Budget-Friendly Valentine’s Day Party

First things first, invest in some standard chargers and nice plain dinnerware. It’s a good investment to have basic dinnerware because you can reuse them, pulling them out for every holiday or party event. We chose gold chargers and plates lined with gold because gold is both luxe and warm, and it works great for every holiday.

Next, we took a trip to our local fabric spot (yay, Jo-Ann Fabrics!) and found this adorable red fabric with gold polka dots. You might be hesitant to use fabric as a tablecloth, but it’s okay, we promise! Just place a plain fabric tablecloth underneath in case of spills and it’ll work great. The best part is that after your party, you can toss it in the washer and reuse it for another event or for a different craft.

To invoke the warm ambiance of the holiday of love, purchase some tea lights (we got our bulk batch from Ikea for five bucks) and cappuccino cups. For the cappuccino cups, we went to a Goodwill Thrift Store and found some for 69 cent each. If you’re one of those people who’s thinking “What? A thrift store?” while simultaneously shaking your head, shame on you! The thrift store has some GREAT hidden treasures just waiting for you to discover at a great value. Besides, anything you buy can be made new with a nice soak in the sink. Drop your tea lights in the cappuccino cups and boom! You’ve got yourself some cute table lighting.

To be totally honest, it is about time that we invested in some new lighting for our home. Moreover, along with some new ceiling lights for our dining room recently we have been thinking about buying some new external lights. You see, we love spending time in our garden enjoying romantic picnics and therefore installing some outdoor lighting would be a great way to ensure that we can stay out when the sun goes down.

Plus, did you know that external lights are a fantastic way to deter potential criminals? There have been a few burglaries in our area over the past year so we have recently updated our home security system. A lot of people find that installing external lights makes it easier to keep an eye on any suspicious activity outside and external lights also make it possible to capture better quality CCTV footage of any intruders.

We actually spent a lot of time researching home security systems such as these Verisure Smart Alarms before we found the right system for our needs, but I am so happy with the results. You can never be too safe after all! What measures do you take to keep your property safe and secure? Let me know in the comments as I am always looking for new ways to enhance the security of our home.

Anyway, we got our champagne glasses at the thrift store and–CHEERS to us!–they were inexpensive. Add striped straws from Target to the glass and create some easy tags for the straws. You can pick up a heart shaped cookie cutter and trace an outline of a heart. Cut it out, write down your guest’s name, and then punch a hole through it. Tie the tag to your straw for unique place cards.

To add an additional decor element, we went to Target’s dollar section. WE LOVE TARGET’S DOLLAR SECTION! There’s all kinds of cute little knick-knacks for the kids, the home and the holidays. We found plastic gems, which were made to go in the freezer and then to put in to drinks to make them cold. But instead of using them for drinks, we decided to spread them in the center of the table.

Finally, line the table with decorative gift boxes. Wrap them in brown paper, the standard packing paper which you can find at Dollar Tree (by the way, Dollar Tree is AWESOME). We tied up the gift boxes in a satin ribbon with our theme’s accent color, which is beach glass.

We got these hard plastic serving trays from Dollar Tree. They were shiny silver, but we spray painted them gold for our party. You can buy as many as you’d like because they’re only a dollar each (yay!) and they make a great way to display food or drinks. For more party crafts, keep scrolling this page.