The single best budget tip to dramatically change the look of your wedding reception

So, you want the best, most budget friendly tip to completely change the look of the room?

First, take a guess what do you think it is? Flowers?  pahh!  As if!  (oooh haven't said that in a decade or so!)  Lighting?  Good, definitely good, but nope not the best.

Drum roll please....

brrrrrrrrrr.... (that's a drum roll in case you didnt know)


Linens!

Huh? Seriously are they that big of a deal?  Oh yeah!!  It's amazing how many clients I get that totally underestimate the power of changing the reception linens from standard white or cream to a color.  Yes I know, you venue includes that standard issue white/cream linen, so why should I pay to upgrade? 

First, it's actually not as expensive as you would think.  You can make a huge difference for as little as $10 or so bucks per table.  If you have a 100 people and 10 person tables, that's $10 bucks a table or total of $100 bucks.  If you have a $10,000 budget, that's 1%!!  Yes, 1% of your wedding budget, what percent are you spending on flowers??  See what I mean! 

 

Ok so obviously not horrible, but a little plain, right? 

But how about this??

        

See what I mean?

Ways to Save

Overlays- Instead of doing full linens, do a colored overlay.  I found these for purchase! PURCHASE!!  Not even for rent for $5.88 at linentablecloth.com

 

Sashes- If your venue has decent chairs, save on the cost of covering them completely and just dress them up and add some color with the addition of a sash.

 

I found all of the above for sale (again at linentablecloth.com) for $7.99 for a 10 pack, and depending on how many you order, as low as $6.93 for 10!! That's .69 - .79 cents per chair!!  Back to the example, for a 100 people that's $79 dollars.  For the same example of a $10,000 budget, that's .79%.

If you like this look,

. 

These are available on the same website for $6.59-$5.99 for 10, depending on how much you order.  Again, I'll do the math, that's only .65-.59 cents per chair!  

One final note to think about, when you buy these sashes on your own, most venues will also make you tie them on your own.  So unless you have a lot of cousins with extra time on their hands running around, it may be money well spent to rent them through your venue, which usually includes the cost of tying all of them!!