7 Tips for Wedding Set Up Prep!

I wanted to touch base about some tips for wedding set up prep! This might be an easy topic but I witnessed first hand from my sisters wedding what could happen if you don't have a system planned for wedding set up. Not bashing her wedding, because it turned out beautiful... But she had many opportunities to delegate tasks and many projects was waited until the last minute (which meant MAJOR STRESS!)
If you’re planning a wedding without a wedding planner, please look at these 7 simple tips and try to utilize opportunities to make your wedding hassle free!

Tip One: If you have access to the Venue 24 hours BEFORE the wedding, take advantage of it.
A lot of venues like victorian houses, barns, churches, and some pavilions grant you access 24 hours before the wedding in your contract agreement. Take that day before to decorate! You might not be able to line up the ceremony chairs in the Courtyard but you'll be able to roll out the table cloths and have them steamed or even set up the entry area/gift table beforehand.

Tip Two: Rehearsal dinner is a good time to prep.
If having the rehearsal dinner at the venue take that chance to set up small things. For example: the venue my sister rented we had the rehearsal dinner there. It was the perfect opportunity to get some decorations in place especially with groomsmen around that can move tables. If planned properly she could’ve had the entire indoor area set up the night before!

Tip Three: Box and Label properly.
Items that go on the sign in table, flowers + candles that go on the fireplace mantel, decor for each of the dinning tables, and photographs that are to be placed in the foyer - have the boxes of items stored in labeled and easy to set up.

Tip Four: Map it out.
I literally hand drew my pavilion and the set up I wanted. Then I'm able to hand it to the 'set up team' and know they'll be able to place things with ease!

Tip Five: Do a mock set up and take pictures or draw it out!
Just like having mock hair and makeup pictures for the big day, do this for the table center pieces and how you hope the Sign In area to be. You can set it up in your house and send the pictures to the 'set up team' along with a drawn layout to give ideas.

Tip Six: Delegate Tasks in an appropriate manner.
When assigning who is to set up what make sure it's an area you've went over thoroughly with him/her and a area that person can handle (so don't give your pregnant bridesmaid the job of hanging lanterns in a tree). If you assign the tasks off to members who can handle it, you'll be happy with the outcome. Also assign tasks at appropriate times. Don’t expect your bridal party to be setting up the reception hall when they should be getting dressed.

Tip Seven: Don't do it yourself.
Many brides have the “It'll only look good if I do it” mind set (cough cough, my sister). Though that might be true, it's your wedding day and you need to be relaxing and getting beautiful with your mother and bridal squad! Put trust in other family and friends; if something isn't 100% perfect it's okay! Life isn't perfect.

What am I doing? In the beginning I planned to have a few friends of Bryce’s family set up the wedding reception with my mom and Bryces aunt. I hand drawn the pavilion layout, snapped photos of mock table arrangements, and purchased crates labeled where the items go with the EXACT number of items needed for that location. I found out yesterday (September 13th) that a relative has paid a decorator to do the entire set up and to direct guests where to go and monitor non-guests from tampering the decor. I’m extremely grateful for this generous gift of having someone create my vision for me so my family can enjoy the day. 

Wedding DIY Projects

Weddings on a budget require some creative tricks, a little trip to Hobby Lobby and a tall glass of wine (or beer). AKA: the Wedding DIY projects! You'll be so surprised at how much money you can save if you take a weekend to do some crafting. My goal is to keep my wedding budget as low as possible so I scouted my Pinterest boards for some wedding decor ideas.

Can you DIY for any style of Wedding?
Of course! Glitzy wedding, Rustic wedding, Halloween theme wedding, Beach wedding, etc. I believe all wedding theme/styles have DIY projects. Todays post I will show you all the DIY projects I'm doing for my Seaside Destination Wedding. Many of these projects can be altered to fit any wedding theme/style. And I'm more than happy to give further details if needed!

1. Table Center Pieces.
I decided my center pieces will be a table runner, some shells + drift wood, a few flowers, and battery power candles. I was shocked to see the florist was going to charge me over $750 to do 6 tables! With this center piece I designed, I was able to DIY it for under $200 (some of the shells and drift wood I found on the beach!) After my wedding I will post images of the finished product on a special blog post. 

So shells was purchased in bundles.

I sorted and cleaned some of the shells to get an idea of how I want my arrangements to look.

I have quite a few extra large shells. Here’s some for example. I plan to tissue paper wrap these in a crate.

My super delicate shells like small sand dollars, urchins, and unique rare pieces I used tackle boxes to store.

2. Guest Sign In Book.
I decided to do a creative Sign In Book. I found this wooden shadow box frame for $5.00. I'm going to glue a few shells on the front and paint inside the shadow box. I bought a pack of wooden hearts for only $3.00 and will have guest write their names on them! I will have images of this after my wedding on a special blog post.

3. Paper Lanterns with Lights.
I found some paper lanterns for $11.90 (for 6 in a pack) and these lovely battery power lights that I'm going to stuff into the lanterns then hang them throughout the pavilion for a romantic and beachy feel.

4. Shell Aisle Runner.
I love Sea Stars. So I had to add them to my ceremony. I plan to have the sea stars line the wedding aisle. Each Sea Star only cost $1-3 dollars each and after the wedding I plan to use them for another project. * I was lucky enough to find Sugar Starfish's to use. These are very rare to find now because of the disease that's killing off the breed. I'm very blessed to have them for my wedding.*

5. Guest Favor Boxes.
I really wanted my guest to leave my Seaside wedding feeling loved and with some memory of the beach. I found these coral boxes for $4.99 (24 per pack), some Sand dollar "Sea Cookies" for $4.00 (a basket with 50-75), and this Jute $3.00. Inside the box I'm putting Sugarfina gummy tester packs $2.50 per pack. I'm going to tie the rope to keep the box secure and then glue a shell on top.

1. Supplies. Sugafina gummy tester, Jute, shells, and 2x2 gift boxes.

2. Once assembled the box I placed the gummy pack inside and decided on which shells will be insides the box and with on the outside.

3. This is how I visualized which shells will look best. I tied the Jute and then placed the shell options until I was satisfied.

The finished product! I mixed the shells and did some different looks but each box has 3-4 shells, 3 small square pieces of tissue paper in sea foam blue, and a Sugarfina gummy pack!

6. Cake Topper.
My Cake Topper cost under $5.00! The two wooden beach chairs were only $1.00 each, the paint was on clearance for $0.75 (the bottle had lost some paint), and the 2 shells I purchased in a giant jumbo pack and once I did the math the shells were only $0.75 each. I had some leftover wooden hearts and my sister wrote "Mr" and "Mrs" with some pens she had in a drawer. * The image below is the example I channeled when creating mine (I will post photos after my wedding) These are an Etsy set that's priced at $35.00 while mine is totaled to cost under $5.00* After my wedding I will post images of the finished product on a special blog post.

7. Dust the Sand Off Your Feet Brushes with Jars OR Jars for Silverware
This is a cute idea I found on Pinterest but I plan to make it 3x more budget friendly. I have some mason jars that I found at a thrift store for 5 cents each! I'm going to wrap some of the Jute rope from the other projects around them and glue a shell on the jars. I considered using these jars to hold the brushes in OR for Silverware holders! I found some brushes from dollar tree (obviously they were $1.00) but to add some extra detail I plan to wrap some of the Jute rope. I might even add a shell or two just for fun.

1. Mason Jar, Jute, and Tacky glue. Simply glue the Jute to the jar.

2. Added some beautiful medium- large size shells for the perfect utensil jars!

Other DIY projects
8. Food Trays
My family and I are preparing food trays and using our Sam's Club cards to get the food in bulk. We have some fun different style platters to display the food on and surprisingly a lot of the trays are from the dollar store! We're going to make custom style tooth picks with little shells glued on the tops and have a jar to collect all the shells afterwards for other projects.

9. Rentals
We plan to rent all the chairs, the arbor, and a few tables. My family is pretty amazing and said some friends will help set the reception up in exchange for a beer and snack. For the entire ceremony chairs, arbor, arbor decor it ended up being $600 (this was the most costly part of my wedding). After my wedding I will post images of the finished product on a special blog post.

10. Wedding bouquet
My mom and sister are going to help me create my wedding bouquet. The ceremony vendor is sending photos of what the arbor arrangements look like and we'll mimic the look. We did the math and this should cost no more than $25.00. After my wedding I will post images of the finished product on a special blog post.

After my wedding is over I plan to be 100% authentic with you all and show how much the wedding cost. I will pin point the most expensive parts for any of my brides-to-be that needs a good budget spreadsheet idea. Being straight forward right now... The most expensive part about my Destination Beach Wedding has been the rentals (like I said I will give a spreadsheet of the totals once the Wedding is complete!)