Previous wedding day posts: Hair & Makeup // My Wedding Dress // Our Wedding Ceremony // Our Wedding Pictures
Our wedding decor wasn’t a priority when it came to budgeting. But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t meticulously planned and executed by yours truly 😛 Our reception venue was basically a “blank slate”–they provided tables and chairs and nothing else. So it was up to me to make the space look beautiful! My theme was an “English garden party-esque reception.”
For each part of the decor, I made up “kits” for our family and friends who were going to be setting it up. I set up the tables as I envisioned them, took photos, wrote up instructions and labeled everything. The day before the wedding, I dropped everything off with my sister- and brother-in-law at their hotel and it was in other people’s hands from there on out!
The Welcome Table
For the welcome sign, I reused the blackboard and chalkboard paint pens from my bridal shower. I mocked up a design in PicMonkey and did the lettering freehand. I used a template for the floral garnishes.
The guest book sign was an inexpensive frame with the glass covered in chalkboard paper. Again, I lettered it myself. The guest book was a monogrammed notebook from Etsy (the monogram was in the “dusty rose” color). Small and tasteful.
We had a friend grab our two big floral arrangements and unity candles from the church and add them to the display before the reception started.
The Centerpieces
The centerpieces were my proudest budget-saving moment. We snagged a bunch of mismatched glass vases from Goodwill for $25 total. Then, the day before the wedding, I rounded up half of our wedding party to put together flowers. We used wildflowers and pink phlox from my mom’s gardens and $40 of cheap flowers from the grocery store to make all ten centerpieces! Total cost: $67. Going price for one centerpiece from our florist: $150. Crazy!
I hand lettered the table numbers on cardstock with a gold paint pen. They went in inexpensive white frames (which I’m now using around our apartment and giving as gifts this holiday season). For the seating chart, I used the same materials and pinned the table cards to a cheap bulletin board.
Finally, I designed mad-libs-style “advice for the bride and groom” cards and had them printed on cardstock at Vistaprint. (All credit to Kristy’s “wed libs” for the idea! I thought it was brilliant, and reading the cards afterwards was hilarious.)
The Cake Table
More on the cake in my next post. But, I made another cheap frame/chalkboard paper “cake menu” sign listing the flavors. For serving, I borrowed some floral platters and an antique cake cutter from my mom. The vintage cupcake stands, which I also used for my bridal shower, were from Etsy on final sale.
For the cake table, I made a photo display of E and I through the years. I printed a bunch of photos Polaroid-style using FoxPrint and put them on a bulletin board. Then, I made up a little sign explaining our choice of “wedding favor.” In lieu of favors, we donated to a local organization doing good for the environment.
The Photobooth
Early in the stages of wedding planning, I discovered that real photobooths are pricey in the Twin Cities. Enter: awesome bridesmaid–E2–who made one for me!
E2 bought a bunch of tulle in our wedding colors and attached it to a long piece of twine. We mounted it on the wall of our venue with command hooks. She got a little chalkboard and chalkboard markers so that people could write their own messages to us. Also, she brought a camera and tripod in case people didn’t have their own cameras with them.
Our guests ended up taking hundreds of photobooth pictures between E2’s camera, their phone cameras and the professional photographers snapping a few! Project DIY Photobooth was definitely a success.
So… that was our wedding! Next time I’ll share about our food and cake (the best part of the day, in my opinion!). But overall I was so pleased with how our reception turned out. We didn’t have a coordinator, but we didn’t need one! Between my planning and our family and friends’ help, everything went smoothly and looked beautiful.
What’s new with you? Have you ever planned or hosted a REALLY big party before? How’d it go?