If you are planning your wedding on a tight budget or simply want to do something creative and friendly to the environment, then using repurposed items as wedding decorations may be something you should consider. The average household in America throws out tons of items each year because they are old, broken, or just out of style. This is quickly filling our landfills and costing us money. Most of the items you discard throughout the year won’t have a place in your home any longer. However, there are some very unique and inspiring ways that they can be altered to be fantastic wedding decorations. Here are a few of my favorite ideas that will help you repurpose those household items. These would otherwise be junk into priceless wedding day treasures.

Cupcake Stands from Repurposed Items

Rather than throwing out your old plates, vases, and candlestick holders, you can use them to create wonderful cupcake stands or serving plates for your wedding cake. Simply find some old plates that you would normally toss out and glue them to either a vase or candlestick holder. Likely, that was also destined for the trash heap. Instantly, you have some gorgeous and shabby-chic looking cupcake stands! Best of all, the only cost to you is a little hot glue and elbow grease.

Food Trays from Repurposed Items

Rather than forking out a bunch of cash for pre-made food trays, consider crafting your own from drawers from an old dresser. Normally, you would need to burn it or pay for the trash man to haul away. There isn’t much you need to do except place food inside the drawers. However, you can spend a little time dressing them up using pastel paints that match the color scheme of the rest of your wedding decorations.

Terrarium from Repurposed Items imageTerrariums from Repurposed Items

Instead of tossing out those old burned out light bulbs, you can easily turn them into a beautiful terrarium for your wedding guests to enjoy. Simply fill the light bulb with a tiny bit of soil, add a few succulents, and you instantly have a charming terrarium that is perfect for a centerpiece or an inexpensive wedding favor that your guests will adore.

Centerpieces from Repurposed Items

Rather than tossing out the corks from your wine bottles, start saving them ahead of time; and encourage your friends to do the same. Cork is one of the easiest to work with craft materials, so there are dozens of great uses that you can come up with for your wine corks. One of my favorite ideas is to fill an old vase with wine corks and flowers to be used as centerpieces on your reception tables. Cork has a neutral color that blends easily into any wedding theme. They can really add an elegant touch to an otherwise ordinary glass vase.

Paper Garlands from Repurposed Items

You can reuse old paper items and stationary to create paper garlands rather than sending them off to the recycling plant. Some of my favorite items to use include old roadmaps and greeting cards because they’ll give you a variety of different colors and patterns to create unique combinations. Just stack them up, cut them into fun shapes, and glue them together on a string for an elegant and customized look at your wedding.