Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland…

I have been busy behind the scenes down here prepping for our Annual country village ball which is coming up in about 6 weeks time. I have never been on a Ball committee before, but it’s been great fun pulling together some ideas and seeing them become a reality and being part of a team again. Not to mention the fact that we meet every Monday night at 5.30 at the pub which excludes me from the danger/feral zone at home once a week. Being such a small town we have little to no budget to put together a fabulous evening so we are having to get quite creative with the decorations.

This year the theme is “Winter Wonderland” seeing as it’s going to be in the dead of winter and seeing as we are raising money to heat our hall it’s going to be nice and “wintry”. Perfect right? Our ideas so far are a little “enchanted forest” a little “woodlands winter creatures” with colours being green, white and brown only. We have 13 tables of 10 to decorate and quite a big space to make intimate and well, enchanting.

Here are some ideas I have pulled from Pinterest over the past week:

We probably won’t have too many flowers as they are an expense and we are focused on lots of bare, wintry branches instead. And the main theme I got from above is “have a shitload of candles” but have you got any hints or tips to give us to make this all come together? And as I said on little to ZERO budget? 
I knew you would, thanks!

Comments

  1. These might work for some table decorations…

    http://www.marthastewart.com/273254/snow-globes

    Baby food jars are great for tea lights too…you can glue tissue paper on the outside for a soft glow, or not…

    Tin cans punctured are beautiful too…
    http://www.homeandgardenideas.com/crafts/metalworking/projects/how-make-tin-can-lantern

    That’s all I can think of for now…

    Wait…would you be able to have lots of candles at a ball or is that a fire hazard or something?

    White fairy lights in bare branches perhaps?

    Sounds like lots of fun!

  2. What about that coffee filter cover over lights or if you go on Pinterest there is heaps of stuff with coffee filters..
    http://pinterest.com/tvanlent/filter-it-coffee-filter-crafts/

  3. Check out this post for a 30th b’day party. I love how they have used wood to make cake platters etc. You could do that at no cost just time, I think it looks classic and would suit perfectly in your ‘natural’ style. http://thenatos.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/emilys-30th-birthdaypool-party-she.html

  4. Oh I love a party…..

    I have seen glow stick put in balloons to make lights (easier and safer than flames. You could use white/silver/pearl balloons and hang off the bare branches. You could also use popcorn string, it would be snow like and cheap. You could use it on the bare branches.

    Think hessian bags and cotton twine too – cheap, natural and could be used as placemats, around vases, to tie cutlery, around wine bottles etc.

    Glitter always says winter too. In fact you could spray paint a couple of the bare branches white and put glitter on them….just to mix it up.

    Good luck

  5. Beth, I can’t WAIT to see what you pull together!

    Get everyone in your town to give you all their jars, & hang them from Wintery branches EVERYWHERE!

    Fill with candles from the reject shop.

    Will be brilliant xx

  6. Are you doing place card holders? These little log ones look cool and once you got going with a power saw probably wouldn’t take too long to knock over.

    http://www.etsy.com/shop/MonkeysOnTheRoof

  7. Lots of bare branches painted white and sprinkled with silver glitter always look effective. x

  8. How do you all find these things? I’m loving all these ideas but esp the tin can holes with candles. We did long tables rather than separate tables for our school event. Meant people spoke to more people than just their little table. Can’t wait to see your pics…..

  9. Don’t forget the Martha Stewart tissue paper pompoms – they look gorgeous en masse and so easy – you could do white, silver and icy blue. And there must be something you could do with paper doilies – they’re really cheap to buy and they look snowflake-y- you could spray them silver and glittery and make some kind of garland with them ..

  10. This all looks so pretty. Country balls are lots of fun, you’re gonna have a great time. Can you ask around to borrow people’s white xmas fairy lights? They’d look pretty strung up in branches etc too. Enjoy it all!Have you got the cleaners booked for the next day?

  11. A wedding I went to a while ago had table decorations of recycled glass jars of all shapes used as vases. Empty jam, mustard, oil, vanilla, food colouring, all sorts of jars, washed and with the labels removed. The bride had everyone she knew collecting them for a couple of months before the wedding. They had flowers in them but maybe people would donate foliage from their gardens if not flowers? Or just little twiggy bits and pieces?

  12. Sticks, twigs and Autumn leaves spring to mind lady. It sounds like it’s going to be delightful. Can’t wait for the pictorial on that one! xo

  13. Lots and lots of fairy lights! You can pick them up from places like the reject shop for next to nothing. I love the idea of bare branches and leaves and pine cones and anything else you can find, sprayed white with glitter. Cheap white table cloths – cheapest material you can find at spotlight. Don’t sew around the edges, it adds to the rustic, elven winter wonderland.

    God I love Pinterest! Goodluck

  14. Bare branches roughly sprayed silver (so you can still see bits of branch through) and then put in a glass vase with a white/silver ribbon around it looks great for a winter theme. I love the balloon idea above though!

  15. Lisa laird says

    Are people booking by the table? I ‘ve been to a couple of events in the US where each table group was invited to design and deliver their own themed table. You could provide the basic background tablecloth and a prize for best dressed table. Then you can direct resources to the rest of the room.

  16. we have a ball here every year (in western queensland) and also run on a limited decorating budget. Lots of bare branches, fishing wire, recycled glass bottles (get everyone to save them starting now!) and 9 hour tea lights from the Reject Shop. If you can hang stuff, suspend bigger branches with small bottles and candles hanging from them (firmly secured of course) or bung bare branches in a big old coffee bottle as centrepeice of the table, with more bottles and candles running down the table. Natural hessien table runners over white tablecloths. Deep green paper napkins. Fairy lights draped or even running overhead to give a lovely sparky (and wintery) feel – or even wind around suspended branches. There is nothing nicer than walking into a room and seeing it lit by candlelight and fairy lights.

  17. Anonymous says
  18. What about something like http://pinterest.com/pin/210684088788215371/ with white cupcakes?

Leave a Reply to Mama of 2 boys Cancel reply

*