Seriously. How in the world am I ever supposed to decide on things like center pieces and decorations?
A few things to note:
-I'm on a budget, I'm trying to spend $600 or less on all decorations and flowers. (I'm doing my own flowers and using artificial so I *think* this number is doable)
-I don't have a wedding planner, I'm coming up with all this mostly on my own (with the help of my mom and FMIL)
-I don't need a ton of decorations. My ceremony is outside a plantation house that naturally has flowers and pretty stuff outside so I don't need a whole lot. I mainly need centerpieces and maybe some sprucing up on the reception area/tent
I just feel so overwhelmed! My mom and FMIL are great about helping out, and they're asking tons of questions to determine what I want (flowers? tea lights? bling? vases?) but I have no idea. So how did you guys decide? Are you just pinteresting and looking at magazines and making notes on what you like? I feel like there's SO many options, I'm never going to nail down what I want. I need a personal assistant so I can just be like, "Handle this. Go pick something." lol
Re: How do you decide on this stuff?!
Afloral is another site I read about here that has tons of fake flowers and little decorative details. Save on crafts is yet another with fake flowers and decor. I'm probably ordering my vases from save on crafts. Supplement with votive candles, add some ribbon and you're good to go!
For me, there prices are so good that I'm not even DIYing centerpieces anymore. I'm just getting pre-made ones. I may get some jumbo hydrangeas to put in smaller vases for the cake table and bar and stuff. Then, I'm going to have the bridesmaids carry lavender bunches, and I'm going to carry some pretty lavender roses.
At least that's the plan for now. We'll see how many times I change my mind over the next few months
edited b/c tk formatting hates me
We're doing lanterns and the only reason we're doing real flowers is because I just decided to do baby's breath and Baker's leaf (its a fern looking thing) and have it surrounding the lanterns. Baby's breath is sooooo cheap.
Look at Amazon for ideas on vases and such, and also Dollar stores have websites!!!
If you're going to change things by painting or glitterfying, or anything like that make sure you get those items early so you can knock some of those projects out a few at a time. This is the only way I'm folding all my paper cranes, a few a day for months on end.
If you pick a DIY idea that you really like, try to see if you can work the elements/ objects into multiple parts. Not just centerpieces, but also try the same idea for the aisle or that altar décor and such.
I know its a lot, and I'm sorry if I'm adding to the overwhelming, but I totally felt overwhelmed until I cut down everything to just a few things that I can just use in multiple ways.
I'm the fuck out.
As far as containers, if you're OK with them being different, collect from salvation army, goodwill, st Vincent de Paul's, etc. Sometimes I think a variety of containers adds a lot of interest to a space.
My centerpieces are about $10 each. I picked up some cheap candle holders online, vases and candles from the dollar store and I'm grabbing random charger plates whenever they are on sale so that I can just paint the plates and candle holders.
We also got a ton (like 16,000) silk flower petals from ebay, it's been a great place to grab the small bulk items, we have lots of tiny crystal gems from there too for the cake table.
Just look for sales, keep an eye out for brides selling their extra/used items and if you hit Michael's never go without a coupon.
1) What's going to be easy to transport (tall vases are harder than low centerpieces)?
2) What's easy to assemble on site? (I didn't want to spend an hour having to figure out what component goes where)
3) How much time am I willing to put into making stuff? How much time will this require the day before or the day of? Is it going to be worth the investment?
4) Does the venue have restrictions? (Mine won't allow glitter)
5) Any other common sense restrictions? (My venue has a clear view of the water, so I don't want to block that will huge centerpieces)
After that, I googled images for "low simple centerpiece" to get ideas and applied my personal taste to what I found. I have a folder on my phone for ideas I like, even if I only like a single aspect of it, and then I keep a photo. Later, I'll go about melding all the ideas, but it took a lot of stress off to even narrow it down to "this is the direction I'm headed in".
edit: paragraphs are still apparently too hard