BUDGET Wedding Reception Decoration Ideas

[disneymama83]

Hi There!

I am helping a friend plan her wedding on a small budget and was hoping to pick your brains for some creative & inexpensive decorating ideas. The reception will at 2:00pm so she will be serving fingerfoods and it will be more of a "mingle style" setting(not a sit down set-up). I will be placing some decrative bowls(got at 75% off) with beta fish and floating candles in them(fish will have homes and candles won't hurt them) on some of food tables and entrance tables. Rose petals in the tables.

We were also thinking of hanging a bunch of the happy couple's dating photos on the walls. We also thought of hanging one of those special frames on the wall with their picture in it and having guest sign the borders of it.

She was hoping to have some type of decorations hanging from the ceiling but we are stumped as to what to decorate with to keep it nice on a budget. Someone mentioned streamers in her wedding colors(periwinkle and ivory) and hang bell clusters in the middle of the room but wasn't sure if that would look tacky for a wedding reception.

If you have any ideas or tips you want to share it would be much appreciated!!

Thank you for your time!!!!

 

[MichelleinMaine]

please not streamers and bells! I "let go" with our small, simple wedding and let my mom and mother in law have take care of decorating. (They had offered.) The one thing I told my mom was NOT streamers and paper bells. I'm sure you can guess what my MIL thought was perfect....

I had a friend who bought yards and yards of white tulle (it's not very expensive- even less with a 40% off coupon for Joanns). She draped it around with white Christmas lights in it. (Could even send out an email looking to borrow them.) It really dressed things up.

 

[DCbride]

Another vote for NO streamers!!!

Having done several big dances in the local middle school gym..we always try to light the room without using the overhead lights. If you can come up with a way to not use overhead lights and use white Christmas lights or some type of hanging paper lights (depending on room size) it gives the whole room a different feel.

And as PP said, use tulle to add extra charm to the little lights.

I love the idea of pictures but don't limit it to the dating ones. Try to find and scan pics the bride and groom with guests at different stages of their life. Either place them on black paper or find cheap $1 store frames. Our reception room had severak tvs throughout we did a loooong slideshow including photos of everyone with us and it was great because you didn't have to sit and watch you could just catch it every now and then since it was continuous.

 

[java]

Instead of paper streamers= think ribbon. and then do LIVE FLOWERS in the center. think a big bouquet.

Also go to theknot.com and search ceiling decorations. There are TONS of ideas- like using vines and white chinese lanterns.
Really they had some beautiful ceilings.
I didn't know if your friend is having the reception in a hall or a tent?

Whichever have fun and search at theknot you'll get great ideas.

On the knot check out the winter wonderland wedding- they used twinkle lights and white tulle.

 

[DCbride]

Java- I totally forgot about theknot! I was on that site hourly when planning my wedding! (we had a destination wedding and the advice was invaluable!)

 

[Berlioz70]

I got married on a budget and we had a Disney themed wedding. Each table was a different movie (with a finger food to match it).

I purchased 25 plates from Hobby Lobby - something like 89 cents each. Then placed a personalized wine glass in the center (from discountmugs.com I think). Used a battery operated candle for light. Then printed out the logo of the movie on paper to create a shade.

Here's a couple images of how they looked, we had 20:

For the ceiling/walls we just did white christmas lights.

 

[kckmom]

We were at a wedding a couple of years ago, and for table centerpieces and numbers, the couple took photos of themselves, growing up individually, college, and also together and placed them in frames on the tables. Then, they numbered the tables with the year the photo was taken.

For example, Sarah baby pic, born 1975, so table was number 1975, picture of the couple last year, table was numbered 2008, etc. A little different, and also fun to see them in different times of their lives alone and together!

This was the main focus of the table and they did a smaller bunch of flowers in the middle of the table. Would imagine dollar store frames and printing pics would be really reasonable.

If you have a craft store nearby, and want to do something with silk flowers, ask them if they will help you design a centerpiece, usually you just pay a small fee and the cost of whatever items you use in the piece. I did this for my girlfriend's shower a few years ago, a fall theme, and bought mums and clay pots, plus a filler flower to jazz it up, along with a raffia ribbon around each pot. The store assembled them for me.

Each bridesmaid had a different fall colored dress, and I was able to find matching silk mums for the woman to put together approx 6-7 pots. Boy did people love them, and I think it ran less than $70 with the labor, plus they are nice to take home and decorate with. I still have mine!

Have fun, planning weddings, like DW is so much fun!

 

[sharonmickey]

Love the ideas on this. Any other suggestions?

 

[pigletto]

Going with the theme of paper lanterns and white lights...
I LOVE Oragami Japaenese paper cranes and flowers. Should be expensive at all, just time consuming to do all the folding. Here is a picture with some general ideas

http://www.flickr.com/photos/finestationery/4908282628/

 

[Gr8t Fan]

We made a trellis/archway using an inexpensive wire trellis, white christmas lights wrapped around it and covered with tulle and flowers. It made the PERFECT photo backdrop for pictures at my brother's wedding.

 

[sharonmickey]

Gr8t Fan - Do you have any pictures? Sorry, but I need pictures to visualize it.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Our basement flooded horribly last year and we lost a lot of pictures (he was married before the age of digital cameras). I'll check to see if any pictures survived and post if I can find any.

 

[AllesonWonderland]

For my brother's reception I made a bunch of these poms and they looked really pretty. Hung them from the ceiling with fishing wire. http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/article/pom-poms-and-luminarias

 

[chris31997]

OP, take a walk down the aisle of your local craft store, Walmrt, Target, or Kmart. Your best bet will be the craft store. Than you can price out stuff at the other stores. Live flowers would be nice, but depending on when you decorate, may not last or very expensive dpending on the type. I have found at Walmart bunches of fake flowers for cheap and if you are putting them on the ceiling no one will notice that they are fake. You can also get fabric there for $1 a yard. Check with the venue if there are guidelines about attaching anything to the building and about using candles. Tulle, fabric, and "christmas lights" will do wonders for a room. May want to add some sticky "jewels" to the fabric to add some sparkle depending on the formality of the wedding.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Here's a link to an auction on eBay for a wedding arch similar to the one we used: http://cgi.ebay.com/WEDDING-ARCH-200-lights-/260767588970?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb6f5a26a. We got ours at Michael's, decorated it with icicle Christmas lights, put tulle around it using florists wire and then added fresh and artifical flowers.

 

[TLuvsD]

We did the Martha Stewart tissue balls in multiple shades of yellow, hung in various areas of the backyard for a recent family reception, it looked great.
Check Groupon.com for bostom for paper lanterns, light they would look great and with the groupon you would get a great deal (I can't remember the name of the store, but it's an online deal, so you can buy from anywhere).

 

[DisGeebs]

a few ideas but one is to stick with the seasons..... for example if it is a fall wedding.. you could use pumpkins or mums. For the summer you could use lemons, limes and oranges in glass containers or sand in containers with candles. For winter you could use evergreens or anything in white and silver. For spring time you could use flowers like daisies or grass.

Another idea is to get long branches and spray paint them something metalic, perhaps with sparkles or glitter. You can also put christmas lights in them.

Round paper lanterns hung in bunches at different heights look great.

hope this helps

 

[Terapin]

We did white laterns from IKEA on dollar-store silver platters, ringed with silver origami cranes. My plate decorations were origami lotus flowers made from wildflower seed paper, and those were our giveways + laterns. For a gift to our minister we gave a glass candle holder with a large beeswax pillar candle. Our table laterns had beeswax candles in them too - nice smell. Extras were strewn around the room, casting a nice glow for our evening wedding.

We only had live flowers in the bouquets, and lapels. FLowers are expensive in January and not eco-friendly so we wanted to minimize them, as beautiful as they are.

 

[Tinknalli]

WE did the lights and tulle. I hate the streamers so we used fishing line and tied a small latex balloon (water balloon size)in our wedding color every 6 inches or so on the line and then a paper bird on the bottom http://www.marthastewart.com/269785/bird-mobile .We hung these vertically evenly spaced throughout the hall. It was very pretty with the white lights, tulle and candle light on the tables.

 

[tinker&belle]

We tried to do a 'mingle type' reception. It was a huge mistake. People staked out their spot to sit and wouldn't move. It was awful. Make sure if people want to sit you have enough chairs and table space. It was REALLY embarrassing.