Do It Up On New Year’s Eve

Are you having a New Year’s Eve party this year?  Or going to one?  That’s nice, but I’m sorry to tell you that the ultimate New Year’s Eve party already happened…two years ago…at our wedding!

We’ll be sharing more about our special day later this week, but in the meantime I’ve combed through our wedding pics so that I can show you some fun, easy and inexpensive ideas for New Year’s Eve decor.

Not only were we working on a tight decorating budget for our wedding, but we needed to transport all of the decor north of the border to Quebec City (yes, colder-than-Maine is our idea of a destination wedding).  So, less was more, and we needed to make maximum impact.

We had been celebrating New Year’s Eve in Quebec City for a few years and we always admired the simple decor used by the cozy old city restaurants, which included balloons, serpentine throws, party hats and noise makers.  Armed with my bridesmaids and crafty relatives, we got to work on the reception room.

First we added serpentine throws (aka rolled, skinny white paper) and silver star garland to the sconces and chandeliers, as seen here in the hallways…

…and on the sconces…

…and on the chandeliers…

Then we scattered balloons throughout the room…

We used noisemakers with custom tags for the favors, and they got plenty of use…

And after we cut the cake, party hats were distributed to everyone…top hats for the guys and tiaras for the girls.  Let’s be honest, a party hat makes everything more festive…

And I know you are eyeing those star paper lanterns.  My sister Holly (whose back is to you in the photo above) made 10 stars in two different sizes…by hand.  She brought them in one small flat box, because she designed them to fold open and tie around the bulbs on the light strand we brought.  Yeah.  I told you I have talented relatives.  Thank goodness they don’t all have blogs because you wouldn’t be reading mine anymore…

So, there you have it!  Dangle some curly paper from your lighting, scatter balloons around your ceiling, hand out some party hats and noise makers, light lots of candles and you’ll have a Quebec-City-Chris-and-Erin style NYE party.  What more could you ask for?

What are your plans for New Year’s?  And, I didn’t mean what I said about your party…I’m sure it will be fun and fantastic.  Cheers!

All photos by Jonathan Robert.