Wedding Blog

Many bridal retail stores I’ve gone to lay on the sweet stuff: they do everything they possibly can to make me feel like I’m a princess who deserves to spend a lot of money on wedding paraphernalia because it’s my one big day. Being treated like royalty is all very nice, but I would much rather trade the glitz of shopping at the traditional bridal store in exchange for a more reasonable deal.

In searching for certain wedding accessories, such as aisle runners, ring pillows, toasting glasses, garters, and unity candles, I was blown away by the prices some places were demanding. Who in their right mind would ever pay $50 for a candle? And yet, I saw girls snapping up some of the unity candles for that price, though it was a plain white candle with crystals stuck in every few inches (could have so been DIY’d!). I determined that I would not do the same, and set off towards the places I knew I would be able to find the same items, for a price I would be happy to pay.

First stop: the far-from-glamorous Big Lots. Here, I picked up a couple of lead crystal taper holders for the grand price of $.88 each.

Second stop: Ross, where I bought a crystal pillar candle holder for $5, and a large pillar candle for $4. At this rate, I could buy real Swarovskis and duplicate the $50 version for less than ‚¼ of the price. Eh, we’ll see¢¢â€š¬¦ haven’t quite figured out what I’ll do to decorate it.

Third stop: Yankee Candle Company. Okay, so this isn’t a discount store, but I’d heard bad things about going with cheaply-made taper candles for the unity candles (horror stories of the candles almost burning all the way down by the time the unity candle part of the ceremony came around). So, I picked up a pair of nice-quality, evenly-dipped ivory candles for $3.

Fourth stop: Mikasa Outlet. I came out with a pair of stemware for $8 each ¢¢â€š¬” just enough to make sentimental me feel like I invested in something nice instead of grabbing some random glasses, but not enough to make me feel bad about it.

And stop number five: Ebay, where I won a fairly nice cloth runner for about the same price as one of the cheap plastic ones, reminiscent of disposable tablecloths, would have cost. With such a large wedding, and the assumption that the guests will be going up the main aisle after the recessional to exit, I felt I had to go with something a little more sturdy. A DIY project for this is most definitely in the works¢¢â€š¬¦ because Miss Plumeria <3’s DIY!

[Image below from Ebay]