Your wedding reception is where your guests will spend the most time. As we’ve said before, you should count on spending at least 40 percent of your budget on the reception. This includes the food, decorations, drinks, music, etc. But a beautiful reception doesn’t have to break the bank. Once again, count on your friends and family to help out. I can’t tell you how many halls I’ve decorated just because someone called. If you’re a benevolent soul like I am, call in your favors when your big day comes!
Let’s first talk about the flowers and table decorations.If you’re having your reception in a hall like the Legion or the moose, be prepared to deal with the décor that is already there. We had my second reception at the legion and there was a multitude of war memorabilia everywhere. Since war and war heroes wasn’t the focus of my wedding, we found ourselves daunted by the various wall hangings that existed.
What we decided to do was create a lighted wonderland. We called upon everyone we could think of to lend us their white Christmas lights. We married at the end of January, so the Christmas décor was freshly put away or still stowed in the garage waiting for permanent stashing until the next season. We ended up with about 200 strands of lights.
We strung them everywhere – from the ceiling, woven throughout the fichus trees, even framing the confederate soldier uniform. When the lights went out, no one knew that we were in a memorialized hall to our military veterans.
We brought the battery operated candles from the church and put them on all the tables. My uncle had some butcher paper that we spread over all the tables for tablecloths and every other one had floating candles in glass vases that we found wholesale at a craft store.
So what about other decorative ideas at the reception?You don’t have to have expensive floral arrangements everywhere to make a beautiful reception hall. There are many, many alternatives and most can be put together with supplies from the dollar store.
The following suggestions utilize supplies that I found at the dollar store and make for gorgeous table decorations.Centerpiece suggestion #1:
Buy some small glass bowls and place colored glass marbles in the
bottom. Add water half way up and put a floating candle in each. When the
reception is over, the bride and groom will have a matching set of bowls!
Centerpiece suggestion #2:
Find picture frames of varying sizes. Gather together your favorite
pictures of the bride and groom. Put the pictures in the frames and arrange
on the tables surrounding them by clear glass marbles and some greenery.
Get some small baskets and decorate with ribbon. Print out some index cards that say “Advice For The Newlyweds” and lay them on the table with pens and/or pencils. Encourage guests to write something on the cards and place them in the baskets. This can be a great ice-breaker for people who don’t know each other. Be prepared, too, for the jokesters in the crowd who may offer up some ridiculous and sometimes bawdy advice.
Centerpiece suggestion #4:
Take small grapevine wreaths and decorate with tulle and ribbon. Place a
bottle of champagne in the center or a bottle of wine from a local winery.
For extra fun, attach a balloon to the bottle.
Centerpiece suggestion #5:
Take two plastic chamagne glasses and hot glue them together so that
they cross when laying down. Hot glue four clear glass marbles inside each
glass and tie a helium balloon to each. It will look like there are bubbles
flowing out of your glasses as they lay on the table!
We had balloons at both of my wedding receptions. Not only are they festive and fun, they can help keep bored children entertained. Most dollar stores have helium balloons they will fill with purchase.
You may want to look into a portable helium tank and do it yourself. I found one at Wal-Mart for $19.99 with balloons at $.99 a bag. The tank filled up about 40 balloons so that’s one way to save a little money on your balloons.
Check rental places for renting a helium tank. You only pay for what you use. They also have balloons that you can use. The color selection of balloons will be better. You may even spring to get balloons with your name and wedding date on them.
You can make a balloon arch:
If you attach the balloons by tying to fishing string a long line of balloons can be made into an arch very easily. Tie your line on a weight that will sit on the floor tie your balloons directly on the string. Put about 20 balloons on the string. You will be able to slide them in position. Attach to another weight and move to position to get the arch you want. This is a great photo spot too!
We like the idea of taking a pint sized Mason jar and wrapping it with tissue paper tying a ribbon around the neck to secure it. Place flowers I the jar, potpourri or whatever you think fits you as a couple.
If you’re getting married around a holiday, you can come across some fun decorations that celebrate that holiday. At Christmas, spray paint pine cones silver and gold and surround them with pine sprigs.
Having an Easter wedding? Use plastic Easter eggs and that annoying plastic grass you put in the Easter baskets.If you’re having an outdoor reception, decorate around that. Use lots of live flowers and greenery to reflect the beauty of Mother Nature surrounding you. If it’s windy, avoid using candles and be sure any balloons are secured so they don’t blow away!
Now that you’ve got the
place decorated, you may want to consider using
favors as additionaldecorations.