My son-in-law’s parents were not involved at all, so my husband and I took on the welcome party/rehearsal dinner, wedding reception, and a small day-after brunch for just our (bride’s) family. It was EXHAUSTING. Thank goodness my sister took charge of the bridesmaids lunch. All this happened in the town our daughter had lived in during grad school, but all of us live out of state. We would have been thrilled to have one less event to plan and execute!
All this to say your event, your decisions on decor, menu, venue, etc. Obviously you are taking into account the couple’s needs and wants, but if you are hosting, the only thing anyone should tell you is “thank you”!
I went to At Home yesterday thinking things would be inexpensive. Well, they aren’t THAT inexpensive, if you’re buying multiples.
I have 8 booths that sit 4 each, and 3 rectangular tables that sit 10 each. We are having 60 people.
Although I know to decorate fairly nicely, I’m not a floral arranger.
I was thinking finding low vases of varying design, now maybe GW, then doing the flowers myself. Does anyone have suggestions? When you walk in the room, you notice the tables, so perhaps buy vases the same for the table.
I’m thinking votive candles for the booths, and maybe larger for the tables. Something more special for where the bridal couple will be.
I found those holders that are for name cards! I’m going to use those for the photos set in the tables instead of frames! Easier to pass around and not take up so much room. I like the fact they will store easy, too.
For my daughter’s April wedding she wanted simple table decor which basically included the table cards I noted above and then varying sizes and shapes of simple vases with flowers we put together Thursday night (for Saturday wedding). I combed our local Goodwill stores and bought like 60 vases, lol. .50 cents to $1 each. She got an array of flowers (sort of a wildflower theme but you can get whatever) from Trader Joe’s - their flowers are nice AND inexpensive. A longer story about that but my point being, all novices we had no trouble putting together all these vases and they looked great on the tables - sort of less is more - didn’t jam the vases just loose few stems in each vase.
You of course don’t need 60 but after watching a few YouTubes you could surely do this on your own if you like!
I had a similar number for sit down rehearsal dinner. Used photos of the couple, growing up and together, clipped into little wire hearts on a stand - there are other shapes. Amazon under place card holders.
I used Costco for bulk flowers. They were fresh and gorgeous. You can specify preferred colors and you can get them arranged or not arranged delivered to you. I had them come 2 days early because they are shipped ready to open. (We were out of town so I needed to find a shipping address). I had done that a couple years before as well for thank you gifts. I bought the not arranged, bought low vases from dollar type store, used ribbon to embellish slightly. Depending on table size I had 2-3 vases and 1-2 photo stands on each table.
My suggestion…get bulk flowers as noted above…and just get a variety of clear vases…they don’t need to be the same shape or style. I would suggest close to the same height. Clear vases can also be found at thrift stores…and there are a lot now because the vases mothers got on Mother’s Day are being donated at a lot of places. Ask me how I know😉
That will look pretty with the pictures you aready are planning to do…in my opinion.
So, since I’m not talented at floral arrangements, would you suggest just 2 or 2 flowers with a little greenery per vase? I like the idea of more small ones per table than one.
I found the heart place card holders on Amazon and just ordered in the rose gold. Pink is her secondary color, so I think that will be pretty. I can put three 4x6 phots in each booth and 6 of them on each table. Should be fun!
The current photos I have all have people in them but here are some examples - we had different size/shape of vases - we liked the variation of height and size we had 3-5 vases in the center of round tables. For rehearsal dinner the tables were 8 ft(?) long tables and we used 2-3 on each table along with a bowl of wrapped butter mints.
Here are some similar. I personally like the look of loose not tight fitting in a vase and simplicity, not bulk.
If you go to a thrift look at all their glassware aisles - I found some in a “vase” area but also found plenty in with drinking glasses and other glassware.
Personally, I prefer flower arrangements on tables to be not very tall so people can easily see and converse with those across the table. We did a green garland running in the middle of the farm table and doctored it with roses etc. snipped and simply stuck in the greenery. They lasted perfectly fine for the entire wedding.
One thing I did is for the largest display area is frame copies of the wedding photos of the two sets of parents and four sets of grandparents. People LOVED that. Example: A couple of the cousin groomsmen brought gfs with them, and the gfs had never seen the grandparents’ wedding photo so they were conversation starters.
Pics of table arrangements with bulk flowers from Costco. Wedding colors were blue and shiny gold. I also bought some satin table runners from Amazon for about a dollar each, and some gold swirly sticks from one of the craft stores like Michael’s. We made stands for the place card holders because they weren’t very stable with the photos. I knew the ordered wedding flowers were 100% white in formal arrangements.
We hadn’t planned on a sit down multi-course white tablecloth rehearsal dinner or over 60 people but that was what was specified. I did tell the next two of mine to be married that if a rehearsal dinner was offered they were to say to the offering hosts thank you, whatever/wherever you want will be just fine.
(Technically it wasn’t the rehearsal dinner because the immediate wedding party went out for dinner after this “hearty hors d’ouvre” buffet. So we did the same and had a lovely dinner in town.)
but after watching a few YouTubes you could surely do this on your own if you like!
