Wedding Centerpieces/Favors (money, invitation, planning, party) - - City-Data Forum

phoenixrising3131 · 07-11-2012, 04:20 PM

As we move forward in a lot of our wedding planning, two items that have come up are centerpieces and wedding favors. Obviously, the sky is the limit on what you can spend on anything, but does anyone have any ideas on how to keep these costs down yet propose something creative and memorable? As this will be a large wedding (300-500 people), there will be 30 to 50 tables to deal with in regards to this. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Thursday007 · 07-11-2012, 05:23 PM

Google "Unique Wedding Centerpieces" and there are a ton of terrific ideas there. You could also go into Google Image Search and put "Unique wedding centerpieces' and find a lot of interesting things from cupcakes that look like roses, bouquets made of ribbons to look like flowers each person at the table could take all the way to live plants.

Tallysmom · 07-11-2012, 06:17 PM

I'm going to admit being an old fogie on this -- I can't stand the "take this home and treasure this memory of our wedding forever" garbage. And I've seen people spend tons of money on crap that people take and toss. One bride I know got really ticked that she and her bridal party spent hours making up tiny little plastic saucers filled with a tablespoon of potpourri wrapped in tulle and tied with ribbon that read with their names -- and hardly anyone took them.... so in my opinion, stuff like this is a waste of money.

So my favorite things have been edibles. A friend did little chocolate swans that had little M&Ms in them. Cute... another one did small chocolate roses -- a little fussy looking... but make sure you get or use good chocolate. You can cheap out and make them youselves with Wilton melts, and they'll look nice but taste bad. They are not real chocolate.

BUT -- In Pittsburgh, PA there's this thing called the "cookie table". It's laid out (and there's usually not just one table) with tons and tons of different cookies, set up beautifully and small boxes to take cookies home. A lot of people have cute boxes made up and lots of those gold stretchy cords -- and people can pile up cookies in their boxes and take them home. Cute and practical.

My niece is getting married in a month -- and boy.... I can't wait and I hope they have those adorable cream filled horn cookies....

Centerpieces? You can rent tall vases, fill partially with iridescent marbles and water and float candles in them, in addition to some floral stuff. I think the rule is you want the centerpieces to either be low, or very high, so the people can see each other across the tables.

Sam I Am · 07-11-2012, 07:27 PM

We did something very inexpensive for a shower which would also work for a wedding - turn a wineglass upside down and put fresh flowers underneath it - tie a ribbon at where the stem meets the bottom - put a tea candle on the top (bottom). The florist did these huge mums with ribbons to put under the glass (flowers and ribbon in fall colors at that time). When the tea candle is lit it is really quite lovely!

The up side is you will have enough wine glasses for the rest of your life!

germaine2626 · 07-11-2012, 07:33 PM

My son and DIL love candles. They rented hurricane candle holders and had several of different heights on each table. Inside were short, fat lit candles. Since they were glass you didn't have any trouble looking across the table and the candles added a romantic glow to the room. I don't know the cost but it believe that it was quite reasonable.

My niece always hated the sound of a knife hitting a glass (in our area it is the signal for the bride & groom to kiss). So she took those little toys that you turn over and make a sound like a cow mooing and decorated them in fancy paper with heart stickers. There were several on each table. Although, they really weren't favors everyone loved them and none were left at the end of the evening.

They also had a nice floral centerpiece at each table. They announced at the cake cutting that the person with the birthday closer to that date would get to take the centerpiece home. After all, what would the family do with 20 or so floral centerpieces that would die in a few days? Everyone loved that little extra. Of course, make sure that you buy & not rent the containers before you do this.

gina_cat · 07-12-2012, 06:04 AM

I recently saw a post on Hostess with the Mostess' blog (lol, no, I'm not affiliated) that had a children's party with the most lovely paper roses used as invitations. Perhaps something like that, clustered as a centerpiece on each table, and the guests can take them home as keepsakes? Solves both problems...

Thursday007 · 07-12-2012, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gina_cat

I recently saw a post on Hostess with the Mostess' blog (lol, no, I'm not affiliated) that had a children's party with the most lovely paper roses used as invitations. Perhaps something like that, clustered as a centerpiece on each table, and the guests can take them home as keepsakes? Solves both problems...

I used to work at a flower shop and the guy taught me how to make these beautiful roses made with ribbon. I did up a bunch of them one year and put them in the Christmas tree with the small white lights and then covered the tree with baby's breath. People who saw it thought they were real until they got up real close and had to touch them. I went to a craft store to find these tiny little roses with a bendable hook I used as hooks for the bulbs.

Miss J 74 · 07-27-2012, 03:52 PM

Candle centerpieces are the best way to be original while being economical because there are so many different design options you can do with them.

Another option is you don't want to do the typical flower centerpiece but not spend a fortune is to have different things inside the vase that go with your color scheme. I had marshmallows at the bottom of vases with roses on top, my ex's cousin did cranberries with hers. I've also seen it done with lemon slices as well.