Decor Cost

I know some florists can rent you stuff too but we bought our stuff on amazon and aliexpress and afloral. Amazon and aliexpress were very inexpensive.

We are spending about 1000. this includes linens, charger plates, uplighting package, vases, candles, lanterns, etc.

Flowers are not included in that.

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How much did you end up spending if you don't mind me asking

Almost all of the vases I am using I purchased from dollar tree. I am painting and doing some etching so I’ve already purchased a lot to give myself plenty of time. Just for my 16 tables for people to sit at in vases I’ve got $24 they will be filled with Silk and real touch flowers. It was by far the cheapest place I found vases

We've budgeted $1000 for decor and it looks like we'll be right around there. This includes some kind of arch for the ceremony, lanterns with candles and shells that will double as aisle decor and centerpieces, table cloths (we could use the white ones provided by the venue but I really want purple since the chairs and napkins are white), and miscellaneous items like the seating chart. This doesn't include flowers, but we're only doing bouquets and maybe something for the sweetheart table and arch.

The nice thing about renting from the caterer is that you don't have to worry about anything. It could be cheaper to buy, but then you have to store and transport everything, which could get out of hand depending on big your wedding is. In our case, we could make the lantern centerpieces ourselves for about $13 each, or rent for $30 each. It's a lot more to rent but we're honestly leaning that way to save us the hassle. (though we also have a 1br apartment and are having a destination wedding, which complicates storage and transportation)

Our venue is a blank slate so we had to buy everything from white tablecloths to chair covers. We've spent a couple thousand dollars but expect to get most of it back on resale in Facebook local groups.

It's more work to DIY but you can personalize stuff. There isn't anyone who would rent centrepieces like what I'm making, for example

Honestly I’ve probably spent around 2k in decor for both the ceremony and the reception and I’m not done yet. We bought everything ourselves and made everything- no renting.
The most expensive part was buying table cloths.

I'm buying all flowers from Costco for around $225 (baby's breath and white roses, but only about 1/2 is for decor rather than bouquets)). Then I'm getting vases from Dollar Tree and using a Mercury Glass spray paint to get the look I want, which will cost about $25 altogether. Buying candles and votive holders off Amazon, set of 72 for $50. Taking some fallen birch from family property to create wood disks to place the votives on, and FH's grandma is trying to grow us some mini white pumpkins (otherwise we can buy them locally, about $35 for 70). Bought white tablecloths and purple satin overlays, totaled $150 for 15 tables. Renting white chair covers ($75 for 150) and our grandmas are making purple and silver chair sashes (total fabric cost around $80).

All in all, no more than $560. Then there's the possibility of reselling it, though I'm not counting on that.

We are getting pretty much all of those main decor items (lanterns, arch, etc) from our florist. It might be slightly cheaper to find and buy ourselves but I think with the setup/take down time plus transport and just added stress of worrying about all of it, we decided it was worth it to go through our florist. We have a few things like pictures we will be bringing in, but otherwise it will be taken care of!

I think I've decided to go with someone that we can just rent items from. I think the last thing I'll want to do post wedding is try sell items that were used.

Hey!!

I really tried to go the cheapest route with mine, too, while still making it look elegant and classy, and I think in the end we will be spending at the MOST $700 on all of our decor and uplighting (not including flowers). The venue we went with is already very beautiful without decorations, and they also include all linens, chair covers, and sashes so I don't have to buy those separately. I bought votive candles from quickcandles.com -- even cheaper than amazon. They were really cheap and had great reviews! And I bought vases from World Trading Co and The Knot Shop and they were also inexpensive but good quality. Originally I was going to try to go even cheaper and not do flower centerpieces at all, but once I started looking into alternatives everything seemed to be priced about the same.

Just to let you know. I’ve done a lot of weddings and you have to shop around to get the best price. Because this is a wedding places tend to charge more knowing brides want there day to be as perfect as they envisioned it from the time they could remember. Now a days simple inelegant is the in thing. Remember if you buy it it will cost you and you have to keep it and if you rent it you give it back. There are a lot of places online you can rent from also and you get a much better price. Good luck ladies may all your wedding dreams come true.