I Need Decorating Ideas!

You might be able to use some of my ideas....

For the church I am using white lights (with white wires) that I bought right after christmas (20 boxes) for 75% off. I am taking these and wrapping them in cloth (maybe tulle, something see-through) of about 16" in width (available on ebay), and covering them entirely to soften them. When the 16" is folded in half it should be about 8". I am going to use them as streamers, somehow hanging them from the ceiling. I still have to straighten some of that out. I have also seen people do this with petals inside of the tulle instead of lights.

My colors consist of a soft sage green, pearly white, and soft platinum/silver, so I am using large leafy plants on either side of the "stage" in my church. I plan on borrowing these form my office - free! These will be in silver canisters. Use lots of plants if possible. My church has more that I can borrow from their offices, entrance, etc.

I am having my ceremony and reception in the same place to save on having to decorate two rooms or having to carry things over from the ceremony. The room is HUGE, but when I saw it set up for a bridal show, the centerpieces were eye catching! It brought the room down in size and with them, I wouldn`t have to have any other decorations! They will cost me $16 to rent. It is a small bowl as the base, with a tall tube in the middle of it. It`s all plastic, so see-through. At the top will be flowers. In the bowl I am putting gel to place floating candles in it. This could probably be something you could make yourself if you find the right materials. Because I am having my ceremony there as well, I will decorate a little more. For an aisle, I am using the tulle in the lights and stringing them along stands of some sort to make the aisle.
Something I chose to do to save a little money is to use candles instead of flowers. I may have a few flower decorations, but nothing here. I am also using tulips and my florist is only charging me wholesale price for them, so I am already saving a bunch there! I will probably use some candles to decorate the stage, where we will be getting married. I will just find cheap candles from the dollar store or find them on sale, because nobody is going to look that closely at them! I haven`t tested them yet though to see how well they will do burning for a few hours!

I have a larger budget but found most of my buys online. My fiancè is in the Navy...no worry of him losing his job. If you want little tips email me. I am having a rather formal-looking affair for 100ppl in a medieval motif for just under 9000. If I can do it anyone can. I normally charge for this advice on keen.com (hey a girl`s gotta make a living) I go to school full time, run a business, work somewhere else part-time and plan my wedding. I am willing to offer you advice FREE of charge but just hope that you will refer me to others. I am a bridal consultant but I am moving away from that to a designer/decorator and teaching brides how to "design on a dime" there are a lot of neat things out there to create the ambiance without having an abundance of flowers. I am getting married on December 5, 2004 so I totally understand where you are coming from.

Amanda