Paper Flowers As A Cheaper Yet Effective Form Of Decoration.

On a tight budget with an event to organize and decorate? Instead of spending heaps of money on expensive items, why not decorate using paper flowers?

One of my co-workers and I were in charge of the president’s reception for an association that we belong to. In the past this reception has been a lavish affair with open bar and appetizers. It was also by invitation. There were complaints by many of the members that this reception should be opened to everyone in the association.

The reception is held during the annual conference and marks the end of the president’s term in office. The committee that plans the conference told us that we needed to plan the reception as an open house rather than invitation. A flyer would be placed in the conference packets giving the details of time and place. The budget was already in place so we did not have any additional funds to work with.

The first thing we needed to do was find a room large enough to accommodate an open house. We contacted the conference center and were told that we could use the largest meeting room for the event. This room was already reserved for the conference so there would be no additional charge. Due to the timing of the last conference of the day and the time of the reception we would have an hour and a half to decorate the room and set up for the reception. We contacted the president to let her know of the change in plans for this year’s reception. She still wanted to provide food and drinks for the guests. My co-worker and I contacted a caterer and explained that we were on a tight budget to plan an open house. The caterer suggested going with a Mexican theme because this would be an inexpensive way to feed a large group of people.

We decided that we would decorate by using paper flowers in pottery planters. We both had pottery planters that we could bring. We bought inexpensive bright colored tissue paper to make the paper flowers. We wanted to make the reception as festive as possible; however the floral arrangements and open bar of past receptions did not fit into the budget. We recruited fellow association members to bar tend. We also decided that we would serve beer, wine and soft drinks free of charge and have a cash bar for other drinks. We also would put out a donation jar to help defray some of the costs.

The paper flowers would be the only decorations so we needed to make many of them to spread around the large room. We decided that we needed to enlist the help of our family’s in order to get this done. We got together on the Saturday before the reception and began making the paper flowers. These are made by folding several pieces of tissue together and then securing them with flexible wire. The tissue is then fluffed out to create the paper flowers. Having our children help with the paper flowers made the tedious task more fun.

The day of the reception we brought in the bags full of paper flowers that we had made. We created arrangements as well as spread them on the table tops. The bright colors added a festive feel to the room. Many people showed up for the open house and all seemed to enjoy the tight budget reception.

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