Champagne taste on a beer budget? Yep! That’s me. And although I was working on a budget for our big day, I wanted to create an elegant, romantic feel for our wedding reception. Here are the affordable wedding decorations we used at our reception venue.

Photos by Elizabeth Carrie Photography

You don’t have to spend a ton of money on decorations to create a romantic wedding reception. (And you don’t have to DIY either!) Once you’ve decided on a theme, there are lots of ways to find affordable decorations. I found a lot of ours at antique stores or on Amazon for a great price, including these LOVE balloons, which cost less than $10!

One of the main things I focused on when shopping for decorations was picking versatile pieces we’d be able to repurpose as home decor later on. This meant decorating our reception venue with things like antique glass vases, dessert platters and gold picture frames.

For our guestbook, I used our favorite engagement photos to create an album on Shutterfly for about $40. It now makes for a sweet and sentimental coffee table book filled with our favorite pictures and notes from our guests.

My family and I had fun picking out pretty mismatched platters like the ones above to use for our desserts. Doing this not only matched the romantic, whimsical theme of our wedding, it also saved money. We were able to find an assortment of platters from antique stores, hobby stores and online retailers like Etsy, rather than buying expensive matching platters from a home store.

Romantic, Budget-Friendly Wedding Decorations

You can create your own romantic wedding reception with the elegant decoration ideas below. I’ve rounded up everything from dessert platters to centerpieces to cake toppers that will be perfect for your big day. If you’re looking for even more ideas, some of my favorite places to shop for affordable wedding decorations are Amazon, BHLDN, Target and Etsy.