Do It Yourself Wedding Centerpieces

Do it yourself wedding centerpieces are inexpensive to make. They can be somewhat labor intensive however. Still, they can be made in one fun evening with the help of a bunch of friends, a bottle of wine and some snacks! It is a good idea to make a sample and see how you like it before making all the others. If you are using fresh flowers, you need to know how long it takes for them to start drooping. Do they have to be put together at the last minute, or can they be done a day or two in advance?

There are several things you need to keep in mind:
• What time of year is the wedding?
• How many people will be there?
• What kind of tables is being used (round or long and how large)?
• How big is your budget?

The following are some seasonal suggestions for wedding centerpieces:

• For Valentine’s Day, or anytime during February, you can take a large brandy snifter or fish bowl and fill it with little net bags of heart-shaped candies. Tie each bag with ribbons in your wedding colors. Place it on a charger or some colored tissue and sprinkle candy hearts and chocolate kisses around them. The little bags will then become the favors for your guests, so you’ve killed two birds with one stone.

• For spring or fall you can make your centerpieces from that season’s fruit, adding in a few flowers in the spring, or pine cones for fall. Cut some greenery from your bushes in the yard to place around the bowls.

• For Christmastime, decorate tiny little trees, sprayed white with little balls in your wedding colors. Or Fill a little wicker sleigh with tiny faux presents and decorative balls…or Christmas candies wrapped and then used as your favors.

Candles make lovely wedding centerpieces and can be done way in advance. Votive candles floating in a small glass bowl of potpourri or fresh flower petals. Take a cake plate and arrange candles of different heights around it, using your colors. Tuck a few fresh flowers around the spaces on the plate just before the reception. Don’t use dried or silk flowers for this purpose as they burn too easily. Pick up some tiny potted flowers, wrap the pots in tissue and ribbon, and arrange in the center of the table…using them later as favors, of course.

You can also borrow mason jars, fill them halfway with sand and poke dried flowers into them to create wedding centerpieces. The jars can be spray painted, tissue wrapped, etc. If you prefer fresh flowers, half-fill with water, add rocks and a few flowers. You can also gather leaves, branches, pine cones, small rocks, and spray paint them silver. Arrange in the center of the table. A tall thick candle can be centered in the grouping…again not too close to the sprayed items.

A great idea for place cards is to print the names out on your computer, using a heavier stock paper, Cut them out and simply weave them into the tines of the dinner fork at each place setting!

To your beautiful wedding!