What a 350-guest wedding day can look like
A walkthrough of how a large wedding could run at Arcadia, from morning setup to a banquet for 330 and an evening celebration, on a 16-hour day.
Booking a venue for hundreds of guests is easier when you can picture the day. This is an illustration, not a real wedding we are reporting on. It is one way a large day could run at Arcadia Riverside, so you can see how the hours, the spaces and the numbers fit together. Your day could look different. The point is to show what is possible.
The Arcadia Ballroom is licensed for 350 people. Banquet seating in that room is 330. Lists above that stay on one site by bringing in Castle Green Hall downstairs — 230 more at dinner, or 606 standing for drinks — rather than by overfilling one room.
Morning: dressing the room
Your 16-hour hire day could start early, with the room empty and yours. Decorators, florists and your caterer would have the morning to set up before a single guest arrives. That is the quiet part of the day, and it matters more than it sounds: 330 covers and a fully dressed ballroom need real hours to build, not a rushed turnaround between bookings.
Arrival
Guests could arrive the usual way: 42 minutes from Fenchurch Street on the Overground, about 22 minutes by car from central London, or parked in one of the 50-plus free on-site spaces. Uber Boat by Thames Clippers also serves Barking Riverside Pier for anyone who wants a river leg into the district, then a local connection to the venue. The full range of options is on the getting here page, and it is worth sending to guests early so nobody is guessing on the day.
The reception
Your legal ceremony can take place elsewhere for now — Arcadia is not yet licensed for civil ceremonies. Guests then gather here for drinks, dinner and the evening, with no second venue to ferry everyone to mid-afternoon. The day stays in one building once the celebration starts, so momentum does not drop between a register office and a reception hall.
The banquet
Once guests arrive for the reception, the room could reset for dinner. Set as a banquet, the ballroom seats 330 on one floor, with a fixed broadcast-ready stage for speeches and the top table. Because you can bring your own approved caterer, the meal could be exactly the cuisine your celebration calls for, cooked by a team you chose rather than one you inherited with the room.
Speeches, first courses, the toasts: all of it would sit inside the day rather than racing against a curfew, because the hire runs long. If you wanted the speeches shared with family who could not travel, the in-house Arcadia AV team runs two-camera recording and livestreaming, so a grandmother watching from another country could still see the toasts as they happen.
The evening
As the light goes down, the day could turn into the party. The stage and lighting are built for it, whether that means a live band, a DJ or a full performance. A room set for 330 at dinner has the scale to keep the same guest list celebrating late into the evening, and the 16-hour day gives you the hours to use.
What this shows
None of this is a fixed script. It is a sketch of how the pieces could come together: the long day, one licensed room of 350, the caterer of your choice. Your day could run like this, or take a completely different shape. If the list is larger than one hall, both rooms sit in the same building.
See the full picture on the weddings page, then tell us what you are planning and we will come back the same working day.
