How to decorate my venue on a budget?

by Stacie Amiss
(Nottingham, uk)

Hi, I am getting married in November this year. We have a budget of £2,000 and our reception venue is really big, the walls are just so plain, loads of wood skirting and blue carpet and curtains. We don't have a huge budget and I was wondering if you had any ideas on how we can decorate in to the theme we have which is pearls and hearts. We are also getting married in a big church as well which also needs a lot of decorations.

Please help, I am at a loss and starting to get worried.
Thanks,
Stacie


Answer:

When decorating your venue, I suggest drawing your guests’ attention away from the plain walls and carpet by having your table centrepieces as the focal point. It’s smart to use two different types of centrepieces to create height in the room and so it doesn’t look so monochromatic.

With your heart and pearl theme, you could do centrepieces that have floating heart shaped candles for your lower centrepieces. For taller centrepieces, you could secure twigs in pots and then drape them with strings of faux pearls or hang little paper hearts from them. If you’re able to hang decorations from the ceiling, it might be fun to hang different size and colour hearts.

Tulle and fairy lights are another inexpensive way to spruce up a reception venue. They can be used for draping on the walls, head table or to decorate an archway. Making a fancy archway creates another focal point in the room to draw the attention away from the unsightly areas.

I wouldn’t spend too much time or money on decorating the church, especially if it’s really big. You will need a lot of decorations in a large church or else they will go unnoticed or look unfinished. Your guests will only be in the church for a short time and will be focusing on you and your groom, not on the decorations. If you still feel that the church needs some decorations, you can make pretty pew bows very inexpensively. It would be nice to use strings of faux pearls in them to tie in with your theme. Perhaps there is another couple getting married the same day and you could share the cost of flowers and other decorations.

I hope these suggestions get you started and ease your worries a bit.