Ideas for Wedding Table Center Pieces

My cousing just had a wedding that included cute little centerpieces - inexpensive but fun.

Multi-colored or multi-shaped containers (buckets, vases, bottles, etc) and fill them with different kinds of candies. We had M&M's, Kisses, Mike and Ike, Skittles, etc. The containers were decorated and they can either be used again for something or taken home by guests.

You can encircle the containers with tulle or a few candles.

Each of my cousin's bridesmaids had a different type of bouquet and at the reception, each bouquet was placed in a vase on one of the tables. It was simple and beautiful.

Where are you having it, what style is the wedding and what does the couple want?
Candles pillar or tapered with beaded wire wrapped around would be beautiful, simple, inexpensive and easily tailored to the style.
Or flowers with looped beaded wire
Or just wired sprays.
Here are some helpful pics.
Imagine this one with beaded wire inside the vase instead of the greenery circling instead the vase.
http://www.ftd.com/centerpieces-pcg/the-ftd-floating-beau...
Then imagine this type of arrangement with beaded loops instead of the looped greenery.
http://www.bridesign.com/Wedding-Flowers-Collections/Wedd...
Basically you can replace greenery with beads in nearly any arrangement.

I had my wedding at a park, where I did not want to spend so much money on floral arrangements that would be tossed. So instead, I used fruit as my centerpiece. I snipped the 40% Michaels coupons every week and bought hurricane vases with it. Then filled the vases with green apples, citrus leaves, and put chiffon bows on the vase. Bought the apples at Sam's club. I had a sticker for one chair in the table. That person got to keep the centerpiece. The people who won the centerpiece, actually gave away apples to others so everything was shared. People ate the apples for their hikes the next day. I think I spent about $18/centerpiece.

Good luck! i'm sure you'll find something creative and beautiful to make, esp w/ your beadwork. This is a wonderful gift for the couple.

Hi M.,
Not sure exactly what you're looking for but when I got married I took a clear balloon (the large size) and stuffed it with 3 small carnations (you could use any type of flower) then put some water in the balloon and blew it up until the size I wanted, tied it off and turned it so the tie was was on the top. The flowers floated in the water inside the balloon. I tied some pretty ribbon on top to hide the balloon tie. I made bases to set the balloon on out of a poster board type material cut into a strip and then stapled so it formed a circle, I think I used some type of frilly shiney clear easter basket stuffing to put over the base so you couldn't see the actual base, you could use more flowers or anything really to cover the base. Good Luck with everything!!

Check Craigs list for your area and see what is available - bowls, vases, etc. I know several people who got the items to make their table decos from there.

Buying the little votive candles/holders and placing them on mirrors are always a nice to center on the tables. They are inexpensive and you can buy them by the dozens. You can also use some of your beading to place on the mirrors around the votives.
Check out this site: http://www.orientaltrading.com/party-supplies/wedding-a1-...

Whatever you decide to do, include some disposable cameras at each table. Encourage the guests to use them and leave them on the tables when through. You will end up with some candid pictures that are priceless, that a professional photographer would never be able to capture and without the expense of the professional photographer. The disposables can then be developed, as budget allows, after the wedding instead of a large up-front expense.

We had glass bowls of water with floating candles and fresh rose petals in them as well as rose petals scattered around the bowl on the table. It was quick and easy to put together and very pretty - especially for an evening wedding. The candles were found at Hobby Lobby.

Good luck and God Bless!
J. F.

For my daughter's wedding we took the long individual silk calalillies (sp) and cut the stems a little then put two or three together tied with wire edged ribbon that we could shape in her colors and placed them in the center of each table. It was elegant looking and very inexpensive. Also, it was just enough without being too much...by the time we had all the china and stemware on the tables and the napkins all top of the crisp table cloth, etc. it looked nice without being too cluttered. Also, just a thought...I decorate for lots of occasions and try to avoid any type of centerpiece that is going to prohibit persons at the table from being able to see and converse with one another. You can do something more elaborate perhaps with your beading for the bride and groom's table. Maybe a runner with your special bead work that they can keep and treasure for years to come.

BE BLESSED!

Potted Plants can be really pretty. The pots can be spray painted. A Ribbon can even be wrapped around each pot.

Place votives around the table.

You could purchase spools of wide ribbon (Costco Has beautiful rolls with 50 yards on each roll) and crisscross the ribbon across the table cloths for a "Runner effect".

Purchase or rent tall Simple glass vases, fill the bottoms with lemons and limes and place long stemmed Flowers in them.

Once again Costco has great prices on their fresh flowers.

One wedding we did a bride had a "Wedding" cake on each table as a centerpiece. She had HEB bake 9 inch double layer white cakes with white icing.. for every table. She then had us add fresh flowers to each cake in the same colors as the main Wedding cake. We figured out each cake was about $18. It looked amazing and it smelled incredible, with all of the cakes and flowers in that banquet room.

Have a wonderful celebration.

look for ideas on etsy.com and flickr.com also marthastewart 's web site.

I am late in responding so you may have been sent a ton of ideas, but I used to be a florist so I might have something to share you haven't heard. First of all, how many tables are we talking about? Some of the least expensive centerpieces are candles. Buy the larger pillar candles and decorate them. You can tie wide ribbon (wedding theme of course) in a large bow-like the bow on the back of a girl's dress-and randomly scatter the shredded paper around the bottom. Dollar Tree sells the paper shreds over in their giftwrap aisle. You can also buy wedding tissue paper, cut it to fit around the candle and use a hair dryer on low the heat and the wax will adhere the tissue paper. The cheapest idea is to buy wedding gift bags and fold/stuff two pieces of tissue paper into each bag-sort of "fluff" it out-this looks good also with shredded paper around the base. I know at Hobby Lobby they put everything on sale for 1/2 off every other week so you should be able to get the ribbon, candles or even any flowers for 1/2 off. If you want to go a little fancier you can buy flower "bushes" and use potpourri in the vases (to hold them upright and hide the stems) on perhaps every other table. The last wedding I did the bride and groom also placed a disposable camera on every table so the guests could take some candid wedding photos-though I never did hear how that turned out. Good luck and enjoy the wedding! BY the way, if you don't mind my asking where do you live and do you sell any of your beadwork online?

I got married in late November and I found a box (I lucked Out) of small vases and bought some red and white poinseteas at Garden Ridge and put about 5 in each vsse. My brother got married 1 week later in December and he used the same vases sprayed them with gold frothie paint and added 1 big white flower. But have you talked to the couple, get ideas of what they'd like to see after all it is their day, make sure to speak to BOTH of them get both of thier imput.

Talk this over with the bride. See what her ideas are, what colors she wants to use, etc. She may have long held dreams that you will want to honor.

For my wedding, we found some really inexpensive, but beautiful, Mikasa bowls at an outlet store (I honestly think they were around $5-$10 apiece) and just floated sunflowers in them. The florist provided the flowers and we provided the bowls and I think the whole thing was about $15 each table. The reception hall also had some mirrors that they put underneath the bowls and set a couple of candles on each side. Then, we spread a few flower petals around and viola! It was simple, but elegant and very inexpensive. :-)

Enjoy the wedding! What a special time for you.

My niece did the big galss vases with a beta fish in the bottom. They used colored glass beads, a green plant on top and tied a bow around it. They turned out beautiful. If any children are at the wedding they can take home a fish and "bowl"

Congratulations and best of luck.

I suppose it depends on the number of tables involved... Because the more tables will determine how much time/effort and cost you can devote to each one.

Also, does the bride have any ideas in regard to this? Or has she given you free-reign?

Ok... I assume you'd like to work beading into it...

You could consider a trinity of candle holders, each one a different size than the other. Not sure how long it takes you to make your seed bead magic, but perhaps you could drape some of your finery over each candle holder, before the candle goes in? You could even consider that each table could have its own color (so the bead work for each table would match whatever color that table is assigned). Then decorate flowers in between the bottoms of the candles/holders, each flower type and candle stick could match whatever the table's color is. That way, if you assign guests to a table, they can look to see the 'red table', yellow table, etc.

You'd have to check out Michael's for inexpensive candle holders, etc. If you have 12 tables, with 10 people at each... you'll need to figure out what your budget is on each table. And don't forget the bride and grooms table...

(I'll throw this out in case the idea is helpful. My wedding was on a really tight budget. For my centerpieces, I asked the florist to supply a bouquet of individual flower types and, besides the crystal vase (bought from Michael's), that bouquet was *the* centerpiece... There was a rose table, a freeshia table, daisy, lily, carnation, etc. It was a garden wedding theme, so it all worked out.)

Depending on the theme, maybe get those inexpensive, small round vases from the Dollar Store and then you could bead some wire to make an exterior beaded container to put the vases in. It would dress them up and then put inexpensive flower arrangements in those.

For my reception I bought pilsner glasses. It was much cheaper to buy a set of those than individual vases. I took those little green florist foam balls, soaked them in water and then stuck different colored carnations all over them. My colors were red, orange, yellow and pink so that's what color carnations I used. I left a little space at the bottom so they could sit on the glass. They looked amazing, cost very little, and a friends daughter tried to order something similar from a florist and they wanted $300 a piece. That's probably what I paid for the whole room full of flowers.

maybe you already know what you are doing - but I think making beaded monogram "J" (if that is your son's last name)and attaching it to a simple pillar candle that coordinates with the color theme. The beadwork candles could then be recyled as favors at the end of the night to family members with same last name. Or you could make some of the monograms with the brides last name initial for the tables where her family will sit. My friend did something with hand poured monogrammed candles 2 years ago and it was beautiful at the evening reception. She gave the candles out at the end of the evening to family and bridal party. Have fun!

I made pretty much everything for my wedding. I did candle center pieces. I designed a a differnt arrangement for each table. My colors were different shades of purple but I couldn't find the right colors so I painted them. Did you know you could do that? I didn't! (of course with special paints) I think I rolled some in glitter, some were arragned on mirrors, some had gems, some had ribbons cris-crossed on them. I had some with little stones in my colors sprinkled around the candles. I had the glass bowls with floats and I also found tube shaped glasses that held candles. I had maybe 12 tables with different designs. It was alot of fun and something I will treasure forever. Good luck!

Get fish bowls and put some of the jewel rock things you can get near them and then put water in there and put a floating candle in there. My mom took and taped pictures of me and my husband from when we was little until the age we was when we got married, she even took and put pictures of our mom and daddy, and then our grandparents.

You could do the cheap fish bowl idea with marbles or rocks and water and have little twigs coming out that you could dangle crystals and bead type things off of.

I think it really depends on the style or theme of the wedding and what type of event the bride is going for.

If it is a casual out door BBQ style, votives in decorated mason jars are really pretty and inexpensive. If it's more formal, does she want flowers, or floating candles, mirrors etc?

I do custom wedding centerpieces and I find most of my materials at Michaels, but for specialty items such as mirrors or specific items such as cowboy boots I will go to the dollar store or good will.

For a western theme I have seen cowboy boots filled with flowers as the centerpiece. For a country theme a watering can decorated and filled with flowers can be beautiful. For a more elegant feel use a vase or floating candles in a presentation bowl with a mirror underneath and rose petals strewn around the edges.

Michaels and Garden Ridge have some of the best silk flowers around.

Good luck!

Edit
I had one more idea, with your beadwork experience you should look up crystal bouquets. I'm sure you would have no problem designing some yourself, they are all the rage now. Crystal bouquets would look nice in any style vase with ribbons in the wedding colors accenting them!

For our wedding, we had what I thought were pretty center pieces. We got ivy leaves from the front yard, and also used some ivy "garlands" to set on the tables (and on the "presentation table" around the guest book). We got individual tealight candle holders and tealights, as well as inexpensive shallow glass containers (walmart). We got circle glass (for reflection) slightly larger than the glass containers and put the containers on top. We set some colored glass (bags can be found at bed bath and beyond) at the bottom of the containers, filled with water and floated candles, orchids and ivy leaves.

It looked very delicate, yet so simple...

I hope this gives you some inspiration.

A.

It honestly depends n the theme and colors of the weddng. My husband and I did all the flowers, centerpieces, etc for our wedding and it was FABULOUS! I have tons of ideas, but need a direction. One thing to keep in mind is that you can double the centerpieces for the favors if you don't already have some. Send me a message if you would like.

God Bless!
S.

Beaded flowers in vases would be lovely for the centerpieces. My daughter did all her wedding flowers, bouquets and all, with fabric.

A photo or photos of the couple during their time together.

Hi M.,
I have some allready made beatiful centerpieces that a crafty aunt of mine made for me last year when i got married in July.I bought all the supplies and she assembled them.There are 15 centerpieces and the main flower is white calalilys and fushia star gazers which can be removed and inserted w/flower of wedding.if you'd like you can e-mail me and i'd be happy to send you pictures.I must say the centerpieces are much more appreciated when seen set up rather that in a picture.
Everything cost me over $600 and willing to part w/everthing and lots of extras for a great price.I just need them out of my garage.At the same time you can save yourself some time,June is right around the corner.

We did different sized candles in blue vases for our centerpieces. I think 4 or 5 made up 1 center piece. People got to take them home as favors. They loved them! People tell me they are still using them today (8 years later). You can get them cheaply @ places like Michael's or if you need a ton, check wholesalers. Ours were about $1-$3 per and we were up in Connecticut. Your florist would probably know where to get them. Make sure you don't get scented candles! Good luck!

Iam not crafty ,but my new daughter-in-law took old wood that she somehow had in the backyard,they made small boxes out of it,burned their initials with the last name JHL in the middle,they made the flowers the color of the wedding and it turned out very nice and inexpensive. But since you do beading you could do the same with glass jars/hot glue beads with their initials and decorate with nice flowers. Hey, its an idea. Good Luck! Post a note and let me know if the idea helped..