Wedding Reception Budget Advice

by Lauren Carter
(perth WA)

Hi, My name is Lauren and I have a very tight budget for my wedding. I only have $9000 to spend.

I have hired a hall for the reception to make it cheaper and have chosen teal blue and hot pink with white as my wedding colour scheme.

I’m hiring caterers to set up a sit down buffet meal. I’m not sure how to set up my colour scheme at the reception.

I’m having trouble with centerpieces and bommeries as well. Do you have any advice on how I can pull this whole thing off for my budget and how to start planning this with only six months to go?

I’m so stressed out please help me.....thank you.

Our Thoughts

Lauren, congratulations on your engagement. What an exciting time for you both! Congratulations as well for getting some of the bigger ticket items off of your plate.

The reception space and the caterer are typically your bigger priced items within your overall wedding budget, so you are already ahead of the game.

Always remember to begin with the five essential wedding elements (attire, invitations, flowers, cake, and favors) and see where you can, or should, add more color.

When it comes to working with multiple colors within a scheme, you have to choose one color to be your “hero” or lead wedding color. So if you are in love with hot pink, make it your dominant wedding color to run throughout your wedding.

Go to local rental companies or online rental services and gather pricing for hot pink linens. You will be amazed how affordable basic poly-cotton colored linens can be, and they really help make a great splash on the tables at the wedding reception.

Make sure that you include linens for your buffet, gift and cake tables and any other smaller tables you may need as well. I would go with basic white for these since they are lower in price and will help break up the amount of color in your reception space.

If these are too much for your budget, get white table linens and go with hot pink and teal blue linen napkins instead. Search online for fancier napkin folds and make one whole table with all pink and one with all teal. All the color will look fantastic.

Your wedding centerpiece is where you can tie all the colors together. If you go the route of florals, make sure to include more teal blues and blues flowers with some pink shades as well to help bring the table design together.

Hydrangeas come in fabulous shades of blues and hot pinks. The bridesmaid bouquets and boutonnieres can also reflect this choice as well. They do not need to be exactly the same as the reception florals; they can be a softer or more vibrant variation of this scheme.

If florals are too costly, think out of the box and perhaps have a battery lighted paper lantern as your wedding centerpiece in hot pink with a teal blue thick ribbon underneath it running the length of the table.

You can make up your own dinner menu cards that can be printed on white with teal blue and hot pink borders. Think about adding hot pink and teal ribbons to your cake as a design element.

The possibilities are endless. Once you open the idea gate and your creative juices are flowing, the sky is the limit!

I hope this helped get you in the right design direction! Enjoy and have a fabulous event!

Regards,
Danielle