A bit of background behind the wedding...The bride wanted a simple affair, Erin was very budget conscious. Her Bridezilla mother had other ideas and hired a wedding consultant that had dollar signs in her eyes. So I got caught in the middle when Erin asked me to plan her low budget wedding, my not being aware of Bridezilla Mom's hired wedding consultant. The war of the wedding consultants was on!
invitations
I quickly discovered Erin had champagne tastes on a beer budget - but that was okay, that was my forte. It just meant I'd have to do more DIY myself to keep costs down. Erin wanted white, light blue and silver as her colors and she only wanted 25 select closest friend guests at her wedding.
Living where it's winter 9 months out of the year it was inevitable I'd do several Winter Wonderland parties - and also one Winter Wonderland themed wedding.
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I'll bring you both on this page.
The outside of the card was silver glitter stock. Since she was planning on 25 guests, I bought 2 packages for $16 so I was sure to have enough.
For the inside of the invitation and the snowflake pattern on the front I bought a ream of 28 lb. white computer paper - $25.
I bought pale blue 3/9" satin ribbon for the bow from my local fabric store - $4.
Craftbuddyusmt3 40mm Metal Diamnte Snowflake Wedding Invitation Cardmakingtopper for $5.50 completed what I needed for Erin's invitations.
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I cut the snowflake pattern on the front on my Cricut and glued the remainder of the 28 lb. white paper (cut to size) on which I'd printed the wedding information and glued that to the inside of the invitation.
A portion of the ribbon back got glued to the glitter paper, then wrapped around to the front to make the bow. I glued the crystal snowflake toppers to the ribbon.
Erin's invitations ended up costing $2.02 per invitation and she loved them.
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You can do a cheaper version for a Winter Wonderland party or if you don't have a Cricut. Buy paper larger snowflakes at the dollar store - 1 per invitation. Fold each one in half. Glue 1/2 of the snowflake to the front of the card, the other 1/2 to the inside front of the card.
staging & props
Everything on Erin's cake wall was recycled or repurposed from my Winter Wonderland party, with the exception of the tea light candles (Family Dollar around $15) and obviously, Erin's wedding cake which had already been ordered and paid for before Erin brought me on board.
I actually had to laugh at the look of shock on her face when she asked me how much that entire display cost and I told her "About $15".
​The one thing I did need to do was borrow one heck of a lot of silver, white and blue tree ornaments from family and friends.
Erin had looked through my ideas binde4, saw the pic at left and fell in love with it - especially the blue Santa. She wanted a blue Santa! Until she priced them at over $300 apiece. It looked like she was about to cry when she told me she wouldn't be able to afford her blue Santa.
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"Wait a sec, I have an idea," I said.
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When all else fails go to Kohls! At the time, this Santa was marked down to $182. I had a 30% off coupon as a preferred customer plus $40 in Kohl's cash. This brought the price of Santa down to $87.40. I bought Erin her blue Santa as a wedding gift.
It may not have been a sitting Santa but beggars can't be choosers and I knew how to get around that 'problem' by painting an old sled blue and white and piling silver, blue and white faux Christmas gifts on it.
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This left the rest of the wall to create. I repainted my corrugated fireplace white and filled it with white birch logs
from my woodpiles. For the snowflakes above the fireplace, I found a package of 24 assorted sizes white glitter snowflake ornaments for $13. I bought 2 packages for $26.
I did a lot of shopping for the beads but it paid off. I got strands of quartz-look beads wholesale from Jewelry and Findings and because I was a new client, I got a $110 off coupon on my purchase. So the bead strands cost me next to nothing, around $30. All that was left was the big white flowers. I made them out of white tissue paper. Tutorial here
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It took me a full day but I got pretty darned close to the picture. For the deer I used another of my white Christmas deer lawn ornaments.
I wanted one more item in the photo that I didn't have - a nutcracker statue.
I couldn't find any reasonably priced blue and white ones but my friend found one in Big Lots and I decided I'd just repaint it!
Erin gasped then began crying when she saw the wall, saying she never thought I'd get it looking just like she wanted it and so much like the photo.
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We only staged two walls so that guests had plenty of room to move around within the venue.
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On to the tablescapes...
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I've learned often less is more if you're going for a classy look on a shoestring budget.
The venue was providing the white tablecloths, chair covers, silverware and glasses. Erin and I weren't happy with their dinnerware so went to rental shops until we found the perfect dinnerware - silver chargers beneath light blue and white plates with a thin silver ring. They also had the napkins to match the dinnerware.
We also found the silver table runners and chair sashes to rent for the night.
I got silk blue roses, fabric painted the edges with just a touch of white, sprayed the leaves with silver glitter spray, then very lightly dusted the roses with glitter spray. We wired these to the backs of the chairs, to the chair sashes.
I found the tutorial for the favor boxes on Cricut My Way so made them myself. I also made the table tent name cards out of white cardboard printer stock and the remaining silver glitter paper from the invitations. The snowflakes were made on Cricut and I glued 2 small blue craft gems to the 2 snowflakes.
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All total, we came in at under $3000. Bridezilla Mom didn't believe it until Erin showed her the receipts attached to the expense accounting sheet I gave every client, showing just what I'd spent, where I'd spent the money and what I'd spent it on.
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I had to have a little "come to Jesus" talk with Bridezilla Mom but in the end she came around to our way of thinking and allowed Erin to have the wedding she wanted. And Bridezilla Mom grudgingly admitted everything we'd done looked beautiful and tasteful.
For a regular Winter Wonderland party I've also used a backdrop and made a snowman picket fence.
Tutorial here It's a great idea especially if your Winter Wonderland party is also a child's birthday party. You make the snowman fence the same height as your child and if you keep them year after year, the fence charts your child's growth. Or you can make the fence slats varying heights just for visual interest alone.
For one boy's Winter Wonderland birthday party, I had his mom take a photo of him pulling a sled and had a life sized cardboard stand up made of it/him that I placed behind the snowman fence. He thought it was about the coolest thing ever seeing a life sized stand up of himself. The background was just a winter photo backdrop hung on the wall.
Staging can be done very inexpensively - a lighted icicle curtain for under $19 hung behind drapes; chiffon fabric made into pocket drapes; 24 hanging icicle ornaments for under $14; a DIY corrugated fireplace painted white; a white furry rug if you have one, or you can buy one for under $19.
I've even used winter themed bedsheets as backdrops, "drapes" and/or furniture covers.
food/menu
The first thing I did was buy a set of 5 stainless steel snowflake cookie cutters for cutting not just cookies but sandwiches. $7
You can use them to make either hot or cold sandwiches. I paired grilled cheese snowflake sandwiches with a curry tomato rice soup recipe that both kids and adults said they really liked and warmed them up on a cold winter day. I'm not a big soup eater but I make this soup all of the time. I love it!
TOMATO RICE SOUP
1 cup chopped celery
1 small onion, grated
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/4 cup margarine
4-1/2 cups chicken broth
1 - 28 ounce can of tomatoes
1 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 cup rice
1/2 t. curry powder
DIRECTIONS:
Saute celery, onion, green pepper in margarine.
Add the chicken broth, tomatoes, salt, pepper, curry.
Heat to boiling, add cooked rice and simmer 20 minutes.
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So easy and quick!
INDIVIDUAL CHARCUTERIE BOATS OR BOXES
WINTER WONDERLAND SALAD Recipe here
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WINTER AMBROSIA SALAD Recipe with video here
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GARLIC PARMESAN CHICKEN WINGS Recipe here
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PEPPERMINT BARK Recipe here
Set up a hot chocolate bar!
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Here's a simple inexpensive Dollar Tree DIY hot cocoa bar.
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I also added hot apple cider with cinnamons sticks on the side to my cocoa bar.
activities
GUESS HOW MANY SNOWBALLS
You can use mini marshmallows, white gumballs, white mint candies or whatever you wish.
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The one who guesses closest to the number in the jar wins the game.
VISIT A WINTER PARK
We have a beautiful FREE Winter Park in my town that offers a variety of activities. You can't get better than a FREE Winter Wonderland party activity that offers a variety of choices for guests to participate in.
Similarly, many cities and towns have FREE public ice skating rinks to make a skating adventure out of your Winter Wonderland party.
Wrap up skating at your hot chocolate bar to warm everyone up.
CHECK YOUR COMMUNITY CALENDAR OF EVENTS
We used to have a fantastic event up here called Klondike Days that we went to for one Winter Wonderland party. Sadly, in recent years it was cancelled and has never resumed. But we all had an awesome time at it. There were sled dog rides and races, chainsaw carving competitions, an actual fur trapper camp set up and manned by 'fur traders', ice carving competitions and displays, horse drawn sleigh rides, a Living History 1800's encampment, ax throwing and log pulling competitions, panning for gold etc.
It was great fun and FREE to attend.
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Check for events your own community holds that are often FREE to attend and make them part of your Winter Wonderland party activities.
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Similarly, many cities and towns have FREE public icee skating rinks. Incorporate a skating party into your Winter Wonderland party as one of the activities.
After skating put your DIY hot chocolate bar to use for guests to warm up.
HAVE A SNOWSHOE RACE
You'll need 2 pair of snowshoes. They're expensive overall but here is the least expensive pair I found that will fit both adults and youth.
If you know someone who has snowshoes, ask if you can borrow them for your party.
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Set up a start and finish line and have guests snowshoe their way to the finish line. Award whoever wins a prize.
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This isn't as easy as it sounds if one has never been on snowshoes before!
GO SKIING
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For one Winter Wonderland party I had a bunch of skiiers so we went skiing, then back to my house for an after skiing dinner.
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Cross country skiing costs you nothing. (At least in my area it doesn't) and costs less than downhill skiing but I've done both depending on my guests' skiing ability.
For the downhill skiing, each guest purchased their own lift ticket.
WINTER TRIVIA CONTEST
Hold a winter trivia contest to test your guests' knowledge. Award a prize to the winner.
Here's 100 Winter Trivia Questions
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ICE FISHING FRENZY
Set up an ice fishing station with buckets of ice and magnetic fishing rods. Attach paper fish with point values to magnets, and teams try to “catch” as many fish as they can within a time limit.
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NORTH POLE NAVIGATION CHALLENGE
Teams embark on a navigation challenge using compasses and maps. Hidden winter-themed checkpoints are scattered around the area, and teams must locate them within a time limit.
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I put a geocaching twist on this, hiding caches of little prizes for each team member at each checkpoint.
This Pinterest page includes a variety of DIY projects for staging a Winter Wonderland party.