How we saved money on AD Decor and TIPS!! 😍

There were sooo many things that i wanted to add on for my wedding decor but we had a budget to stick to 😩 Initially i wanted to make the decor simple and just taobao everything but 3 months before my AD, i decided to splurge abit and strike a balance between price, impact and effort! This proved to be the best thing i did for my AD 🤩

1️⃣ Ballroom Aisle Decor & Photo Gallery by Vendor

Although buying from Taobao would be a lot cheaper, we decided to splurge on this considering the logistical arrangements to transport the items 2 way and the time and effort required for set up. Since the set up will be done by our Groomsmen/Bridesmaid, we didn’t want to tire them out especially so when we already have a tight schedule for our lunch banquet.

I got quotations from different vendors and eventually signed with GetHitched on the following:

- Aisle Decor: 10 floral hedges and 8 bubble lights for $870

- Photo Gallery: 6 two-meter photo banners and 6 floral hedges for $750

- Mirror welcome board: $80

They gave us a discount so we paid $1588 in total.

I also absolutely loved my aisle decor and the bubble lights created a very cosy ambience in the ballroom under the dim lighting, and i used the space for phototaking with my guests as well (loving things that serve more than 1 purpose!) As the reception area for MO’s oriental ballroom is quite spacious, my photo gallery was placed around the entire area, creating a museum kind of experience for guests to walk about and look at our PWS photos! Since we spent so much to take 2 PWS, we wanted to display all our photos too (read my previous posts on my PWS journey, link below!) 😌

2️⃣ Photo Table DIY

Since the quoted prices for the photo table ($388) was quite expensive in my opinion, we decided to go simple and DIY for <$100! The end results turned out so much better than what we expected.

Rather than the usual vase flowers, we actually put a long stretch of flowers at the back of the table to beautify the whole space, more impactful! Our guestbook was also done via WEDDING POST, where guests can write their well wishes on our photo cards that we received from our PWS and drop it in the mail! I loved this idea because i have 200 photo cards that would serve no purpose, but now i can put my them to good use and they can be easily stored at my house.

3️⃣ Solemnisation Aisle and Chairs Repurposed/DIY

We repurposed all 6 of our vendor’s photo gallery floral hedges for the solemnisation aisle, so it was technically FOC as we didn’t have to get additional floral hedges!

We only had to buy some floral sashes and “Mr & Mrs” sign on shopee for <$20 to make the chairs look less empty. Set up was easy and took less than 10 minutes. As my solemnisation ended within 15 minutes, i didn’t want to splurge a few hundreds on a floral arch or other decor and i was really happy with this arrangement! Low cost, low effort and impactful 😁

Tip 1 ✨: While contemplating whether to spend on AD Decor, think of whether they can serve more than 1 purpose! We chose to pay extra for our ballroom aisle and photo gallery because in addition to beautifying the space, we could take photos there with our guests! This made our photos much nicer too.

Tip 2 ✨: Always look for cheaper options but consider the non-tangibles like effort and time required to set up. Also if the groomsmen/bridesmaid are helping to set up, a mock up and tutorial would be helpful!

Tip 3 ✨: Consider the impact. For us, since everyone will be in the ballroom and looking at our march in, adding the aisle decor was impactful. However for solemnisation, we only had ~50 guests attending and for photo table, not everyone will have the time to see it so we chose to save on those!

Read more about my PWS journey!

Was it worth doing an Overseas PWS?

Our Taiwan PWS and Tips!

#wedding #weddingplanning #weddingvenue #weddingdecor