Alive and Livin': Centerpieces

To recap from my wedding flowers post, I saved so much money by doing my own flowers for my wedding! Total cost of flowers for my wedding (includes 1 bridal bouquet, 5 bridesmaid bouquets, 7 boutonnières, 5 crosages, centerpieces for 22 tables, cake/sign in/food/gift/etc. table decor, and enough leftover to decorate the honeymoon sweet, AND tax) was $635.85! My bouquets were traditional, big and full, but I wanted to go a different route for the centerpieces- to save money, as well as, do something a little different. This may have been my favorite DIY project I did for the whole wedding too!

My wedding colors were teal and cranberry so each centerpiece had a vase with either teal rocks or cranberries floating in water. I borrowed over 20 vases from friends and family. (As soon as I knew I wanted vases in the centerpieces I just started calling and emailing. Almost everyone you know has AT LEAST 2 vases that they can spare for a week or so.) Think about how much money you saved right there! The vases will all be different, but I really liked how it made each table unique. (Don't forget to keep track of who gave you what vases so that it will be easy to return them. I put a small piece of tape with their initials on the bottom of the vases.) Then I had long sticks, lilies and alstromerias filling the vases. We had some teal ribbon left over from doing the bouquets so we wrapped that around some of the vases that had cranberries in them.

About a month before the wedding, Wil's mom and I cut a bunch of branches from her yard to use in the centerpieces. We spray painted some of them cranberry and then sprayed the others with an adhesive and rolled them in tiny crystals. I love how this added a little touch of detail and wasn't too over the top. Then we went by a landscaping store and found a HUGE bag of gravel rocks for $11.00. We laid the rocks out and spray painted them teal.

After we put the flowers and sticks in the centerpieces, we hung some tea light candles from some of the branches. It was very elegant and romantic with the lights dimmed.