DIY wedding reception decorations

Setting a wedding budget is an important part of planning a wedding. Sticking to that budget is the hard part. Here are a few DIY reception decorations, to help you save money and sick to your budget.

1. Card box...
I purchased a plain brown box with a lid, here's the saving part I used the box for my shower, and the wedding!!  My shower theme was Totally 80's I covered it in paper and my friend Mindy (she also got ordained so she could perform our wedding ceremony, how awesome is she!!) used colored pencils and wrote 80's bands on it, like this one!! 

Then for the wedding I recovered it with my colors Pink and Brown glitter paper. I had some gems I hot glued them on and the D on the front of the box is a pin that I hot glued on.

2. Mason jars...
 have become really popular lately so I took advantage of this. If your mom is anything like mine she has a ton of these. We were married in a private ceremony on the beach, our reception was a month later, so I decide to bring a little of the beach into my theme. I filled all different sized mason jars with sand and placed all different shaped/sized white candles in them then sprinkled crushed sea shells on the top to look like these ones!!

3. The head table...
 I kept with the beach theme I wrapped star fish with ribbon and tied it around the big vase.  The 6.23.12  on the front of the table was a reused prop that I had made for our engagement pictures I cut the numbers out of black glittery foam and hot glued them onto a piece of binder twine. So again reuse reuse reuse!!!

I also made made the little signs where we sat. Want to talk about easy and inexpensive!!! I found a font on my computer that had little hearts on it, (It's on my other computer when I get on there I will let you know the name of it) typed out what I wanted them to say and used picture frames that I had laying around!!! 

(In this picture I had originally put ribbon on them to hang them on the chairs but I took them off and set them on the table) 

How cute is this saying!!! 

4. Glitter balls!!!..

Glitter was everywhere... I took paper lanterns, spray glue, and glitter and made these amazing balls!!! I also made brown ones too!! I then hung little battery operated flame less candles in them to illuminate them at dark

5. I bought a plain wooden D at Michaels craft supply of $2.00 used the left over spray glue and pink glitter and made a beautiful D. 

6. Monogrammed canvas!...
 I got pink glitter spray paint and sprayed the mounted piece of canvas. I got the bDm letters at Hobby lobby and covered them with the spray glue brown and gold glitter just like I did the lanterns and Big D. Once the canvas and letters were dry I hot glued the letters on the canvas. The circles are just punched out of extra paper from the card box. Keep all little scraps like this they always come in handy!!!! You can also see this in behind the head table in that picture!! 

7. Flower balls...
These were also hanging with the pink and brown glitter balls, these were very easy to make. I went to the dollar store and bought all of there white roses. I got small foam balls, some ribbon and hot glue. I pulled the heads off the roses, and hot glued them all around the balls, once the ball was covered I hot glued the ribbon to hang them with. To look like these ones!! 

8. Venue...
We had our reception outside at our house so our venue was free, we just got a tent, table and chairs. HUGE $$$ saver!!!

9. Food...
My parents gift to us was the food, my dad made BBQ ribs, BBQ chicken, ham, Roast beef and my mom did the salads, potatoes, veggies and deserts with help from my aunts. Another HUGE $$$ saver!! People commented that it was the best food they had ever had at a reception, heck yeah it wasn't nasty catered food that comes from boxes it was real homemade food!! 

10. Cake...
I also chose to make my own cupcakes instead of having someone make us a cake. Cupcakes are easy to make and, lets face it the cake is a big part of our budget, that we could use somewhere else like the DRESS!!!

I hope these post helped if you have any questions please feel free to ask!!! I will make another post on wedding day savings.  These are just a few of the things I did myself for the reception!!

xoxo Misty