Do it yourself Free
One weekend, a sheet of plywood and some string lights. Costs almost nothing and still stops traffic.
| Spot | What to get | How big | How many | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A |
42 in. Giant Tulip Stakes, 6 pack (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
6 pieces
The star. Centered on the front door, 8 ft out. Without a porch to anchor to, this piece is the only thing telling people where the entrance is.
|
3' 6" H | 1 | $44 |
| B |
18 in. Giant Easter Eggs, 6 pack (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
6 pieces
Sidekick, left. Left of the door, 10 to 12 ft out from the centerpiece. Push these further apart than feels right. A wide facade eats the gap.
|
1' 6" H | 1 | $26.99 |
| C |
Pastel Bunting, 30 ft (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
24 pieces
Sidekick, right. Right of the door, mirroring the left. Keep it clear of where a car door swings open.
|
10" H | 1 | $18.99 |
| D |
Solar Path Light Stakes, 10 pack (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
10 pieces
Walk and bed edge lights. Along the short connector from the driveway to the door, then following the front bed. The walk is stubby here, so borrow the bed line to make the run long enough to matter.
|
1' 3" H | 1 | $24.69 |
| E |
Warm White Incandescent Mini Lights, 300 count (opens in a new tab)
Amazon
300 pieces
Roofline. The full run, gutter line and both gable rakes. This is the single biggest thing you can do to a wide flat house, and it is the one people skip because it means getting the ladder out.
|
2" H | 2 | $51.98 |
| F |
Bare Arch, Dressed
Build it
Past the driveway. The one theme here where the arch is doing its actual day job, which is the trap: every photograph on the box is a symmetrical wedding arch and this theme is a drift, not a row. Wire the big blooms up ONE leg and across about a third of the crown, then stop. Flowered evenly all the way round it is a wedding; flowered up one side it is a plant that got out of hand, which is the theme. Heavy stems tie to the legs where the load goes into the ground, never to the crown. Put it where the drift is thickest so it looks like the middle of the planting rather than a separate object standing in grass.
|
7' 4" H | 1 | $31 |
2 things need an outlet, about 2 amps all together. That all fits on one 15 amp circuit, you are fine. Outdoor GFCI outlets only, and leave a drip loop in the cord at every plug so rain runs off instead of in.
You will also need
The cord is the part everybody forgets, and stores run out of them at the peak of every season. Outdoor rated only, and plugged into a GFCI outlet.
- 1× 25 ft Outdoor Extension Cord, 16 gauge (opens in a new tab) 2 plug-in pieces across 1 spot $16.98
- 1× Outdoor Timer with Photocell (opens in a new tab) Switches the whole display on and off on its own $14.98
About $31.96 of hardware, on top of the $197.65 of decorations. Buy it once and it comes back out every year.