If you saw my post on my wedding dress, the other side of that is that I made a majority of what ended up in my wedding. I did the bouquets, the center pieces, mercury glass jars, flower girl petals and leaves. I put together signs and activities, I even dyed my own hair extension.
This saved us a lot of money and brought our budget down, probably by half. If I had bought flowers or paid for each item fully made, I would have spent probably $2,000 more on the shindig. Instead I bought items on sell at JoAnn and online, I used coupons, and I looked on facebook for freebies or just inexpensive items for sale. For instance I got a giant box of glassware from someone on Facebook for FREE! I then bought “Looking Glass” spray paint to make fake mercury glass, and cheap autumn leaves and a glue gun to create the festive candle holders I used. The dollar tree was my best friend for the leaves and LED candles. I do believe the results were grand!
For invitations I bought kits on clearance and used my home printer, saving hundreds. I designed my own “Save the Dates” and had them printed with VistaPrint for a reasonable price. Finally, my programs were hours of my own printing, cutting, and tying together to make a charming keepsake.
I used old Alphonse Mucha calendars and dollar store frames for some table art, if they were too narrow I backed them with scrapbooking paper that matched our aesthetic. Making each frame maybe $2 per table. Saving significant money and recycling the art from calendars I already had enjoyed. For signs for food, gifts etc. I used my graphic design skills to put together themed signs and placed them around the venue with their dollar store frames.
For my midnight snack, I used up my girl scout troops left over cookies (I paid for them so we could go camping as a troop) which let people take as many or as little as they want. I was handing out whole boxes at the end!
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