The Budget Bride by Marjorie

We have a guest, Marjorie, blogging today with wonderful ideas for your wedding that will help keep you within budget - inexpensive, yet beautiful all the same.

The Budget Bride

Congratulations! You’ve just become engaged and you’re dreaming of a beautiful summer wedding. You find tons of information browsing Internet wedding sites—but then, something takes your breath away. You read on TheKnot.com, a popular wedding website, where newlyweds spent an average of $28,427 on their wedding and related events in 2012. That’s way out of your budget range. Can you have your dream wedding parties for a fraction of that cost?  

Party World (partywedding.com) to the rescue! Yes, you can have an elegant wedding, engagement party, bridal shower, and bachelorette party—on a budget. For 30 years, Party World, a Tacoma-based family business, has helped hundreds of couples select elegant invitations, decorations, centerpieces, tableware, and favors from its huge collection of colors and styles for every budget and taste. 

Bulk Confetti

This Tacoma-based wedding resource is available nationwide, through its website at partywedding.com, where you can browse through wedding themes (such as Western or seashore or butterflies)  and color combinations  (such as black and white, gray and yellow, pink and brown) and get ideas for what is possible on a limited budget. At the click of your mouse, you can order all of your wedding accessories, table decorations, invitations, catering supplies, balloons, confetti, and attendants’ gifts in whatever quantity you need. Shipping is free for orders of $65 or more. 

Corby Howell of partywedding.com is a great resource person if you have questions or need ideas. As a first step, she says, browse the website’s wedding section, and select a decorating theme and coordinating colors. Some of the most popular themes have been Love Birds, Vintage, Luau, Butterfly, Daisy, Beach, Red Wedding, Country Western, and Calla Lily weddings, and ideas are constantly being updated. 

Many couples plan the wedding and parties around a color, the season of the wedding, or the flowers (or snowflakes) appropriate to the season. You can browse through all the color choices in tableware, accessories, and cake tops to get ideas. There are also custom-made pew bows in the color of your choice. 

Corby notes that wedding and party accessories are available in ensembles, which generally include a matching guest book, pen with holder, ring pillow, flower girl basket, and unity candle. There are cake servers and knife sets, toasting glasses, and cake tops that coordinate with the set as well. You will find lovely Burlap, Feathers, Butterfly, Cowboy, Rose, Rustic ensembles, and many more to fit your theme or color scheme.

Bell and Dove Centerpiece

Partywedding.com also has a wonderful selection of solid colors for tableware and napkins to match any theme. One elegant touch is to choose custom-printed napkins. You can find napkin printing on the website, with excellent customer service. There are also coordinating table decorations for the reception and parties with everything you need—table covers, table centerpieces, and confetti, as well as place cards and place card holders. To complete the theme, chose hanging decorations, such as dangling cutouts, streamers, hanging centerpieces, and balloons. Balloon bouquets are very popular, and partywedding.com has a terrific selection. 

Corby says: "Pre-wedding celebrations as well as the wedding and reception create great memories and we enjoy helping to make them all special. Helping customers is a priority and we will do all we can to fulfill their needs." Call for assistance with ordering or for party ideas at 1-800-933-3948.

Thank you, Marjorie, for your encouragement and great ideas!

Winter Wedding Decorations

Snowflake Decorations

Is your winter wedding coming up soon? To enhance your celebration and the season, consider adding snowflake decorations to your reception hall.  Floating snowflake balloons or dangling snowflake cutouts from the ceiling add a glittering dimension to emphasize the season.  Sprinkle snowflake confetti on the tables.  Value packs of snowflake plates are an easy and fun addition to serving your cake and other goodies. Plastic snowflake tumblers and paper cups, table covers and centerpieces add the a delightful touch to your reception space. Silver garlands and white streamers also add an inexpensive and unifying effect.
Beautiful winter wedding collections are also available - silver and white, glamorous and glittering including guest books and pen sets for the reception, as well as flower basket, ring pillows and unity candles for the wedding ceremony. Be sure to see more ideas for your winter wedding.

Wedding Reception Supplies

Toasting Glasses

When planning for a wedding reception, there are several areas to consider.  First, think about table decorations: centerpieces, table cloths, plates, napkins, confetti and favors.  If you know your color scheme and theme, decisions can become easier.  Browsing can help solidify the these choices as well.  Simple flowers in vases can make lovely centerpieces, or polished pebbles and colored sand in tube vases can highlight any table.  Economical honeycomb centerpieces in the shapes such as doves and bells are easy to set up and perfect for a memorable celebration. Paper and plastic tableware, plates and napkins, saves time in set up and clean up, as well as adding an elegant thematic touch as you wish.  Napkins imprinted with the bride and groom names and the date are always special and is available in a huge variety of colors of napkins and imprinting ink.

Table Decorations

The wedding cake and serving tables deserve special consideration.  Cake toppers are available now in a wide range of styles, topics, romantic and funny brides and grooms, doves, hearts, dancing couples - a delightful way to express the personality of the special pair.  Serving sets with cake knife and server are practical and distinctive keepsakes - a perfect everyday reminder of the special day.  Again, decorative paper plates make serving easy and clean up a breeze.  Statuettes can be set beside the cake for a striking addition to the serving area.

And speaking of serving, using elegant looking yet practical catering ware is a must.  Crystal looking and silver painted platters, bowls and plates look great but are lightweight for handling food.  Most are dishwasher safe and reusable if your like. 

Wedding Bubbles

No reception is complete without the toasts to the happy couple. 
Toasting glasses and flutes add that touch of elegance to the occasion, whether you are drinking champagne or sparkling cider.  Plus, these make beautiful gifts and keepsakes, to be enjoyed again and again at those special times in their new life together.
For seeing the newlyweds off from the reception, bubbles are delightful and fun. Individual containers are available with romantic doves atop to double as a small wedding favor for your guests. With so much to consider, browse for more ideas and designs for your wedding reception supplies.
Best wishes!

Wedding Confetti

As you plan your wedding reception decorations, be sure to consider adding confetti.

Diamond Shaped Confetti

Sprinkling wedding confetti on the tables at your wedding reception instantly adds a sparkling, elegant touch to your table decorations.  Confetti is available in a wide variety of shapes as well as nearly all the colors of the rainbow.  Heart confetti is a very popular choice.  Available in bulk, it is priced very reasonably for covering a large number tables and other surfaces.  Find bulk confetti in red, gold, silver, blue, pinks and many more hues.  Other bulk shapes include jimmies (small, long rectangles), stars, and silver spangles. Order by the scoop, with one scoop covering approximately 2-3 tables depending on the depth of coverage desired and size of table. 1 scoop weighs approximately 0.25 ounce.

Rose Petals

Packaged confetti comes in many shapes and materials: browse rose petals, diamond shaped and confetti gems, bells, cakes, birds, bride and groom, and sayings like "Just Married".  Again, these come in delightful shades to match your reception colors and decorations.  Enjoy browsing for your special wedding confetti!