Five Easy Do-It-Yourself Wedding Centerpiece Ideas
A great way to save money on your wedding budget is to do your own wedding reception centerpieces. If you keep it simple, you can have elegant centerpieces without breaking the bank.
Here are five simple do-it-yourself centerpiece ideas:
Shimmering Silver
This is probably the cheapest do-it-yourself centerpiece of all! Gather up branches, driftwood, leaves or pine cones. Spray them with metallic silver spray paint and arrange in the center of the tables. Add a few tea lights and you have a shimmering centerpiece perfect for a winter wedding. Looks stunning against a black or dark colored tablecloth.
Tissue Paper Mason Jars
Here are surprisingly elegant centerpieces that cost under $10. Gather assorted mason jar sizes and wrap them in colored tissue paper, add a few flowers and you have cheap centerpieces.
Skip the Flowers
Consider using unusual things for your centerpieces such as peacock feathers, small sculptures, wooden carvings, glass vases full of beach sand or large rocks.
By choosing things that can simply be arranged, you'll save a ton of time and have do-it-yourself centerpieces that everyone will remember.
Think Functional
A centerpiece of candles gives off romantic light and can easily be set-up ahead of time. Likewise, food can be used as an attractive yet functional centerpiece. Consider arrangements of tropical fruits — including star fruit, pomegranates cut in half, melons and citrus — for a lovely summer centerpiece sporting bright colors.
Mix and Match
Helpful tip: always remember to do a mock-up centerpiece a few weeks before the wedding, so you're sure it lives up to your vision. It's also a smart idea to enlist the help of a few friends if your centerpieces are even slightly labor intensive. With a little creativity and a little effort, you'll have unique wedding reception centerpieces in no time!
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Hi,
I am getting married in January 2009 in the Caribbean and I am having trouble on deciding on a wedding theme and what are the pros and cons on tall or short centerpieces suited foe tropical islands.
Please help I do not know where to start!!!!!!!:((
My friend wants to have a fall wedding. But we are having a hard time picking out centerpieces. Her colour are midnight blue burnt orange.
My daughter is getting married in November of 08, her colors are cornflower and ivory, which I am having a very hard time trying to make centerpeices for her tables, which she wants flowers and glass containers and tee lights, I am lost and new at this, any help will be greatly appreciated. I want to do them myself because I and her are doing all the corridornating.:-?
My brother in law and sister in law are renewing their vows on Valentine’s day next year. I am the matron of honor. Their theme is Valentine/hearts and the color is apple (a little darker than red, ,not as dark as burgandy. I need some ideas for favors and center pieces (cute not cheesy). The wedding being on Valentine’s day I was thinking of incoporating chocolate, candy, flowers. Any ideas?
Thank you so much,
Andrea
Dear Jessie,
Hello! Well, the very first thought that came to mind was using watermelon! I’m not sure if you’re a “not a fruit bride” but, if you like the idea, I think it could look really great! You would just scoop out the insides of the watermelon and then fill it with some fresh flowers - an inexpensive flower that would look great would be alstromeria and they come in a variety of colors!
We did an orange, green, fruity type of wedding a while back (but I haven’t posted these photos to a gallery yet), so I’m attaching a few just to give you an idea. We also hollowed out pineapples and put big pillar orange candles in them and, at night, they looked fantastic and smelled amazing! (I’m not a good nighttime photographer so, unfortunately, I don’t have a good photo).
Another idea you might try would be filling a fish bowl with salt, placing pink mums around the edge and then, in the middle, you add a small glass vase with water and a few gerbers in your colors … I’ve attached a photo example of the idea of that as well!
have a great wedding!
warmest regards,
mishka
I’m getting married August 22nd, 2008 and i’m looking for some inexpensive, fun centerpieces and i could create with some friends. My colors are watermelon and honeydew and I want something fun and bright, very summery but also fun to make. Any suggestions?
Denise, I’m not educated on the fine points of celiacs, but could you make a rice krispies treat-style cake for your daughter … you know, marshmallows and margarine and all that? It would be sooo sturdy so you could really go to town architecting and decorating it. Plus, everyone loves rice krispies treats!
Here’s a great post on a krispies cake from Jennifer’s Blog. Not a wedding cake, but pretty cool. Then, check out this adorable R/K wedding cake from Oklahoma Sugar Artists.
You could also take a page from this cake artist, Layers of Love, and have the bottom layer rice krispies and the other layers traditional cake! Verrry clever. HTH!
Hi Tina, welcome.
You sound a little overwhelmed already! Let your daughter know you’re happy to help, but need a lot of imput from her. Everyone is usually pretty happy to give their opinions, you know? Most of all the bride!
Find out things like:
The budget you have available.
… which determines the guest list you can accommodate.
The season … does she have a time of year she’s in love with?
Once you have these worked out, you can choose a venue.
Once you have a venue nailed down & the contract signed, this helps you know what color schemes might work best, given the decor there.
See if your daughter has a theme in mind. Really get her to cough up a picture of what she imagines. Ask her to clip photos from bridal magazines and put them together on a page or two for you.
Once you have all this, get a list of “things to accomplish before a wedding.” There are hundreds of ‘countdown’ lists on the web. Just get a good list and check off each item, one by one. It will start to come together. Don’t do this all yourself! This is a lot of work … it takes 250 hours on average to plan a wedding. And definitely MORE hours if you plan a lot of do-it-yourself elements. The bride needs to be a big part of this!
Hopefully this will get you started … come back with more questions any time!
Hi Stacie, is there something specific you need to do with the gel? Because you can float candles in water-filled fishbowls no problem, you just need to buy the candles designed for floating! You can also tint the water, which can be a really nice touch with some color schemes.
my 20 year old daughter is getting married in oct 2008 and i have no idea how to even begin to plan a wedding and she wants me to do most of it im not crafty im not girly and i feel like im lost help please
i am getting married aug 9th 2008 and i am trying to find instrucations on floating candles in the fish bowls doen with the gel that the candles float on if you have one please let me know
Hey I am getting married in August and am looking for a unique inexpensive Idea for centerpieces that I can do with some friends or something?
Hi my daughter is getting married in April. I would like to make her a fun wedding cake out of rice cakes as she has celiacs so she can”t have a regular cake! Any ideas??
HI. I am getting married in my parents back yard this August..it will be a very simple garden wedding but I want something really unique & beautiful for the centerpieces.
My colors are sage, pink & ivory.
Any ideas???
3 more! 1st, a cute silk design (I think the orange looks great against the feathers) …
Then, some innovative entryway decor combining feathers with copper wire … I love this look.
Finally, a hasselblad photo to die for of another peacock bouquet with a lot of peacock hues worked into the actual flowers, and the shape of the feathers echoed in taller blooms.
Finally, check out the peacock moodboard on wedsmack just for fun.
Jacqueline — a couple ideas for you!
First, a peacock feather wreath centerpiece idea. You could also wrap pillar candles in satin ribbon (say, teal and bronze) and use the tips of feathers to create a gorgeous design.
Then, a tower centerpiece from an Asian-style wedding. Obviously you see this motif a lot in Asian-influenced areas, so Australia is pretty mad about peacock decor in weddings (so am I).
Finally, here’s a fun table design from a Texas wedding planner, courtesy of AustraliaEntertains. A few more up after this!
Hey! I’m trying to incorporate peacock feathers into my flowers and center peices for my wedding. Does anyone have ideas on do-it-yourself’s, or web sites, etc? Thanks!
my fiancee and I are getting married July 11th, 2008. I have an idea of the centerpieces that i want to use. I was thinking of 24” eiffel tower faces with the lcd lights that go at the bottom to brighten the entire vase! my colors are champagne, black and gold accents….I am going for a very elegant and non traditional look any suggestions? I was thinkin calla lillies or somehting in that area. Please help! Thanks in advance!
My centerpieces for my wedding cost only a few dollars to make. I scoured the Christmas sales and found plain baskets with christmas fabric liner for 90% off at a buck each. I removed the liner, then glued moss around the edge of the basket, with a few delicate hydrangea silk petals. Then, I wrapped the handle in dollar store sheer ribbon. Tied a “kissing ball pomander” on the handle to hang in the middle. (Kissing balls looks like the top of a topiary without the stem or base). I made them out of Michaels crafts styrofoam balls and dollar store silk flowers just hot glued and a ribbon tied on. Lastly, I lined the basket with a linen and put pretty sachet bags filled with lavender buds and small soaps which are the “favors”. Cost of each basket not including favors came to $4.00 each. I saved a ton of money!!! They look amazing. One last idea is take and cut leaves off of a dollar store silk flower boquet and line the bottom of the basket before you put in the favors. You can also pop in a few disposable cameras. The rest of the table will be sprinkled with rose petals. These are perfet as our wedding is up in woods.
Hi,
My wedding is April 2008 and my colors are Aqua blue and Apple green…any ideas on center pieces, I prefer something that my guest can take with them.