Decorations

My decor was very simple. We did rent an arch for the ceremony and our venue had a backdrop for the headtable, but neither of those are necessary. We had potted plants as centrepieces, which we first used down the ceremony aisle, then a couple friends put them on the table and the guestbook table. Then, they were our favours. The bouquets were put in vases on the headtable and that was the only decor for the headtable.

I purchased my vases & candles from thrift stores, tablecloths, chair covers, pearls, & napkins second hand, spray painted wine bottles, and purchased my flowers on sale! My dad made the frame for the back drop (super easy) and I purchased strips of fabric from fabric land on clearance.. all of the backdrop fabric was 40$. We just cut it into 8 ft long strips and tacked it on the back. I also bought two sets of string curtain lights for 40$. Being thrifty can really go a long way!

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Yeah, that's my plan to use dollar store vases lol. We're doing LED tea lights in rocks and then a few peacock feathers in each one.

Here’s an idea to spruce up the headtable using table runners. You can actually get satin table runners in all different colours on wish for $3-$5 each. You could easily do something like this. No DIY involved.

I would also ask your venue if they provide anything. I know ours supplies mirrors and led candles.

View quoted message Love those centrepieces!

You can do a lot with vases from the dollar store. We are doing a couple fake flowers submerged in water that will be lit by led lights.

As a bride that just DIY’d as many items as possible for my wedding on the 20th from a different province from where we are getting married I may be able to shed some light. We chose to make as many items as possible to help cut cost and keep the wedding decor simple.

Originally we were going to drive home with the items but those plans got altered so we shipped everything with Greyhound and it worked perfectly. Depending what province your in and where your getting married something like this may be a good option to help cut costs.

Another great option is to join as many fb wedding buy and sell pages of the area your getting married in and see what you can pick up from others for great prices and to help decorate to your desired look.

If you have have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask. We live 4 provinces from where we’re getting married.

I actually ended up buying most of my decorations (thus far) second hand. There are so many facebook groups with brides trying to sell their leftover items, that I already have a number of items I need and I have spent less than $50.00. Do you have any family/friends in the province that could store some of the wedding items until the date? I am also gathering items in a different province, so I am going to have to bring them home at separately at different times, but luckily, I have my parents house to store everything.

I'm DIYing most decor and keeping it simple and elegant: white table cloths, teal and purple napkins and chair covers are provided by the venue so what I'm concerning myself with is:

Centrepieces (similar to this one):

Table Numbers:

and placemats I'm either DIYing or ordering off Etsy:

Placemats (for Centre)

The head table will have my bouquet in a vase instead of the regular centrepieces. I'm not fussing over backdrops for the head table. Our DJ provides uplighting and either they or the venue has a curtain backdrop for the head table.

I find as a guest I don't remember what wedding decor looks like so I'm not getting a decorator that costs a lot for stuff my guests won't remember

There's no 'right' or 'wrong' way to decorate your wedding. I'm DIYing most of our stuff, but I'm staying in the same city I live in, and have help from friends when I ask for it.

You do not NEED a head table backdrop. It's a nice touch but certainly not necessary!

We are doing plain table clothes but adding a runner. The runner will give that pop of colour . And no you don’t need a backdrop for the headtable.

Table linens were provided and i ordered nice table numbers from ebay. Rented centrerpieces and floral balls for one simple decor. Menu cards were placed on bells with ribbons.

Backdrop was a diy and cost less to do. Simple black material and white sheer over top.

I was planning to get a decorator and was costing me lots too and decided simple and elegant as you're going.

Definitely look into whether that quote included set up and tear down and if it would be possible to do it yourself - but otherwise I think that if you do what Allison is saying it would still look great. It would be simple and elegant (hope that is what you are going for of course).

My suggestion would be to make the table numbers stand out of grab the eye to perhaps divert peoples eyes if you are worried, but overall I doubt anybody is going to judge your tables.As for the backdrop; I would just say that as long as what will be behind you isn't distracting the you are good to go. If anything perhaps throw up a banner saying "MR. & MRS."?

I am guessing if you got a quote you were possibly looking at hiring someone to do the decorating for you? If so it’s probably a lot more than you might have anticipated because of labour that is worked into the quote. For our reception, we are just having tablecloths with centrepieces and all we are doing is a small glass bottle (like a milk bottle) with some babies breath and eucyltups (which i plan to purchase from Costco). Actually our tables are wooden, I believe stained pine so we might not even do tablecloths if the venue approves (: work with what you already have there, not many people will remember the decor specifically anyways so don’t stress a whole lot about it. I hope I helped at least a little bit.