       Shot Glasses for the bar programme

•       Cocktail Glasses for the signature Christmas cocktail from 9.30pm

Table accessories

•       Large glass jugs (two per table) for water service throughout dinner

•       Nachtmann Noblesse Ice Buckets — two per table during dinner, moved to the bar after

Total glassware: approximately 1,200 pieces. For an event running until midnight, we recommend a mid-evening wash-up cycle of the dinner glasses to turn them around for the late bar.

The Bar

The bar setup was designed to handle the full room from around 9.30pm, when dinner cleared. We provided two Bar Units positioned along the wall that had been left clear during dinner, Nachtmann Noblesse Ice Buckets (six on the bar, four on the high tables), eight Poseur Tables with black tops deployed across the dance floor area for the evening, and full bar glassware.

For a corporate Christmas party running to midnight, two bar units is the minimum for 160 people. The transition moment — when the dinner tables are being cleared and everyone arrives at the bar simultaneously — is the point where a single unit fails.

The poseur tables were a late addition to the brief, suggested by our team after a site visit. They transformed the post-dinner atmosphere: instead of 160 people milling around the dance floor looking for somewhere to be, they had anchor points that created a lounge-bar feel without filling the space with conventional seating.

Lounge Area

One corner of the venue was dressed as a lounge breakout — away from the dance floor and bar, for guests who wanted conversation over the music. We provided eight Black Collingwood Armchairs, four Black Poseur Tables, and Genoa Coffee Tables for drinks.

This kind of breakout works particularly well at corporate Christmas parties where the guest list spans a range of seniority — senior partners don’t always want to be on the dance floor at 10pm, and having a clearly defined space for quieter conversation keeps them at the event rather than heading for the exit.

Logistics

The venue was available from 9am for setup. The dinner began at 7pm — a ten-hour window that the client’s decorator, AV team, caterer, and Allens Hire delivery team all needed to share. We coordinated our delivery from our Southampton depot to arrive first at 9am, giving the room a base layer of furniture before the other suppliers came in.

Strike was the morning after the event. With 160 covers of crockery, cutlery, and glassware plus the bar and lounge furniture, the pack-down team from the caterer had the tables cleared and equipment crated by 2am, ready for Allens collection at 8am.

Top Tips for a Corporate Christmas Party

•       Book your hire equipment in September. Christmas is the most in-demand hire period of the year across the South Coast and London. By October, quantities of popular items — black linen, poseur tables, banqueting chairs — start to deplete. By November, you’re working with what’s left.

•       Don’t use a hotel colour scheme in a blank venue. Blank venue Christmas events succeed when they commit to a palette. Black and gold, navy and silver, forest green and brass — pick one and run it through every element: linen, glassware, china banding, napkins.

•       Plan the room in two phases. The dinner layout and the evening layout are different rooms. Know where the bar goes, where the dance floor opens up, and where the lounge area sits before you finalise the table plan.

•       Poseur tables after dinner, always. A room full of people without somewhere to put a glass is a room full of people looking for a reason to leave. Poseur tables in the party area keep the evening alive.

•       Specify glassware for the bar separately from glassware for dinner. Two different glass types, two different quantities, two different wash-up timelines. Plan them independently.

Planning a corporate Christmas party or end-of-year dinner? Contact Allens Hire early, as peak-season availability fills up fast. With depots in London, Southampton, Bristol, Luton and Exeter, we deliver across Southampton, Hampshire, Surrey, London and the South West.