Since Friday evenings going into a weekend are traditionally celebrated with the “rehearsal dinner” part of the weekend, today we’re sharing a super cute one with lots of DIY tips you can take away for any planning you may be doing this year! Liz Banfield shot these lovely images for us.

Choose a “theme” or color palette for your event. Having a cohesive look with details like your printing materials, flowers, linen colors, will easily help give your event a custom feel. Even if you purchase some great stock paper buy enough for the invitations, menu cards, and dinner menus. There are so many programs and options for designing professional printing items and having them printed, so the splurge here would be the paper – look for kinds with design details already done.

Here, an inexpensive but bountiful mix of flowers (bought from a local wholesaler or farm) in a pretty color palette is so easy and lovely! We added details like gluing a dual layer of nice sturdy ribbon in complimentary color to dress up clear glass vases.  Wooden trays similar to these can be purchased at a craft store, and painted to match any color you can dream up.

We talked on Wednesday about how we sometimes use random ordinary elements in our designs- lining the trays with bulk bought millet to add some color and anchor the tented seating cards. Other items we’ve used are dried split peas (for green), and dried orange lentils.

This rehearsal dinner after party was held at Hibernian Hall in Charleston. An after party is a great way to cut costs, but include all of your guests. After a smaller dinner with immediate family and wedding party, this couple invited all of their wedding guests to join them in a larger space for cocktails and dessert.

We welcomed guests in the foyer by relocating a large table that was already on site in the venue. We covered it in glass cylinders with the same yellow millet and candles, colored vases with single stems, and smaller vases with monochromatic flower clusters, the mixture and slight variation made for a big impact.

Dress up (and give new life) to those inexpensive paper lanterns that everyone has in the garage!  We hung ribbon streamers with live flower heads affixed to them – so easy!!!