Guest Blog Whitney: Keep Calm and Plan On!

Hello again Confessions of an Entertaining Hostess Readers! True Story: I got a call from the bride-to-be 3 days before the wedding asking if I could PLEASE plan the decorations (that she kind of forgot about, but really wanted) for the her post-reception party. Since it was her wedding day & we have been friends for 17 years . . . I enlisted my mom to help and we made a plan.
Oh, her only instructions . . .  “make it cute” and stay within the budget, $70.
So in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation here’s how we did it:

1. Make a list & prioritize:

We created a list of everything we needed and prioritized based on cost. There were a few “musts” we set aside money for those. For example, we wanted balloons in the bride’s wedding colors. I called Party City and got the price for 20 balloons ($1 each) and we set that $20 aside.

               

2. Make a Plan:

             With only 3 days, so there was no time to spend shopping around. We decided to start at the dollar store and see what we could knock off our list there. After that we planned to go to Michael’s where we had a coupon. (I have the Michael’s app on my phone, which downloads coupons automatically every week!)

3. Make flexible plans:

            We originally wanted 12 mason jars but the sand was expensive and we would need A LOT of sand to fill up an entire mason jar. So when we found cute 8oz bowls for $1 and needed ½ the sand, we changed gears.

4. Use what you have!
 

 

Shells were originally on our shopping list, but we couldn’t find any we liked for the right price. We had a box of sand dollars in our garage. A little bleach + paint = the perfect shells for our decorations.

So what can you accomplish in 3 days for $70?
 

 

We made 12 votives to place on each table with decorative sand (in the wedding colors!) and battery-operated tea lights.

Supplies: Michael’s: sand, ribbon, rose bowls. Dollar Store: tea lights & white ribbon

P.S. With red, white, and blue sand & citronella candles these would be the perfect decorations for a 4th of July BBQ!

 

We decorated 4 vases and had originally planned on using flowers from our garden to fill these vases, but when we found out all the flowers from the reception were simply going to be thrown out, we grabbed them! 

Supplies: Dollar store: vases. Michael’s: ribbon.

We made 2 of these prints celebrating the bride’s new last name!

Supplies: Dollar store: frames. Michael’s: burlap fabric & black paint.

 

Meredith, thanks for letting me guest blog again! & Happy entertaining!