You’ve asked and we’ve answered! Welcome to your weekly column ‘Planning Your Happily Ever After’ with wedding consultant Shikima Hinds. Her focus this week: Recycling of wedding décor

There are a lot of little things that come together to make your big day possible. So, when the day comes and goes, what do you do with all the décor?

It’s easy to forget that things can have a second life after the wedding; this sounds distressing, but 99% of the time the majority of flowers and décor are thrown away. The fact is, several items can be repurposed in your home or donated to others.

Before I jump into what to do with these items, you need to think ahead. Are you a DIY bride who wants to buy or make most of the things yourself? Or are you a bride who prefers to rent items? Here are some tips for both.

DIY bride: Be prepared to find yourself with a lot of items left on your hands after the wedding. Chances are you’ll be left with more than what you know to do with! Find a way to work them into your home décor, donate them or, at the very least, find a way to declutter!

Rentals: Using a rental company can save you from having a lot of post-wedding items to repurpose. Once the décor items are set up and used, the rental company will collect the items and they will be returned to the rental company’s warehouse. Renting is cheaper than purchasing, and you won’t have to deal with all the stuff afterwards.

Today we’re sharing some of our favourite tips on how you can repurpose, reuse, and “recycle” your favourite wedding day décor!

Separate the décor into four categories: trash, donate, recycle, reuse.

Decorate your home! You may have tailored your décor to look perfect for your wedding, but there’s no reason why you can’t use it in your home, as well. If you plan to buy items for your wedding, I recommend purchasing items that work with both the wedding theme and your home décor.

Wedding flowers

Floral arrangements and bouquets often make up a large part of your wedding budget. But, we all know they won’t last forever.

1. Hold onto your beautiful floral arrangements after the celebrations are over. Enjoy them while they last.

2. Instead of tossing them, consider donating them to a local charity, a nursing home or children’s hospital in your area.

3. Preserve those stunning blooms! Gather the flowers into a bunch and hang them upside down from a hook to dry them. They will keep their shape and colour and last as long as you want them to. In a couple of weeks, you’ll be able to use them as dried floral arrangements. There are many other options for preserving, from air-drying to pressing, silica gel drying, and even freeze-drying.

4. Another option for your florals is to give the arrangements to guests or the staff of your venue.

Décor photos

If you created a special altar to honour your family members, take these framed photos home and create a gallery wall.

Lanterns & other accessories

Lanterns add light and style to your wedding décor as lit accessories or as centrepieces during the cocktail hour or reception dinner. After the wedding, use them to elevate your backyard, patio or terrace. If you decked out your cocktail hour lounge areas with colour-coordinated pillows, you can reuse them at home.

Donate to another bride or groom

It’s likely that if you are of a certain age, then chances are you know someone else who is also about to get married. Weddings are expensive (as you well know), and anything you can do to help your fellow bride or groom out when it comes to cost would be an extremely kind gesture.

Think ahead and choose décor for your wedding that will be easy to upcycle and have life long after your first dance.