Table Decor on a Budget

This last week I was in charge of the food for a women’s event at church.

The theme of the event was preparedness and food storage – the event was called “Stockin’ Up!”  There was a great guest speaker from Arizona who shared with us her method for storing food and being prepared.

Since we were unsure how many people would attend we decided to go with a dessert bar.  We did bar cookies because those would be easy to cut into smaller pieces if we had more people than we expected.  We planned on 200 and had over 350 people there so we quickly cut all the bar cookies in half and it worked great.

For a list of the bar cookies served and the recipes go here.

Of course we had a budget to work with for the event and bar cookies are great way to stretch your budget because you can cut them big or small. 

I also came up with a few fun ways to stretch that budget with the table decor.

One of my favorite things to use on a serving table is cake plates.  Not only are they pretty but they create nice height on the table.  So using the theme of the event – food storage  and stocking up I created my own cake plates out of canned food and other items found at the dollar store!

I used a combination of clear plastic and silver serving plates from the dollar store along with some canned food I bought there.  Our color scheme for the night was green and pink so I found some canned fruit with pink, green and yellow labels – perfect!

Because the plates were fairly lightweight we used some duct tape to attach the plates to the cans so they didn’t topple over when people reached to get a bar cookie  – thanks to my husband and friend Jeannena for figuring all that out for me!!

I always like to lay out the serving table with all of its serving pieces beforehand – to make sure that it looks good and the table is well balanced.

Of course a centerpiece of flowers in a large can added the perfect touch!  The flowers and the pink and green ribbon came from Costco and helped tie everything together along with the pink and green sheer pieces of fabric we already had from another event.

I also created little place cards in my Creative Memories Storybook Creator software that sat on little stands I found at the dollar store!!  I like to know what I’m eating!

The total spent on table decor was very little and was created mainly out of things from the dollar store!

Of course the table always looks prettier when it is full of food!

What’s your best budget saving table decor ideas?