Budget-friendly Lanterns?

Hi Grace. A wedding decor budget of $600 is incredibly good. One suggestion is to use a few lanterns during the ceremony and move them to the reception area, so you don't have to buy more than needed.

Hobby lobby puts their lanterns on sale every 2 or 3 weeks. I've also seen lanterns at $5 below in the summer aisle. (They aren't as nice as what you pictured, but may work). I've also seen them posted an Facebook marketplace for very reasonable prices. There are YouTube videos of people making them from dollar store picture frames, also. Good luck!

I was going to suggest hobby lobby also. They have 50% off sales all the time! And you can find some great steals in their clearance aisles. I will caution, you may not be able to find as many as you need on the clearance aisles, but if you are open to mixing and matching different lanterns for different tables, you may be in luck.

I would suggest looking into rental companies and see if they have any lanterns available for you to rent (maybe they will have optional greenery and lights to add). I do like Cece's idea of mixing and matching different lanterns, this way if a company doesn't have enough of one style you could still make it work.

Also this way you won't be stuck with trying to utilize or sell 20 lanterns after your wedding.

I would suggest looking on Facebook marketplace - you can find some good deals there. That’s where I found the lanterns I used during my wedding a couple of years ago. I got about 12 tall gold lanterns for $15 each. After my wedding, I kept a few of them and I resold the rest on FB marketplace.

These are the lanterns I am got on Amazon for our centerpieces. They are $32.99 for 2, so well within your budget. They come with flameless candles and are exactly what I had envisioned for my decor. I hope this helps!

So Hobby Lobby has sales every so often and that is where I bought my lanterns. They were about $12 each.

Definitely follow what others said re: Facebook marketplace. Joining wedding swap groups in your area can be HUGE for cutting down costs, especially on decor. I can almost guarantee there's a ton of people that have the candles you want already!

That said, if you're looking for realism, it might make sense to have the terrarium elements outside the lantern like your second photo. I LOVE the visuals you put in, those are so gorgeous, and having an organic spillover with moss and lights onto your table is so fun and beautiful. Maybe having the floral elements (or fake moss, leaves, etc.) mixed with a handful of real blooms would give you a gorgeous effect.

If you want it to appear like a real candle, that can definitely be faked by having lanterns with frosted glass. Kind of like this:

This would be easy to do with any cheap lantern, and since it's flame-less, you can probably get away with doing it without taping or anything - using a spray paint or window cling cut to size.

Just a thought!

Thank you for all the suggestions, I do like the idea of looking on Facebook marketplace and will have to check that out.