Katie and Dustin, a couple whose wedding was photographed by my friend Lori, are a couple of smart cookies. They’re budget conscious — and who isn’t these days? — so both their families pitched in to help make their wedding a spectacular event.

By Lori Anderson Photography

Has your church gym/rec room ever looked like this? Yeah, me neither. Let’s take a closer look at all the details.

By Lori Anderson Photography

There were two types of centerpieces — one was a small bouquet of gerber daisies on top of decorative pebbles inside a glass vase, which was wrapped with a black ribbon. I see LCD Christmas lights surrounding the centerpiece, to help light it up. It’s all on top of a black satin overlay that’s crinkled and bunched just enough to make it look stylish and not messy.

By Lori Anderson Photography

Check out the favors and mints scattered inside the satin. Nice!

By Lori Anderson Photography

They probably didn’t even need to add the water inside the vase with the lemons.

By Lori Anderson Photography

This looks like a punch bowl, quite honestly, but I like the use of it as a large-bottomed vase. They used a whole bunch of lemons — which are gorgeous by the way — to anchor a tall bunch of yellow and white gerber daisies, roses and greens. It’s all inside a box covered with the same black satiny material that overlay the tables. Those candles look like they’re lit, but maybe they’re the flameless type, because I can’t imagine they would put lit candles inside a fabric-covered box. That’s not recommended, by the way.

By Lori Anderson Photography

I love the lemon drop wedding favors. I’m all about favors that can be consumed — anything else just becomes clutter.

By Lori Anderson Photography

The cake is pretty simple, but still adorable. As with everything else, the bright yellow gerbers pop here, alongside the white gerbers.

By Lori Anderson Photography

Here’s what you really want to know about — the draping. If it had been me, I would have chosen chiffon for the draping, and the material seems to drape just like chiffon.

By Lori Anderson Photography

It appears to me that the couple’s families stretched fishing line in two or three-yard intervals across the gym, laid the chiffon on top of the line, with some slack in between, then raised the lines up. (That’s how I’d do it.) They tied off the tails with the yellow satin ribbons. The wedding was in January, so they took advantage of the leftover inventory of pre-lit Christmas trees and Christmas lights to finish it all off — see the Christmas lights behind the basketball basket and on what looks like a stage? Awesome.