Wedding Season - Decorating on a Dime

First off...yearbooks came in today and ours are AMAZING.  As the yearbook sponsor I'm totally biased, but I'm telling you, these kids did a phenomenal job.  Just can't wait to show them off to the school in two Fridays (seems like such a long time!).  I'll post a pic of the cover when it's officially released to the public. 

Now, I know millions of people tuned in to the Royal Wedding.  I must admit, I DVRed it then fast-forwarded for highlights as I thought, "What am I doing with my life?  I must be crazy to watch a four hour program about one wedding.  Even if Kate looks stunning in the dress."  If it had been four hours of TLC's Say Yes to the Dress, I could have been convinced.

The kickoff to a summer of weddings makes me reminisce about my own.  July 12th will be my 3rd year anniversary!  It's amazing how the time flies.  I love you honey, even though you'll never read this!

So something you all might not know about me is that if I wasn't a teacher, I'd definitely start a wedding favor or decoration shop with my mom.  We made all the decor for my wedding and it looked far from cheap.  Our secret, of course, was that everything assembled piece came from the dollar store and lots of trips to Joanne's Fabrics for sales on ribbon.  I wish I had a great picture from the wedding to show you, but here are some examples of how far a little creativity can go.  You don't have to spend millions on your wedding like Will and Kate.  Obviously no one reading this plans to do that (if I may assume without offending anybody).
We made everything here...can you believe the candleholders are made of doll rods and medicine cups?  All that's missing on this place card is my rockin' calligraphy.

It was easy to curl the stems of these silk flowers from Hobby Lobby and hot glue strands of pearls on them.

We ordered 200 plain white boxes from a paper company online.  The best part was sitting with my mom at the table and chatting while we made our own unique designs on the outside.

Inside were netted bags of hershey kisses with a note on the inside lid that said, "Here are some kisses from the Mr. and Mrs."

This is a wishing well for cards, a tradition in our family weddings that was really important to my dad.  He made it, we decorated. 

I have my mom to thank for all of the above ideas and her creative inspiration.  That's why we need to start a shop!  Here are the things she thought of for my brother's wedding...I was only home to help with a few of these decorations.

On the back table are terra cotta flower pots with wire rods for flower stems and wooden heart frames at the top.  The circles in the middle of each heart was a pic of my brother or sister-in-law at different ages.

Would you think of upside down glasses for candle holders?  Mom, you're amazing.

Anybody have any neat tricks for executing the perfect wedding on a budget?