My daughter in law and I began with decorating for my own wedding, and ended up doing the same for many friends and family members over the past four or five years. Along the way, we have picked up some super little time saving tips, some decorating ideas and wonderful online spots where you can find wedding decorating ideas, balloon tricks and places to find the best prices and values on decorating supplies to purchase online or in person.

One very pretty and interesting thing you can do with balloons that is inexpensive but looks extremely elegant is a balloon topiary tree.

This one was found online, and will give you an idea of what you’re doing.
For our own we wanted a more natural look and used sage green larger balloons and dark pink balloons done a bit smaller to resemble flowers on the tree.

For the tree trunk we used a dowel rod, covered in brown crepe paper wrapping.
We wired the green balloons together and then, taking ribbon, we used a length about five inches long to tie to the dark red, wiring the ribbon into the green balloons so that the smaller ones still came to the outside of the green.
We then wired in long stemmed pieces of babys breath between the balloons, and attached the whole balloon bundle to the top of the dowel rod.

Another super idea to use balloons for is the traditional balloon drop, where you tie bundles of balloons inside a large tulle net and when the string is pulled the balloons drop.

Our balloons were not the simple round ones, but instead we added to the dark red heart shaped balloons and comingled them with doves that we found at Balloon Maniacs. We used several of the mylar dove balloons to stand up with helium, and added a sprinkling of them using just air to fill for inside the netting.

Another easy setup using balloons is a simple archway, set up either over the brides table, or as the couple enter the room.
The archway base can be rented from nearly any bridal shop for a relatively nominal fee, then wound with ivy with baby’s breath interspersed among the ivy, and balloons added here and there randomly.

If you haven’t yet chosen your wedding colors, there are a few really good ways to accomplish that.
First off, of course, yours and your spouse to be’s favorites will be figuring strongly in the color choice. If they tend to clash, you might want to consider a third color that will balance them and when you do, select a neutral third color, very often you can use colors that don’t ordinarily go well together.

If you truly have no idea what you might like to use for your wedding, think about the time of year your wedding will be taking place to get some ideas from that.

Autumn weddings taking place outdoors might echo the seasonal colors of russet, deep reds and burnt golds, while a springtime garden wedding would be well suited with pastels and deep greens.

If you’re still at a loss, Brides.com offers us their wedding colors studio, where you can compare the colors, create your own combinations and find the perfect colors for your own wedding, anniversary party or reception.

For your tables, alternating the wedding colors on the table cloths and settings will work out very well and offer some variety.
If your colors for instance are burgundy and cream, use one cream colored table cover, while the next one would be burgundy, with the centerpiece picking up the opposite color of the table cover.

We purchased table coverings quite inexpensively as well as paper plates and plastic serving ware that coordinated in color from the card and party shop in our town. THe plastic table coverings were textured and although they were plastic they were remarkable fabric like in texture and the cost was just about forty dollars for enough to set up twenty tables.

Place cards for guest seating are easily accomplished using your own home pc and some software that is available to you from American Greetings, which helps you to make not only greeting cards, but also envelopes, place setting cards and signs and party favors.

What style fonts do you favor for your signs? IF you are making your own congratulatory signs, or thank you cards, the fonts are an all important part of that, and those can be found free of charge, including some super little ding fonts at The Font Garden where you can download and test them on your PC.

Finally, if you lack for ideas or imagination, or you are rushed for time and need a layout for your wedding setup, take a walk online to some of the more busy wedding sites, among them Brides.com or Best Weddings which offers you a gathering of the best wedding sites available on the web today.

You will also know that you get exactly what you want, using your own photos or designs, and specific style paper, in literally hundreds of colors, styles and varieties that are available from LCI Paper.

Unique and unusual papers are available now for your use in the invitation process, such as this Sukashi paper from LCI, that is white on white floral pattern Sukashi vellum wrapped around white invitation card that is a radiant glowing pattern.
THe printed text is able to be seen through the vellum pattern, making the overall style very elegant and formal.

This paper would be perfect for a wedding or any other formal event. When printed, the text can be seen faintly through the vellum pattern. This makes a perfect invitation for a wedding or other formal event.
For a less formal aspect of the wedding, you might want to consider some decorative papers such as printer paper weight to do some of those in the same font and decor as well, so that your tone and style match those of the wedding.

You will also want to purchase some deep brown or burgundy ribbon, or whatever color matches your invitations or wedding colors so that you can tie up the papers in style prior to putting them into the envelopes.

There are some great softwares that will assist you if you find yourself without ideas or the skills to make the design, that will help you to create the perfect wedding invitation and add it to your paper product.

The selection of font, paper and design are something that you will want to explore with, and experiment,and as such, you should put several sheets of regular paper into your printer and experiment on them, printing them to check for alignment of the image and design, as well as that you are printing the double sides correctly prior to beginning th printing of the actual project.