do this, not that.

There are many options out there for wedding décor, depending on your motif, location and taste. Here is a list of a few wedding décors that I believe you can replace with something else. This is part 1 of the “DO THIS, NOT THAT” series.

• Candles - Do not use tea light candles for your centerpiece. I’ve been to many wedding receptions where they use glass bowls filled with water (wrapped with a ribbon) as the centerpiece, and on the inside you’ll see floating tea light candles. Then MORE tea light candles randomly placed around it. If you are allowed to have candles in your wedding venue, use long taper candles instead. They are classic and romantic. Put them in a nice candelabra, vintage candle holders, or tall glass bowls. You’ll be amazed at the crystal glasses you’ll find at thrift stores. Go to a thrift store and look for vintage glasses or candelabras.

  If you are not allowed to have candles, just buy some cute, small battery-operated lamps instead. you can also buy those fake battery operated tea light candles, but them on in tall crystal glass or candle holder.

• Donut walls - I talked about this in my other post about unnecessary expenses. (Read here.) Donuts become stale due to long exposure outside the box and people rarely eat them because they are afraid someone else had touched it. If you really want to offer donuts at your wedding, do use clear acrylic containers instead, and put them on the table somewhere by the entrance, or anywhere the guests can see and grab them. Maybe serve them around cocktail hour, or during the party after the dinner. By putting them in clear containers, people will still be able to see the beautiful designs of the donuts. Or just skip the donuts altogether, and order or bake some mini cupcakes or cake pops. Those are so easy to decorate and they look cute on a table.

• Balloon arches - Balloon arch designs have become sophisticated over the years, with expensive looking balloons and whatnot. But to be honest, no matter how nice they may look, they still scream birthday party to me. I think they don’t belong in a wedding, whether it’s a big or small event. Use a wooden arch instead. You can rent those at any wedding/party event rentals, or if you are handy enough, you can make your own, with just a few lumber.  Wooden arches provide a softness to the formality of the event because of its texture, color and the raw feel of it. Nowadays, I see people experimenting with the shapes, I’ve seen triangle and rectangular ones. Can it still be called an arch if it’s not shaped like an arch? Hmm.  If a wooden arch is too rustic for your event, there are also metal arches available to buy or rent.

• Plastic flowers - I get it, real flowers are very expensive, and you need a lot for your wedding. Bouquets for yourself, your bridesmaids, and flower girls. Then you might want a buttoners for the groomsmen, and then more flowers for the décor and centerpieces. If the budget is tight, stick with a real bouquet for yourself and have your bridesmaids and flower girls just carry one stem of the flower or a smaller, cheaper version of your bouquet. I am sure your florist will have options for you at different price points. If you can’t afford real flowers for everyone, use paper flowers instead.
  DO you know you can use the egg carton to make paper roses? I tried it, and it works.
  Materials: egg carton, glue, red acrylic paint, scissors.

  Process: Cut the egg carton so that you have the individual cups separate. Once you cut those. Get 1 cup (the one you saved) and glue the 3 cut up cups on top of it, layer it on top of each other. This is how you get the “Rose” effect. After that, you can paint it in whatever you want. For this project, I used red.

• Photo booth - Do not rent a photo booth for your event, even if you are NOT on a tight budget. You don’t really need that, like I said in my other post, your guests can use their phone to take pictures. DO make a photo wall instead. A photo wall is an area in your venue that has a beautiful background (wall) where guests can take pictures of themselves. Some people do a flower wall, but instead of real flowers, they put paper flowers on a piece of plywood and let it lean on the wall.

  
  Here is my suggestion:
  Buy a Brick printed decorative paneling from Home depot or Lowe’s, they are about $58 Canadian dollars. They come in red or white. Depending on your venue and motif, you can use either. You don’t have to do anything else with, just lean it on a wall and that’s it. It’s simple, and creates a beautiful background for your guest pictures. Don’t buy tacky props like wigs and hats and shades. Maybe just do one big signage with you and your husband’s name with the wedding date to commemorate the special day. You don’t need hundreds of props.

There you have it. This is just part 1 of a series, click HERE for part 2.