We booked an outdoor wedding for May 30th 2009 in a beautiful park with a nice wooden gazebo. We have the space from 3-12pm and would like the wedding to be at 4:30. Should i rent chairs (costs about 350.00) or should i get an uncle and friends to set up metal chairs from a friend who owns local hall. Also should i decorate my own arch or just rent one? Id save about 400.00 doing it ourselves i just dont know if we can pull it all off. What do you think? i need some ideas.
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dow hatever you can to save money! As long as you are ok with it. See what chair covers would cost. It may be cheaper then the chairs if you dont like the medal ones.
Make what you can, if you have friends or family that have a hobby or talen as them to help like cooking, photography or baking.
Decorate with simple outdoory things like flowers (real or silk), leaves, water….
Think about this carefully, You will have family and friends helping you out. Do you want to go down this path because it might be a lot of heartbreak. They might not decorate the place the way you like it or have attitudes about it because they are doing you a favor and take complete advantage of the situation. Just prevent all that and find a cheaper way other than asking for family and friend help. Use white Christmas lights on the gazebo. You and your fiance Decorate an arch this way it will be special.
I would deff say rent the chairs. Even though you can go cheaper its going to look a lot nicer if you have the rented ones. Double check to see what styles you have at your disposal though. The arch can easily be decorated yourself. You can buy long strands of silk ivy and weave it around the arch. Maybe some silk flowers (use similar flowers that will be in your bouquet) through out it. Its easy to do.
I would rent chairs. I wouldn’t do any elaborate decorations. You’re already outside, it will already be beautiful. I had mine outside. There’s something really elegant about the white folding chairs. The only decorations I did was rose petals down the aisle, the parents were in garden benches, so I did some bows with flowers swagged across the back and then an arrangement up front. If I were you and the wedding is in a gazebo, I would only do two arrangements at the entrance of the gazebo on pedestals. Make it simple. There is no need for an arch.
Walmart has lots of cheep items. One thing they have is tulle rolls, Its great for making bows and streaming else where. Would look good on tables and chairs. They have the isle runners. Oh and for your center pieces they have large glass bowls in the crafts section, you could get floating candles to go in it. They even have a bowl shaped like a champagne glass. Ebay has lots of items as well. Also try craft stores for other ideas.
My husband and I had an outdoor wedding. Everyone told us how unique it was. We bought a wooden arbor, rustic with the twigs. It was only about 250 and then had a few hydrangas just stuck randomly on the arbor it was beautiful! Now we have it in our garden. bhttp://rusticgarden.stores.yahoo.net/wrirtwar.html this one is cool
http://www.twigfactory.com/product_info.php?products_id=53 this is what mine looked like.
I would also definately invest in chairs. I know it is a little more but if you think about it they are what people see as soon as they walk up. I felt like it was worth it to spend the money.
Instead of a guest book we did a wishing tree. I found an old dead tree brach that was a neat shape. Planted it in an urn,with moss, took dried flowers that I found at a craft store and tied clusters of the flowers to it. Made tags with pretty paper and ribbon that the guest could write a note to the bride and the groom on. After they were done they hung the notes from the tree.
When my brother and his wife got married, the ceremony was outside, on a hill, with the river leading to the ocean as the background, it was a quick 15 minute or so ceremony, they only had chairs set out for the parents, everyone else stood up and it was just fine. Don’t spend 350.00 on chairs, seems like such a waste.
Thier wedding was beautiful and out of the 110 guests that came, not one person complained about not sitting at the ceremony, matter of fact, the opted out on a lot of the traditional wedding ‘stuff’, no boquet toss, garter toss, no cakes, brownies for dessert, no bubbles or anything when they left the reception, no wedding programs – I’ve asked family members if they missed any of this and they’ve all been surprised at how this stuff wasn’t even thought about!
The atmosphere, family, friends, and the 2 of them made the wedding & reception amazing! So my point – don’t worry so much about some of the ‘petty’ things that no one remembers.
Congrats.
Oh, if you are using the gazebo, then I don’t see the need to waste money on an arch! Decorate the gazebo!
you could rent it.It saves your time, and you have time to manage other things
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a cheap but beautiful idea would to put little white lights in the trees so when it gets dark the park is still lit up with little white lights or tiki torches ..very romantic. I know cheaper is better but you don’t want to look back and wish you spent a little extra money to make it just perfect.
This is how we made it work when I was planning(only a yr or so ago)…
get the chairs but get cheaper chairs…unless the metal chairs look clean and rust free…then use them with pride! You can get a nice arch from Michaels or Hobby Lobby or Joanns or Rag Shop(depending on your area). Get silk flowers(not the cheap ugly ones, the ones that look real and have big flowers) and use the same color tulle. Get strands of xmas white lights. Weave the tulle and xmas lights into the arch and attach the silk flowers to the front edge. To decorate around the gazebo get those lantern lights or the chinese lanterns with battery powered lights in them. Scatter them everywhere. I found some even at the dollar store! I strongly suggest doing some things yourself…you, as the bride, will be happier because you are the one picturing it. I once had a bride that redid her flowers two hours before the start of her ceremony because it wasn’t what she pictured in her head. I know that silks sound cheap but they have advantages like you can have them done on your time, you can get ones that look real, you can make them smell the way you want and they don’t wilt during outside weddings. I have also found that potted plants can be nice aisle decor…for example, if you use enough potted daisies down the aisle it makes a color statement and they can be cheaper then cut flowers. (But they are for a natural wedding.) Candles are great if you aren’t concerned about wind. Oh, and remember to get green extention cords so they don’t stick out among the grass and trees.
These are just some ideas…here are some questions. colors? themes? dress? cake? location or region of country? total budget? budget for decor? food serving? invitation style? plans for if it rains? flowers?
Look at this website below. Click on the photos. My daughter was married here & there was a gazebo. With that, you don’t need an arch. As you can see, there wasn’t a lot of decorations. With it being outside was just enough.. Good luck & don’t stress.. Enjoy your day.
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