DIY Ideas for a Budget Bride Wedding

I ordered freeze dried rose petals (they won't stain or cause a slippery mess, plus they keep for a long time) to scatter for decoration and to use for the just married toss. Fresh petals are lovely, but are more expensive and harder to keep looking good.

Try scattering petals in some unexpected areas like the parking lot. No need to go through a florist, this is an easy DIY decoration. Wholesale flower companies sell over 3,000 freeze dried rose petals for just a little over $100. Keep reading for some company recommendations.

Photo used under Creative Commons from magnusfranklin.

This was my biggest DIY undertaking. I ordered bulk red carnations to make pomanders from Grower's Box. The pomanders were set atop a spray painted silver clay pot and used to decorate the aisles of the ceremony site. These were a lot of work and took a team of 4 of us about 3 hours to produce. They looked amazing and were carried from the ceremony to the reception site to do double work as decoration there, then we sent the flowers home with guests as a prize. People loved that! Can't beat triple duty wedding decorations. I like carnations and choose them for their hardiness, but you could use almost any flower with a good stem like roses or Gerbera daisies.

In this picture you see a cluster of pomanders sitting in their transport box. 3 trays of red carnations that held guest seating place cards. And a large basket of petal cones filled with freeze dried petals for the toss. All stored in a room with the air conditioner down low waiting to be taken to the wedding the following morning.

A very simple DIY and fun centerpiece is to float gerbera daisy heads in a bowl of water. Remember to leave about an inch of stem as an anchor and always use a knife or shears, not scissors to cut the stems.

Photo used under Creative Commons from stu_spivack.