Now that it’s all said and done, did the decor/overall look of your wedding matter as much as you thought it would?

Yes & no. The big items looked great: uplights, candle centerpieces, guestbook art poster, large decor like skeleton we aged and put on the venue’s barrel bar. But all the small items went unnoticed like each of the four wall alcoves we decorated differently with lots of hand-made and thrift store items. Nobody noticed.

What’s your reception venue and what do you have thus far? What are you thinking of ditching?

Not at all aha. At the end of the day all the small stuff I just didn't sweat anymore and took it in stride. I realized that even if you didn't have anything but the dinner .. people don't care as much as we think because they're there to celebrate you

Aside from a welcome sign, schedule, guestbook, card box, bar menus, dessert signs, programs, we didn't have any other decor full knowing that they wouldn't be missed.
We are both designers and obsessively detail oriented.
Instead we put more money into the floral budget and it was worth every penny. We we're lucky our space was open and beautiful and had lots of character and light, we chose the restaurant we had our wedding at because it had good bones and we could make ours easily.

I didn't have any signs. I had a seating chart and borrowed card box. No ceremony decor but my ceremony was outside. No cake table decor. On the tables, we only had 2 white hydrangea vases, table numbers and candles. On our sweetheart table we had an arrangement to place my bouquet in and candles. That's it. I was told many times how simple and elegant everything looked. I'm happy with what we did and I almost thought about not putting out the candles. I dont recommend DIY. I see a lot of people writing how much they spent on their DIY centerpieces and they are no cheaper than getting a floral centerpiece. Your wedding will look beautiful no matter what.

I got married just over a month ago. Second wedding for both of us, and we’re an older couple, so my experience may be different, but I paid zero attention or effort to decor. The ceremony (out on the deck on a beautiful night) & reception were at a golf club, so the venue was already “nice”, but only at the last minute did I tell the coordinator she could get get some simple flowers for the tables because she practically insisted - ha! I couldn’t even tell you what they looked like other than being yellow (my fave color). BUT, we had delicious (and LOTS) of food, an open bar, and great music all the way through. I’ve never (ever) seen that many people dance for that long! I’m still having people tell me (and have heard from people who weren’t even there who heard from others) that it was THE most fun event they’ve been to in years!!!
Nobody will care about the decor if you give them something else to focus on, whether it be food, music, emotion, whatever. Good luck!

Well, I never thought it would. For the ceremony, we didn't have much more than the chuppah (Jewish wedding canopy) and our ketubah (formal Jewish marriage contract) on an easel. And both of these were really integral parts of the ceremony rather than purely decorative. For the luncheon after the ceremony, we didn't decorate at all. (It was at a restaurant, and we figured they knew how to make things look nice, since they did it every day.) The only place we decorated at all was at the at-home reception, and that was because it was at a private club that was a converted warehouse, and we wanted to dress it up a bit.