Ikea, home of moderately priced Swedish goods

After I solidified my wedding vision, I began searching for the decor I needed. Shepherd’s hooks were first up. These bad boys are not cheap. 36″ hooks would be the best bet for us, and the cheapest I found them was around $7-8 plus shipping. We needed twenty; our decor budget skyrocketed without buying any real decor. Eventually, I gave up on the shepherd’s hooks and moved on to the other stuff.

Lanterns were next. I stumbled across www.save-on-crafts.com and was pleasantly surprised by their reasonable prices. They offer several types of lanterns, so I had to decide what kind we wanted. Why must so many choices be available for every single wedding decision? My hair hurts. I need a glass of wine. Back to Pinterest. A fellow Pinner’s board had these delightful lanterns. Finally, the heavens opened, and this lantern spoke to me: “Lisa, your search is over. I shall be your wedding decor.” Hallelujah. One decision down. And as a bonus, these are $3.99 a piece.

Now to flowers. I love the galvanized tin with flowers and ribbon and shepherd’s hooks. Oh, wait. I nixed the hooks. The pew photo also makes me wish we were getting married in an ancient brick church with creaky wooden pews.

For the actual flowers, I knew that roses would be our main flower. More on that later. Shore Chic and Save on Crafts both had these tins for $4-5 each. Since our lanterns were already coming from Ikea, I meandered to their site and found several small tin flower containers. Sadly, these didn’t have handles or hooks, but they did only cost $0.99. Sold.

Now to Ikea.

Yes, Kate. Ikea. Problem: the great state of North Carolina has exactly one Ikea in Charlotte. Mac’s car was due for inspection in March, so we had to go to Northern Virginia anyways. Luckily, Ikea had plenty of stock of lanterns and flower containers. We purchased ten of each (along with some Swedish pancakes and other crap we don’t need) and headed for checkout. All in all, our Ikea wedding decor cost about $50. Our total Ikea purchases totaled over $100. Whoops.

But this was not the end of our decor purchasing. Mac and I have taken to shopping for groceries at the commissary on Fort Bragg. One day, we stopped in the PX (essentially a Wal-Mart type store) next door. For reasons I don’t recall, we wandered out to the garden section (I think I was looking for veggie garden makings). Dost mine eyes deceive? Could it be? 36 inch black shepherd’s hooks? Priced at $4.99? Too good to be true. We grabbed all seven at this PX and headed across post to the other PX (Fort Bragg is rather large). The other PX had eight more, so we walked away with 15 total. While we needed twenty, we weren’t too concerned. Mac’s mother works on Fort Belvoir in Northern Virginia and could pick up the last five.

Any of y’all find wedding decor in such a manner?