balloon themed bridal shower

A couple of weeks ago was the bridal shower for my sister-in-law and I was in charge of the decor. Having moved here almost a year, I didn’t own very many things that could be used for decor but I was ready for the challenge to do a budget friendly decor that also looked amazing. So, today I will walk you through the decor for a balloon themed bridal shower and what I did to keep this bridal shower budget friendly.

Venue: Originally, I hoped we could do the bridal shower at our house, because that would have no cost in terms of renting out space. But my sister-in-law really wanted to not do it at home, so we went with a community center. Community centers book pretty fast so make sure to book well in advance. The cost was reasonable, I believe it was around $30/hour and you can get an additional 2 hours to setup and cleanup. This is a budget friendly option for those of you who are unable to keep the bridal shower at home.
Theme: Okay, so for the theme, I decided to keep it pretty broad so went with a gold, pink and white theme, which is fitting for any bridal shower. By keeping a broad theme, it allows you to play with different decor styles and use whatever fits your budget. If I were to describe the actual theme of this party I would say it was a balloon themed bridal shower.
Decorating Items: I had a couple of ideas for decorating the space and keeping it within the theme and budget:

Use what you have at home: Collect any decorative items you have at home. These can include frames, cake stands, pretty serving utensils, vases, the list is endless. You can even ask your family and friends if you can borrow items. I used a bunch of frames and vases we had at home. I even used some pretty fabric we had to use as table cloth!
Use Balloons: Balloons can easily fill up a room. My biggest concern for this venue was the fact it was quite spacious! And balloons were the perfect answer. I bought a bunch of giant balloons that fit the theme in terms of color and design. I recommend searching for balloons online on eBay or Amazon, as these can be considerably cheaper than Party City (although they may take a while to arrive if you go for the free shipping option). Then you just need to purchase a helium tank to fill up the balloons! And they fit perfectly with the balloon themed bridal shower.
Make a flower wall: This option actually looked amazing and was very inexpensive to set up. You just need flowers and tape. I had wanted to purchase roses for the flower wall, but they were much pricier than carnations. I ended up using carnations (bought 36 in total) and that was more than enough to have a statement flower wall for the bride to sit in front of.
Buy decorative items at Value Village: Value Village has a ton of decorative items that are much cheaper than Home Sense or Winners. You never know what you may find, but I have yet to be let down by this amazing store! Use this store to find frames, candles, fake flowers, anything that will fit the theme of the decor.
Buy items online: By buying on eBay or Amazon, you can get a lot of things for much less than compared to stores like Party City. The online disadvantage is if you want free shipping the items take over a month to arrive. You just need to plan in advance to save some money.

4. Photo Booth: A party is always made more fun by taking a lot of pictures with your friends and family and a Photo booth is the perfect way to force the guests to take pictures. Usually for a photo booth you need a backdrop and a camera setup. I talked about setting your own photo booth for a wedding here where you take pictures and they are instantly printed out for the guests to keep on a 4×6 printer sheet. However, for this bridal shower, I did something a bit different. I bought a Polaroid camera Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Instant Film Camera (White) and a bunch of film. You can purchase film on Amazon or eBay in bulk to save on cost (as in stores it is a bit more pricey). I just laid it out on a table for the guests to use to take pictures. The backdrop was simple. I purchased a bunch of balloons in various sizes and colors along with some gold streamers to create a balloon backdrop. I just used helium to fill up the balloons and arranged them in various sizes for the backdrop.

Now for some photos of how everything turned out! I’ll be sure to link whatever I can down below so continue reading!

This is a picture of the flower wall. We put this pretty chair in front along with a giant ring shaped balloon. I was pleasantly surprised and happy with how this turned out!

These frames and vase were items we had at home. I just bought this mirror from Home Sense and used a white sharpie to write a message!

Here is a better shot of the entrance table. These giant LOVE balloons I found of Amazon and the table cloth was fabric we had at home already!

The photo booth table. Guests took pictures with the Instax Mini 8 camera and taped the printed photo with some washi tape onto a beautiful floral guestbook for the bride to keep.

For the dessert table, I found this skid on the side of the street and painted it white. Then I just placed this love balloon in front. One of my favorite parts of the bridal shower, although the picture doesn’t do it justice (Gursheel didn’t take this picture).

Minus the garbage bin on the side, this was the balloon backdrop for the photo booth. Instead of purchasing weights for the balloons, I filled some empty balloons with sand. Easy! I hope you enjoyed this budget friendly guide for decorating for a balloon themed bridal shower.