Personal Touches?

allisonpaul86

I am on a tight budget but I am looking for some personal touches for the reception.  I am mainly looking for decorating ideas that are inexpensive but add a lot of personality or fun to the reception.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

melissaandjosh418

Make your table numbers themed instead of the usual table 1, table 2 etc. I am also a big fan of signature cocktails.

NillaWafer10

Centerpieces:
You can make each centerpiece unique.  Going garage sale hunting every weekend can pay off by finding antiques, candles, and other items to give your reception a vintage look.  We were going to do this, but we have too many tables.  Instead, each one of our centerpieces is going to be a flowering plant that the guests can take home.  It's about $5-10 a table. You can also make the centerpiece yourself by ordering roses wholesale and getting vases at a local thrift shop.  Remember that the bouquets can also be re-used as centerpieces.

Favors: skip them!

Decorate the bathrooms, cake table, gift table, guest table etc. with old photos of your parents and FI's parents weddings.  (You can also include other family weddings if they are divorced)  You can also re-use some of their items if they are still around. 

As pp mentioned, you can have signature cocktails.  We are serving beer, wine and sangrias only.  A friend of mine had four cocktails: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.  Something old was a Harvey Wallbanger, the something new was a fusion cocktail, the something borrowed was a fruity drink from where they were honeymooning, and the something blue was a blue drink of some kind.  It limited the amount of alcohol and mixers they needed to buy, saving more money than a full bar.

Decorate with rose pedals!  You can purchase them by the bagful from wholesale retailers.  They are so romantic when you add a few candles!

Being on a budget is hard, but make sure to have at least one area that's important to you that you splurge in.  It feels like you're making less of a sacrifice

akasper16

Along with some of the other things pp's said, we are also using framed black and white baby pictures of ourselves as decorations.