Affordable Wedding Centerpieces!

What I did was go to different thrift shops like salvation army, good will etc... and buy big glass jar, bowl type containers, not huge but big enough for 2-3 gold fish. Buy something cheap to put inside on the bottom like stones, marbles from the dollar store whatever... and have different shaped glass containers with goldfish! It ends up looking super cool. Then I just had a square of my wedding colors fabric underneath the jar for decoration.
To keep the fish get a little blue kiddie tub and fill it with water the day before. You may have to go to a few different stores to get enough fish, I did.

It's cool and cheap.

Congrats

Love to do that sort of thing for family and friends. Just did a friend's daughters shower and wedding. A few things you need to share are what theme if any, what colors, what likes/dislikes do you have, what kind of atmosphere - inside, outside, casual, formal? There is a lot you can do on a shoestring budget, but it needs to "fit" with the taste of the wedding. Some places I shop for materials are THE FLOWER FACTORY, Sterling Heights, and a DISCOUNT CRAFT STORE in Warren, MI Spring lanterns with candles would be a favorite of mine for this time of year. Good luck!

Hey Andrea. I have been out to Northridge Church a couple times, we go to Kensington, another big one..!

Anyway I did my centerpieces for my wedding 7 years ago. We had a winter theme so what I did is buy three different glass vessels at Michael's- one was a candle holder, one was a huge decorative bowl, and I honestly can't remember the other... But anyway, then I stuffed them full of other cheap things: a ton of cotton fluff (which I used as "snow"), fake acorns, silver branches from the fake flower section, snowflakes from the craft section, etc etc. I also surrounded the centerpiece with snowflakes (they come like 100 in a bag!) and cheap votive candles and glitter... Everyone loved them and asked to take them home!!

Not that you want a winter theme, but hopefully I have inspired some ideas. It is definitely cheaper to make your own centerpieces and fun! Just look around your craft store and create your own theme!

Also, she probably already has a cake but what I did for my best friend's wedding was get minicakes as centerpieces for the tables instead of one big cake. Kills two birds with one stone. Good luck!

Hi Andrea,
I don't know what the colors or theme is for the wedding your planning, but I used blue wine bottles that I got free from the local winery (they either give the bottles to crafters or recycle them). I had a local florist add daisies and greenery. They looked awesome and were very cheap! Look into odd shaped bottles and fresh flowers. Talk to a florist to find out what is in season, usually cheaper and more readily available.
Good Luck!
S.

I have a great friend who does wonderful wedding arrangements from her home in redford:Amy Martyka-###-###-####. She is not expensive

If the wedding's at a church, the women's ministry may have things you can borrow, like little mirrors or vases or silk flowers. The little fishbowls from Michael's or a discount craft store are nice with colored marbles/pretty rocks or sheashells; put in water and a few flowers. You can get flowers cheaply in the spring/summer. Sometimes just putting a pretty, flowering plant on the table is enough. Votive candles are very nice in the evening, grouped on a little mirror - very sparkly but the effect is lost in the daytime.

Tell her to check out Michaels.com. That is where I went when I got married, almost 5 years ago and I got some great ideas and made all me center pieces and flowers.

Hi Andrea!

Have you looked into any of the home party plans?
You could host a party and get some pretty cool things for FREE! Then let the bride and groom keep them!
I am with Home and Garden Party, now Celebrating Home.
Home and Garden Party bought out Home Interiors, we now are the largest Home Decorative party plan out there!
We just started a new catalog, and have a wide variety!
Check us out!
http://www.HomeandGardenParty.com/Home?WebId=lisamesser
Plus I would love to hear about your home based business!
Good Luck!
L.

Hi Andrea,

Check out my Mom-Owned business, Beautiful Scenery Inc (www.beautifulsceneryinc.com). I can create designs that are sure to fit your friends budget.

andrea; not sure how crafty you are, but the look is great , purchase some vases from a dollar store, a small vase that holds about 10 -15 flowers, we made some flowers out of hershey kisses, that others got to take home, two hershey kisses back to back, then we bought tissue paper, of color that you wish, cut into squares of about 4"x4" dont have to be exact buy some floral wire, in fake flower aisle at walmart, and floral tape, and then purchase some fake flowers with lots of leaves on them, i cut the leaves off and used them on the hershey flower, any way hershey kiss back to back, insert a floral wire, kinda with a bent end so it dont pop out it takes some practice to get it right, but once you have the two hershey kisses back to back and hold floral wire with them and wrap them from top down and twist the tissue paper so it makes a rose bud, then use floral tape, at the base and incorporate the leaf and wrap with floral tape wa la your done, this takes a bit of time, but with a good group of people helpoing you should be able to make enough to put into each vase, then they can be handed out after wards, if you need more info please feel free to write me, enjoy D. s

When my oldest daughter got married, of course we were watching the budget. We got some lanterns that looked like pewter and surrounded them with greens on the tables...it was simple but looked elegant!

Hi Andrea, when my sister got married I made some great centerpeices. This link shows the picture of them, only I did not use the clay pot base. (Saved more money) Also, you can choose the color paper to fit the theme.
http://craft.dow.com/craft/proj/190.htm

The main link for this site is http://craft.dow.com/craft/proj/index.htm they have tons of great craft ideas for all occasions.

Hi Andrea,
My name is D. S. I live in the Detroit area, when my son got married his future wife made all the center pieces for about fifteen tables, she had this globe fish like bowls, very los, she put water in them with floating candles and made a silk rose arrangement's matching the colors of the wedding for the bowl to fit in and had all the candles lit, it was very nice and inexpensive. Hope this helps, also Andrea I am very interested in your business and would like more info so I can work from home, I just recently had a mild stroke and don't think I can go back to work fulltime out of the home. Working from home would be ideal for me...please im me with info...

To save $$ on centerpieces and on the wedding cake just have small individual cakes on each table as a centerpiece. You can put flowers or whatever at the base of the cake to cover up the foil wrapped cardboard base. Or you can buy cheap plates at a dollar store to use. Then the guests at the table can cut the cake themselves. You can then order a small wedding cake for display and serve that to the wedding party at the head table. For the leftover cake at each table you can have trivia questions for the guest. (ex..birthday closest to the bride or groom, anniversary to the wedding date etc)and they can take home the leftover cake. Make sure you have take-out boxes available.

Good Luck!!

go to dealers discount anybody can go there are no membership fees the will have everything you will need plus ideas and samples and how to books they are located on 19 mile between hoover and vandyke closer to vandyke if you call infoooormation for their number im not sure if it is in centerline or warren .my sister in-law was working on a small budget she bought mirros candels and greenery . she as made all her weedding party flowers an groomsmen buttoner with items purchased there plan on spennding about 1to2 hours ther for looking at what all they have you will be amased

When I got married, we bought round glass vases from the dollar store. They had fluted tops and looked like a glass ball with a tiny (1/2") base. They're hard to describe, but you'd know then when you see them. We took a length of saran wrap and scrunched it into a loose ball and put it in the vase...note even a ball really, just scrunched it up. Then poured water over it and put the head of a rose into it. We got the flowers from Costco, so it was $15 for 2 dozen roses. We tied a color coordinated ribbon around the top where it was indented. We put the flowers in the day before and by the time of the ceremony the next day, they had opened up. The saran wrap in the water was really pretty. It looked iridescent and we had people trying to figure out just what was in it.

Hi Andrea,
For center pieces at my wedding, I purchased square mirrors (from Home Depot- one for each circle table) and arranged candles (one for each table), and flower petals (real or silk) on top of each mirror. If your friend is creative the mirrors can be used after the wedding in her home as wall decor. The extra candles can be given to guests or wedding party participants as reception gifts.

For my own wedding, I used off-white pillar candles with just a string of ivy/leafed greenery in a circle around the candle. The venue provided hurricane globes to go around the candles but if this is not an option for you, you can simply purchase a very inexpensive plate for the candle to sit upon. It ended up looking very elegant and simple and the candles helped set ambiance in the room. My opinion on center pieces is that people are wowed by them when they walk in teh room but then istantly forget about them... And if the centerpiece is too large an elaborate, it makes it difficult to hold cross-table conversations. Best of luck!

What does your business do? Whats involved? Also have you thought of fake flwer arrangement or real? maybe a bird house with flowers. Is there a theme for the wedding?

Andrea:
Don't have any wedding centerpieces, but would like to know about your home based business. Looking to supplement my income at home in these tough times. We go to Brightmoor Christian in Novi. My husband is also an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God-so he preaches on the weekends. Would love some information on your business. Email: ____@____.com

Thanks so much,
C. Little

My favorite centerpiece is the one we used at my son's wedding. We had some nice plain bowls with disposable cameras in them. We wrote in big black letters on them - the names of the bride and groom and asked everyone to take pictures throughout the night and put the used cameras back in the bowls. The next day I dropped them off at the developer. We had so many wonderful pictures of everything!! A photographer can only be in one place at one time....our guests were everywhere!!!

I loved my wedding center piece, in fact almost 4 years later I still have it in my living room. We had large glass vases with colored stones in the bottom and then we had a fish and a plant, it was fairly inexpensive and very unique.

Andrea,

I know this sounds strange but it actually looks very pretty. A couple of weeks ago I saw a TV reality wedding show where the couple was out of money and needed centerpieces. To do it as cheap as possible they used baby's breath - lots of it. It looked like a puffy cloud.

http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/11/19/ask-and-ye-shall-rec...

I hope this helps.

C.