Bridesmaid Proposal
Saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it was cute, so I did it for fun and gave it to my bridesmaids! (even though they had all agreed already haha). Did a watercolour effect on paper, snipped off some artificial flowers and tied a loose knot with yarn. I like how it looks like a small bouquet that bridesmaids hold on the wedding day.
DIY Decor
Most of the decor you see here can be rented! You can reach me by e-mail or Carousell :)
Wedding decor is so expensive, I was quite shocked by the price lists I received from decor companies. E.g. $1000+ for reception table decor alone. After looking at decor companies and even Carousell packages ($500+), I decided to buy the items and put my reception table decor together myself. I was also going to re-use the decor for my second day of wedding celebrations, so it didn't make sense to pay twice to rent.
For the Welcome Sign, I bought an easel from Bras Basah Complex and a wooden board from Artfriend. I painted it dark brown and my friend Carol helped with the calligraphy. The flowers and leaves were attached using a hot glue gun.
WHERE TO SHOP
1. For Fabrics - if you're looking for a table runner like mine above, you can check out Arab Street. I bought mine for less than $5. There are plenty of fabric shops there, and the owners are mostly friendly. Tip is to let them know you are looking for table cloth, and not cloths for clothes-making (which start from $20/m). Look out for the bargain racks outside the store too!
2. For flowers - I bought some flowers from The Green Party (you've probably seen it but didn't know it was called that. There's one at Plaza Singapura) and lots of flowers and leaves from Kaisen (JB Paradigm Mall). I spent around $50 at the latter. Buy extra if you want to avoid an extra trip down!
3. Vintage Props/Geometric frames & terrariums - Carousell and Ezbuy Prime. I would recommend Ezbuy Prime for this, because glass is expensive and I spent around $90 in shipping before I signed up for Prime. I almost had to pay $100 shipping for one $20 item alone, but the customer service kindly helped me change it to a different form of shopping.
After going through the process, price-wise I think it would be cheaper to rent than to purchase all of your own items. Including shipping, I spent around $400+ in total on the Reception Table decor. To benefit budget brides, I've priced all the items at a cheap price (e.g. $75 for the rose gold package), and rentals are for up to 5 days so you don't have to worry if your wedding celebrations are more than one day :)
Props all ready for rental!
Other Random Things I DIY-ed
Having a hot glue gun is useful for DIYs - I bought mine from Qoo10. I used some of the extra flowers I had to decorate a wooden hanger (to hang my wedding gown) and a plain flower crown I bought from Taobao (before this it only had leaves and berries). I used this crown for my PWS, and my Maid of Honour ended up using it on the wedding day as she forgot hers! (photo below, on my left).
Things NOT to DIY
I considered, but thankfully gave up on, the idea of DIY-ing my wedding party flowers too. I realised it would be too stressful because I would only be able to buy the flowers the day before (to maximise freshness). From the trial I did, I realised it takes a long time to de-thorn and cut them to size. I was already tired after that and hadn't even started trying to arrange them into a nice bouquet. Plus, you won't know for sure if the store will have the flowers you want on that day, as most won't let you order such a small quantity in advance. Considering that you'll probably not want to take the risk and stress over this the day before your wedding (and it's not that cheap at the end of the day), it's not really worth saving money on. If you are still keen on doing it yourself, you can visit places like Tiong Bahru market and GG Fresh Flowers. If not, I highly recommend checking sweet.as.cosmos out on Carousell - you can get beautiful bouquets for a reasonable price!
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