Budget Bride Series: Top 3 Places To Save Money On Used Wedding Decorations
Hello fellow bride-to-be! Budget bride here.
Recently, I realized that you can buy really awesome stuff on Facebook Marketplace. We went to our friend's, Sarah and Brian, house for dinner and they had the most gorgeous tufted dining room chairs that they got at a super bargain price. I was so surprised because I didn't think people actually used the Marketplace successfully. How wrong I was!
So for the last few weeks, I've been looking on the Marketplace here in Denver every couple days for wedding decor. I ended up finding a gal selling her mint condition wooden calligraphy table numbers 1-12 that she bought off Etsy for $60 with shipping, now re-selling for only $25. I only needed 8 table numbers so I priced it out with the shipping and it would have cost me $42.60 if I bought them brand new. So I knew I found an awesome deal!
I asked her if by chance she had any other signs available for sale. She showed me her Mr & Mrs chair signs but they had a big glob of glue on the bottom left corner where her florist glued a pretty flower. I had no problem with that and would have totally paid her for them because I could just glue my own flower in the same spot. But without hesitating, she said she would include them for free as she said she was going to throw them away anyway.
As I mentioned, I only really needed about 8 table numbers, so I priced them and the wood Mr & Mrs chair signs on Etsy. With the shipping for everything it would have cost me $64.40 to buy them all brand new.
Last week, I picked the signs up from her. Then rushed to Hobby Lobby with my 40% off coupon and bought a pretty 2 stem flower for 5.99 (regularly $9.99). I clipped off the flowers as close to the bottom of the bud as I could get and glued it right over the ugly glue glob.
All said and done the whole project cost $31. That is one heck of a deal if you ask me! Chris and I are so excited for these gorgeous wedding signs and that we have 2 more items marked off our wedding to-do list! I'm officially a FB marketplace fan!
This was an amazing wedding win for me! So this got me thinking about other awesome places that us budget brides could find used wedding decorations to help us create the wedding of our dreams!
Here are my top 3 places to find used wedding decorations:
1. Facebook Marketplace - When you go to the Marketplace, you will see a search bar at the top of the page on both the app and on the website. What I did was type "wedding" or "wedding decorations" into the search bar, then scrolled through. Once you find an item that you like, you can send a message to the seller from the FB website or if you are using the FB phone app, you can message the seller or you click the "make offer". You may be able to offer that you think is fair and they just might give you an even better deal! Don't forget that later on down the road, you too can use the Marketplace to re-sell your wedding day decorations that you no longer want! Win-win!
2. Craigslist - This probably deserves to be in the #1 slot because depending where you live, you can find a TON of wedding decorations that are being re-sold in a variety of styles from rustic to glam and everything in between. When I looked at Denver's Craigslist, I found so many more decorations than I found on the Marketplace. This is probably going to be my next wedding decor search spot obsession! This girl needs some gold sequin table runners at a really great price! Just make sure that the location of the items you are looking at are not too far of a drive from where you live. I ended up getting super excite about something I found but then realized it would have been a 2 hour round trip which made the item not such a good deal after all. Also, make sure you are safe when picking up an item, never pay for anything until you have the item in-hand, ask a lot of questions about the item, and just use good judgement when responding to a post that might seem too good to be true. Distance and safety should also be considered when using FB Marketplace as well.
3. Thrift Stores - This one might be a given but I think sometimes we forget about thrift stores when wedding planning starts taking over your life! After seeing gold dipped milk glass vases all over Pinterest and Etsy, I just knew I needed them for my wedding centerpieces. I definitely didn't want to pay top dollar for them because I already knew how cheap I could get milk glass from Thrift Stores. When I first opened my Etsy store, PicturesqueBrooklyn, I sold vintage glassware items that I would find at a really awesome Salvation Army in my neighborhood of Bedstuy, Brooklyn. When I stopped selling vintage glassware, I kept most of my milk glass because I love it so much!! I had a pretty good collection to start with around my home but since I needed a few pieces for each of my 8 table centerpieces, I had to seek out more which is where the thrift store comes in. Luckily here in Denver, we have a thrift store called Arc and it is AMAZING!! First of all, they are everywhere! Secondly, they usually have their items pretty organized so you can get in and out fairly quickly if you know what you are looking for. Thirdly, they are already priced well, much better than back in Brooklyn, and they have 50% off sales on certain color price tags all throughout the week and on Saturday they have a 50% off sale on at least 4 colored tags. I can usually get them from $3.99 to .99 cents which is a fabulous deal if you compare it to most Etsy prices and their shipping costs. I also want to mention that in no way do I want to take any money away from other Etsy sellers but this budget bride would rather save money on centerpieces that no one will remember and use it on something that means more to us such as a great photographer and videographer! Most every city has at least a Salvation Army or something similar, so I suggest you take a trip to your local thrift store to see if anything strikes your fancy! You seriously never know what awesome wedding decor or ideas you might find!
I have heard on wedding forums from other brides having success finding used wedding items such as the OfferUp app, NextDoor App which is a community forum based on your home address, and Tradesy. So you can check those places as well!