Planning Our Wedding - Ceremony Accessories

One great bit of advice we received at some point was that you can get regular 40% off (and occasionally 50% off) coupons for AC Moore, Michael's and Joann's.  They are each valid for one regularly-priced item per visit.  All you have to do is sign up for their mailing lists, which I did on their websites.  AC Moore will actually e-mail you links to printable coupons every week.  You can only use one per customer per visit , but the great thing is that you can print as many as you want.  Sometimes my mom and I would each carry a coupon into the store and buy items with separate transactions, and sometimes I would keep printing coupons and visit a store more than once a week. 

Another great thing we learned is that the stores will accept each others' coupons, but only sale-flier coupons.  So, I regularly received e-mail coupons from AC Moore and sale-flier coupons in the mail from Joann's and used the Joann's coupons either for Joann's or Michael's.  It worked great.  :-)

These craft stores all have ceremony accessories like guest books, flower girl baskets, ring-bearer pillows, and unity candles in different styles.  They're all pretty, but for what they are, I think they are definitely over-priced.  Still, if that's what you're going for, I would definitely buy them at a craft store with coupons. 

At the end of the day, I did not end up using any of their accessories. We were planning on having five flower girls, and even with coupons, five of those little polyester-satin baskets would have been kind of expensive.  And our wedding wasn't going to have shiny satin and tulle; I was going for a different feel.  Instead, my mom and I found five little wicker baskets at the Christmas Tree Shop in Albany for only a dollar or two apiece, and I covered over the handles with some grosgrain ribbon and hot glue.  They still looked a little plain, so I glued on some dried lavender sprigs, but not all of them withstood the playing of little girls.  :-)    Still, I was quite happy with the overall effect. 

Instead of a pillow for the ring-bearer, I wanted to use a box, partly because I really wanted little John to actually carry the rings.  I'm not into pretending.  And he did!!  We used a little wooden box which my grandparents gave me years ago, and my John cut some of the velvet from the box the rings came in to fit inside.  Our little ring-bearer was just adorable, especially at the rehearsal where he cupped his hands the whole way up the aisle, carrying a pretend box.  :-) 

Neither John nor I was particularly attached to the idea of unity candles, so we skipped that entirely.  And for a guest book, I chose a little leather journal which my sister gave me a few years ago.  I don't think people minded.  On ceremony accessories, we most definitely saved money.