You’ve looked on Pinterest, pinned hundreds of wedding ideas, made dozens of Pinterest boards, but do you really know how much your Pinterest board ideas cost? A horrible wake up call for many brides is when they discover that the wedding florals, they want are at least $30,000. Which in most cases is a lot of brides' entire budgets. Or when the plates they like are $150 each which costs more than the food itself.

You can create a beautiful wedding design without having to spend $100,000. You don’t need 30+ floral pieces all around your venue for $600 each, custom wrapped dance floors, or custom plates at every place setting. All of those details are lovely but not needed to have a beautiful wedding. There are tips and tricks to spreading florals throughout your venue without having to spend $30,000 and plenty of other design ideas that are affordable but can still create an elegant space with a luxurious feel.

I want to share some of my favorite design ideas for any 2024 brides on a budget out there who can hopefully use some of these tricks to still get the luxury looking wedding they want. Doing proper research can lead you to success and prevent you from spending more than you have to. I want to show you ways to cut corners without it being obvious that you did so.

Thrifting your glassware

If you are that DIY bride and don’t shy from a little extra effort, then this would be a good project for you that can save you a lot of money. Thrifting these glasses are also a great takeaway gift if you do it correctly. Having your DJ announce to your guests that they can walk around and pick their favorite glass during cocktail hour and take it home at the end of the night guarantees that none of them will get left behind like a lot of other wedding favors do.

I mention thrifting glassware because most companies you can rent from want to charge a few hundred dollars for pink water goblets or multicolor ones. When you can just thrift them and use them as wedding favors at the end of the night killing two birds with one stone. Colored glasses always add a pop of color.

Plates

Don't pay to put a plate on the table at every place setting if that's where you need to cut a corner to save some $$$. Use a lovely charger that you either rented or purchased and place your napkin over it. You don't need to layer it with an expensive plate as well. You can get a complete look with the charger, napkin, menu, and name tag without having to pay for real plates too. Use plastic plates up at your buffet and your table shots will still look complete.

Flower Frogs

Hop on the new flower frog trend. Brides are starting to love the natural beauty and look of florals. Requesting that they look more whimsical and less structural. Flower frogs are a lovely way to achieve this look only requiring a small number of stems per piece. It is also way easier to get florals all the way down your tables, so every guest gets to have some in front of them. Rather than there being one large, elevated piece in only the center. It makes your tables look longer, and draws your guests eyes all the way down the table rather than to the center where the only floral piece is.

This style floral can be done with any color scheme. This can also be created to look more whimsical or more on the modern side. It can also be achieved with just about every flower.

Candles

Ditch the table runners and add more candles. We are seeing less and less of the table runners and people adding more candles and other decor. Going heavy on the candles is becoming more popular. Candlelight is gorgeous especially when the lights are dimmed, and your pictures are going to look more luxurious with the extra candles. Candles also are not an expensive decor item. You can get large packs of candles off amazon and also do some thrifting here on your candlestick holders.

Scented Candles

Elevate your wedding feel even more by purchasing some scented candles for every table. I have worked a number of weddings where the couple purchased scented candles and it changed the entire ambiance of the wedding compared to those who didn’t. It makes everything warmer and inviting and makes it even more enjoyable. Some venues also don’t always have the best smell or any smell to them at all.

Reusing Arch Florals

People always talk about reusing your ceremony flowers that line the aisle, but the same thing can be done with your arch flowers. Have your wedding planner take your florals off the arch and lay them over the sweetheart table to achieve the dramatic sweetheart table look with the huge flower overlays. Now you have carried on that expensive look over to your table as well for some lovely photos of your first dinner together.

This can be done during cocktail hour and no one ever knows. You just saved from having to purchase an extra floral piece as well.

Textured linens

Adding dimension and texture to your table is another way to elevate your wedding design. Purchase textured linens and don't rent them. There are more options than just the plain polyester white linen or spandex linen. Add some texture and dimension to these tables. A lot of these weddings you see on Pinterest are using these patterned linens or textured and you can’t find those with your local rental company, they also go and purchase these on their own. They are surprisingly affordable as well.

They also look great over your cocktail tables. Cocktail tables can often be a sore eye with the spandex covering or often times they will just look too plain. This could be another gorgeous feature in your wedding design to help elevate your cocktail hour as well.