Our daughter has decided to hold a vintage style wedding. There are countless websites that offer decorations for an ‘old’ fashioned’ wedding theme. Wedding stores and craft stores also carry a large supply of decorations for vintage weddings. We have decided to have a Do It Yourself wedding as much as possible. Not only does this save money but making your own decorations lends to the old time feel of the wedding. With a few tips and rather inexpensive items, making home made decorations for a vintage wedding proves easy. Here are just a few great ideas.
- Wine Bottle Decorations. Save old wine bottles or have neighbors and friends collect them for you. The wine bottles can be used in several ways for a vintage wedding. Some of these ideas include uses as flower vases, taper candle holders and as centerpieces with lights and ribbons or twine.
- Jars. Save jars, preferably small ones, from pickles or olives. Most people buy mason or canning jars, but for those on a budget, food jars can serve the same purpose. These jars make great candle holders. Rocks or marbles can be used as jar fillers. Colored water to match the wedding them and a floating candle completes the look. Mason jars filled with candy serve as an added table decoration. Another idea is to fill the jars with baking recipes, type or hand write the recipe directions on an index card and tie this on the lid with matching ribbon or twine. These can serve as decorations and be given as party favors after the wedding.
- Books. We have discovered that about any book minus the dust cover serves this purpose. A stack of 3 or 4 carefully stacked books can serve as a centerpiece. Dried flowers tied to twine and attached around the books adds a perfect vintage look to tables. Books also can be strategically placed, left open and decorated with a home made book mark. The key is to make the books look as old as possible without ruining their future life.
- Pom pom flowers out of paper bags or old vintage wrapping paper. Tissue paper pompoms seem to be the fad now. To make this look work for a vintage themed wedding, other materials can be used. Garbage bags make a great choice. Another idea involves using newspapers. If you happen to have some old vintage looking paper around, this can also serve the purpose. Follow the same directions for making the pom poms as with tissue paper. Realize though that the material will be more difficult to work with, but with patience, the look will be the same as with tissue paper.
Some of these ideas involve advance warning for collection of supplies. If there is not very much advance notice, as in our case, scrounging rummage sales and second hand stores might garner old bottles and jars. Although home made wedding decorations take time to make, the end result is worth it!
