10 Elegant Wedding Decorations Ranked by Cost
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Patricia T. Eliason | 17 Jun, 2026
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Every bride I have ever talked to wants elegant wedding vibe. But elegant is one of those words that means everything and nothing at the same time. It can mean a $12 glass votive from Amazon or a $400 florist-built centerpiece, and honestly? Both can look stunning in the right setting.
I planned my own wedding at my family’s summer house on a lake in northern Wisconsin back in 2008, and I can tell you the decorations I fretted over most were not always the ones that made the biggest difference in photos. So before you start filling a cart with everything you see on Pinterest, it helps to know exactly what each elegant look will cost you and whether it is worth hiring out.
The average couple spends somewhere between $2,000 and $5,000 on wedding decor. But that number tells you almost nothing about where to put the money. This list does. I ranked ten elegant wedding decoration categories from the cheapest and most DIY-friendly down to the ones that almost always need a professional hand, with real price ranges for each.
1. Candlelight (DIY cost: $30–$150 | Florist: not needed)
Candlelight is the most underrated elegant wedding decoration, full stop. A cluster of mismatched pillar candles on a table does more atmospheric work than a $200 centerpiece in the same space. You can pick up 30 mercury glass votives from Amazon for around $35, grab a bag of unscented tea lights from Ikea for practically nothing, and spread them everywhere: down the aisle, along windowsills, on every table. My one honest caveat is to always check your venue’s open flame policy first. Many ban real candles now, but flameless LED options from Luminara run about $15 each and photograph almost identically. This is 100% a DIY category. Do not hire anyone for this.
2. Table linens (DIY/rental cost: $8–$20 per table | Florist: not needed)
Elegant linens are one of the easiest budget wins in wedding decor. A floor-length white or ivory tablecloth in a satin or velvet fabric instantly elevates any table, whether your venue is a hotel ballroom or a barn. You do not need to buy these. Party City and most local rental companies charge $8–$15 per linen, and rental is almost always smarter than buying because you skip the laundering situation after the wedding. If you want something more textured, Efavormart sells blush velvet table runners for around $4–$6 each and they read expensive in photos. Skip the fancy linen company upcharges unless you need a very specific custom color.
3. Elegant signage (DIY cost: $40–$120 | Pro calligrapher: $150–$400)
A beautiful welcome sign and a seating chart are the two signage pieces most guests will actually see and notice. An acrylic sign blank from Amazon runs about $25–$40, and if your handwriting is even halfway decent, you can write on it with a chalk marker and have something that looks like it cost four times as much. If lettering is not your thing, Etsy calligraphers will hand-letter a sign for $80–$150 and ship it to you. The only time I would recommend paying a professional calligrapher’s full $300–$400 rate is for a large seating chart with 100-plus names. That takes hours and the precision matters more at that scale. For everything else, DIY or Etsy gets you there.
4. String lights and uplighting (String lights DIY: $60–$200 | Professional lighting: $500–$2,000+)
String lights are maybe the single decoration that gives you the most elegance per dollar spent. A set of commercial-grade globe string lights from Costco or Home Depot covers 48 feet for around $30. String three or four sets overhead and the whole venue transforms. Professional uplighting is a different animal, though. Uplighting washes the walls of your reception in color, ivory, blush, deep navy, and it changes the mood of a room in a way no DIY trick really replicates. If your venue is a standard hotel ballroom or a white-tent reception, professional uplighting for $500–$800 is one of the places I would splurge. It photographs beautifully and requires zero effort on your end the day of the wedding.
5. Ceremony backdrop or arch (DIY cost: $80–$250 | Florist/rental: $400–$1,800)
A floral arch or ceremony backdrop is the first thing anyone sees in your ceremony photos. You can rent a bare metal arch frame for about $50–$75 from a local rental company, then decorate it yourself with dried pampas grass from Afloral (a bundle runs $18–$28), silk florals from Nearly Natural, or fresh grocery store flowers the morning of the wedding. For a lush, all-fresh-flower arch built by a florist, budget $600–$1,800 depending on flower variety and size. Roses and ranunculus drive that price up fast. My honest take: a well-executed pampas and silk floral arch you build yourself looks just as editorial as a florist arch in photos. The difference mostly shows up in person at very close range.
6. Centerpieces (DIY cost: $25–$80 per table | Florist: $75–$350 per table)
Centerpieces are where most brides overspend and over-stress. The math is brutal: at 15 tables with florist centerpieces averaging $150 each, you are at $2,250 before you have bought a single other decoration. A cluster of three bud vases with grocery store eucalyptus and a few garden roses from Trader Joe’s can run $15–$25 per table and looks elegant on a white linen with candlelight around it. If you want height, a tall glass cylinder vase with submerged flowers runs about $35–$50 per table when you source the flowers from Blooms by the Box. Florist centerpieces make the most sense for large, formal ballroom weddings where the scale and polish need to be consistent across 20-plus tables.
7. Chargers and table settings (DIY/rental cost: $1–$4 per charger)
Gold or silver charger plates are one of the easiest elegant upgrades you can make to a table and they cost almost nothing per piece. Most party rental companies stock gold rim chargers at $1–$2 each, so a table of 10 costs you $10–$20. If you want to own them, Amazon sells a 10-pack of gold chargers for around $25. Pair a charger with a simple white dinner plate, a linen napkin folded flat, and a sprig of greenery or a single bloom, and the table looks polished and intentional. This is a full DIY category and an underused one at that.
8. Sweetheart table decor (DIY cost: $60–$180 | Florist: $200–$600)
The sweetheart table gets more photo attention than any other table at your reception, so it is worth making it look a little more special than the guest tables. A length of gauze or chiffon fabric draped along the front of the table (about $10–$15 from Etsy) plus a garland of greenery from Afloral or Trader Joe’s and a few pillar candles gets you a polished look for under $80. Some couples rent a custom neon sign with their last name for the backdrop, and those rent for about $75–$150 through most event companies. Full florist builds with fresh florals covering the table start around $250 and can climb to $600 for an elaborate design.
9. Aisle decor (DIY cost: $40–$120 | Florist: $200–$800)
Aisle decor is one of the most photographed areas of your ceremony and one of the sneakiest costs. Pew clips with a cluster of dried flowers and ribbon from Afloral run about $8–$12 per cluster, so decorating 10 pews or aisle chairs costs you under $120. Single stems, white tulips, garden roses, or eucalyptus, in small bud vases lined down an outdoor aisle look very elegant for very little money. If you want a full petaled aisle runner or elaborate fresh floral pew clusters, that is where florist costs climb quickly to $300–$800 for the ceremony aisle alone. This is one area where a beautiful DIY solution almost always photographs as well as a florist build.
10. Floral installations: ceiling flowers, hanging arrangements, and floral walls (Florist/designer: $1,500–$8,000+)
This is the one category on this list where I will tell you to hire it out or skip it entirely. Hanging floral installations require structural rigging knowledge, a large volume of flowers conditioned correctly, and a team that can install everything in the hours before your reception opens. A 6-foot floral wall from a professional floral designer starts around $1,500 and goes up fast with fresh flowers. Silk floral walls are available for rent through many event decor companies for $300–$600 and they photograph beautifully. If you are set on a floral installation and it fits your budget, it is the highest-impact elegant decoration you can add to a reception. Just do not try to DIY it the night before your wedding.
