1.) For party favors or gifts for your guests go to your local dollar store. It may sound cheesy, but trust me, there are some very useful things in most dollar stores that can add a nice touch to your wedding or reception. When my husband and I were planning our wedding, we wanted all of our guests (about 75 people) to go home with some sort of keepsake as a reminder of our special day, but we didn’t want to spend a fortune. So we went to our local dollar store and found these beautiful satin heart-shaped boxes that came in packs of four for fifty cents a piece. We bought 20 cases of them and then went to Walmart for candy mints to put inside of them. We then bought about 2 yards of satin cloth from Michaels and a spool of ribbon. We wrapped the candies in the satin, tied it off with the ribbon, and put the wrapped candies inside the boxes. They made for some very cute little party favors for our guests. Plus, the boxes looked really classy on the dressed up tables at the reception. Total cost was about $45 for boxes, 5 bags of candy, ribbon and satin cloth.
2.) Table decorations can also be another very expensive thing if you happen to get them from a professional wedding shop or catalogue. But you can do your own and save yourself loads of money. One thing that I absolutely had to have for the 10 tables we had at our reception was candles. Again, I went to my local dollar store and found these really nice purple candles that came inside of glass jars. Luckily they had 20 of the same ones, so we grabbed them all. I used the ribbon that was left over from my party favors project to tie around the neck of the jar and I again went to Michaels and bought about 20 single fake white roses to attach to the ribbon. I had my sister put her craft skills to use, and she came up with a very creative, and very beautiful finished product that looked great on all of the tables. They were a really big hit with the guests because by the end of the day there weren’t any left. Total cost for this was about $30 for the candles and flowers.
3.) One thing that I absolutely had to splurge on was my wedding invitations. My husband and I agreed that we wanted those done professionally. But, we also wanted wedding programs that the guests could follow during the ceremony. So, we again enlisted the aide of my creative sister and had her make up 75 beautiful brochures on her computer listing the entire wedding party and a detailed outline of the ceremony. You can also add other things to your program, such as a picture of the two of you, a poem or, like my husband and I, a really nice quote. I really don’t know if anyone actually paid any attention to the programs, but I felt like my wedding was fancier just by having them there. Plus, they’re a nice thing to put into your wedding album in remembrance of your day. You can really make your programs beautiful with some nice paper from any office supply store (we chose a basic beige paper) and Microsoft Word. Total cost for this was $4 dollars for the paper, and $25 dollars for a color ink cartridge.
4.) Basic decorations around your reception hall can really add to or take away from the whole feel of your wedding. My husband and I splurged on flowers for the room, but we still felt it was missing something. We decided to try balloons. We bought one package of wedding balloons from Party City that were plain white with wedding bells and doves on them. We then went to Walmart and purchased two disposable helium tanks that cost about $20 dollars apiece. My sister-in-law went to the reception hall the day of the wedding, blew them all up, tied them to chairs and let them loose on the ceilings. The end result was beautiful. Also, they kept the kids entertained during the reception. Total cost was about $45 for the helium tanks and the balloons.
These are just a few of the many things that my husband and I did ourselves and saved a bundle on. The way I look at it is if you save money on things like this, then you’ll have more to spend on the bigger things that absolutely have to be top notch, such as flowers and the cake. Hopefully, these suggestions will help some other soon-to-be brides. After all, the less stress you have for your wedding, the more fun it will be. The little things don’t have to be a hassle as long as you have a creative flare and some extra time to kill.
