Cheap is the new Beautiful.

Don’t take this title the wrong way…I’m talking about bargain prices for party decorations! J  My mom and my aunts recently threw me a baby shower (we are having our first baby girl in August…we have a 3 ½ year old boy and a 2 year old boy…this will be a new experience for us!), and the party turned out so beautiful.  We had so many compliments about how nice the decorations looked, and how well everything matched. And we are not ashamed to admit, many of the items that were being complimented came from garage sales or clearance racks!

This is a picture of my fire-place, all decked out in pink!  Although every one of the blankets you see is a gift handmade by my aunt Jeannie (the best blankets in the world! www.justduckieblankies.blogspot.com), basically the rest of the items you see are super bargains.  The clothes hanging on the clothesline (so cute!) are all from a garage sale, purchased by my mom, as well as all of the pretty baskets holding the gifts.  All of the little toys, bottles, etc. are from the Dollar General, my aunt Jeannie’s favorite store (and one of my favorites, too!)

They decorated the rest of the room with some of baby girl’s clothes from her bedroom…all three  of these items are garage-sale finds, and the outfit in the middle even had the tags on it when I found it!  I was so proud!  Can’t wait to see my baby girl in all of these adorable buys!

And last, but certainly not least, the dessert table!  Look how beautiful it turned out…and yet, we didn’t pay a caterer or buy expensive treats (my mom made the cupcakes and the cookies, my aunt made the mints, and I bought that lemon cheesecake ball at the Farmer’s Market…and everything was delicious!).  I think the candy jars make the table complete—and yes, they are all from garage sales!  I’ve been picking up every size and shape of these jars for the past couple years (prices usually ranging from 50 cents to $3), and now I have quite the assortment! They have come in handy for many parties, and when we used them for my cousin’s wedding last year, it was gorgeous.  Our newest find was a big white platter, similar to the one holding the mints in this picture, which we paid $3 for, and we are sure to use it many more times in the future!

I’ll keep this post short and sweet, no pun intended.  Just wanted to remind you all (and myself) that it really is possible to have a beautiful party without breaking the bank.  I had some wonderful helpers for this party, and I’ve had them for parties in the past as well, and every time we have a party, no matter what the theme or reason, we have people telling us we should go into the party-planning business.  Imagine that, showing up to decorate parties with garage-sale items!  Now there’s something to blog about!  In the meantime…if you know anyone who is throwing a party in the near future and wants a planner, you know where to find us! (seriously, we’d like to give it a try!)  Hooray for bargains!