Cost effective, non wasteful decorating?

[HotChoc10]

We've booked a big village hall for our reception. It's got lovely countryside surrounding it but the hall itself is pretty plain.

I'm reluctant to buy a load of stuff to decorate it that will only be used the once as it seems so wasteful. So I was considering renting decorations but all the firms I've found so far that do this are looking more expensive than just buying things!

I'm not too bothered about it looking high end, but would like it to look like a wedding and not just a space. What would you do?

We did something very similar, village hall reception. My mum managed to speak to local groups (the WI, a theatre group, and a few others) who regularly decorated halls for various events and they were all very happy to lend us bunting. We had loads of the bloody stuff in the end 😂 and it was all free of charge. Do you know any people or have links to any community groups etc that might be able to help?

Another thing we did was to buy flowers off the market the day before the wedding. We went the week before and told the guy that we would be coming the following week so he brought loads extra. We spent about £60 and honestly had a shit tonne of flowers, it looked amazing. There was no method to it, I just bunged them all in various vases etc around the place!

I made my own table jars for flowers. Got jam jars etc in various styles and sizes and decorated them with ribbon and pretty little artificial flowers. It looked very nice but rustic and relaxed too so may not be to your taste if you're going for a more traditional, pristine look.

Not going for a pristine look in the slightest! Flowers in jam jars sounds sweet.

And good idea about asking community groups to lend things. We have a reasonably active WhatsApp group for the local area so even if they can't offer help they might have links to other groups. And not particularly bothered about having flowers of a particular colour or anything so just buying up stock (and inviting people to take it home with them if they want) would be nice.

I bought lavender plants for my tables and asked guests to take them home and plant them. We just covered the plant pots with hessian. So much cheaper than flowers from a florist. We also collected pine cones and acorns for the middle of the tables. We booked our wedding three years in advance to spread the cost so we had enough 'autumns' to collect them!

Carrying on with my newly revived love of the Sex and the City film theres the scene in the restaurant on Valentines night. It has tones of helium balloons with strings hanging down.
They look different but a bouncy ballon is quite fun too.
Afterwards you can put them on Facebook and someone can reuse them for a birthday or anniversary.

Interesting @ampero blue, I did think about paper lanterns for something like this, as hopefully I could give them away afterwards but it just seems so wasteful to buy so much for one day.

We strung long pieces of ivy up round the walls of our reception hall together with ivory pull bows. The ivy was acquired by me going out into the garden and grabbing loads that I'd been meaning to weed for ages! Pull bows are really cheap (can get 60 for a tenner on Amazon) and as their name suggests, they come flat, you pull the tail and it turns into a rosette. Double sided sticky tape is your friend. Effective and rustic and if you buy a large reel of satin ribbon (38mm wide, 25m, £6.95) you can use for cars and then string up the rest around your hall with the greenery and the bows. Any spare, hand on to the next wedding party. Any spare bows - use for Christmas presents!!!

I recently had to decorate a hall for a party. We had a limited budget and weren't allowed to attach anything to the walls so a bit limited . I decided balloons and flowers were the best option. I know not environmentally friendly but cheap . I bought a helium canister and some helium balloons and balloon weights to anchor to tables, an electric balloon pump and a balloon arch kit from Amazon . Cheap IKEA carafe vases with flowers from Aldi and little bottles with star glitter inside and those bottle fairy lights . Paper table covers from Poundland About £150 in all

Oh yes I forgot - IKEA tea light holders if you have an IKEA near you. And a job lot of tealights or, if you aren't allowed due to fire regs, battery ones! They are fairly cheap and can be reusable at birthdays, Christmas, parties... or even lighting the garden up!

Please don't use helium balloons. The planet's running out of helium and we need it to keep medical MRI scanners going.

Please don't use helium balloons. The planet's running out of helium and we need it to keep medical MRI scanners going.

Helium balloons are a drop in the ocean. They will need to rethink MRI scanners not balloons.

Everything is a waste including flowers, vases, paper and plastic ribbons.

@AmperoBlue

Please don't use helium balloons. The planet's running out of helium and we need it to keep medical MRI scanners going.

Helium balloons are a drop in the ocean. They will need to rethink MRI scanners not balloons.

Everything is a waste including flowers, vases, paper and plastic ribbons.

Re: everything being a waste, yeah I think that's what I'm realising.

Think I'm going to go for some variation of flowers in wine bottles, lanterns, and see if any community groups near me can lend/rent anything for cheaper than the professionals are offering.

Use jam jars for tea lights rather than buying tea light holders. You can just tie a little bit of ribbon or hessian around them to spruce them up.

I’m in similar situation to you and still trying to work out what I’m doing but I was also surprised at how expensive renting is. I don’t know how they stay in business.

We bought flat sheets from Asda to use as tablecloths, got a load of table runners for free on Facebook in a wedding group, empty gin bottles from a local pub and kept all the fancy ones to out fairy lights in, empty coffee jars which will be filled with water and the bridesmaid bouquets will go in them.
Most things I've made myself, the seating plan from an IKEA photo frame that has been painted and had a string "washing line" attached. Rather than a guest book we've got a jar for people to put notes in for our first wedding anniversary.
I did get a load of faux flowers to dot about but we've lost our evening venue and there isn't anywhere to put them at the new one.

If you have any wastenot wantnot / free groups on Facebook ask for wedding decs, we managed to get a load of 2nd hand items and will be passing them on once used. Collected random glasses, cups etc to be mismatched decor, using random stuff from the house too. (We are going for a very hippy wedding so our home decor (wall hangings, tapestries etc) fit our theme)

We had very similar village hall wedding. We bought a load of flowers from local supermarket (ordered them beforehand) and they went in jam jars etc collected over the previous years and also made night lights. Got dried petals on the table too as table confetti. We picked song lyrics from our favourite songs and printed them out and put in cheap frames from IKEA and put around the place - we've kept them since and used again.
We made blackboards with blackboard paint and my friend decorated these too.
I bought bunting rather than hired and tbh we've used it loads since to decorate for birthdays/parties, some is currently hanging in the garden.
We did splash out on hiring fairy lights which they hung from the beams though as it made the place really sparkly and added nice atmosphere.

My friend got married recently and bought loads of stuff second hand from wedding forums (think on Facebook). She bought seat covers, wooden platter things and some table centrepieces. She plans to sell it on afterwards.

Get some cotton tape for £1.60. Scour charity shops for nice material. Cut material into triangles and sew on to tape. Voila: bunting.
And afterwards you can keep it, gift it on or recycle it.

If you search “wedding decorations” on ebay and tick the Used box you will find all sorts of bundles that people have used for their weddings and are selling on. So you’re re using/recycling and saving money. Many are collection only though so you might need to hunt around for something near you.