Budget Stretching Centerpiece Ideas

By Pat Esden

Centerpieces for your wedding

Often couples try to stretch their wedding budget by spending less on the table centerpieces for the reception. But, in truth, increasing the amount of money allocated to the centerpieces can often reduce the overall cost of the wedding—and make the reception more elegant at the same time.

One way to do this is to create centerpieces which serve multiple purposes.

If a couple plans on spending five dollars for a gift to put beside each guest’s place setting, then they might want to consider gifts that are suitable for gathering into a centerpiece. For a table of ten this will provide an extra fifty dollars to put toward the centerpiece without increasing the budget. Low baskets or boxes can be used to hold ten small blooming plants like gerbera daisies or African violets. Small clay pots filled with annuals and arranged like miniature gardens are a gorgeous choice. Long-stemmed roses, whose ends have been inserted into water picks, are convenient for guests to take home and could be displayed in colorful vases or small silver urns. These containers can even be rented rather than purchased.

Instead of having a large wedding cake, its size can be reduced and the savings put toward small cakes for the center of each table. How about individual cheesecakes? Smaller desserts like tarts or cupcakes piled on rented cake stands and accented with apples and grapes are sure to impress. Fruit centerpieces are classical, and can be served with melted chocolate and champagne as a late evening treat.

But having centerpieces serve multiple purposes doesn’t always work. Using flowers at the ceremony, and then on the reception tables is sometimes a bad idea because it’s often impossible to remove the centerpieces from the church and get them into the reception hall before the guests arrive.

Having hired workers or family members scrambling around with flowers when the guests are entering the reception hall is tacky—and the centerpieces can get damaged during the hurried transportation. However this double duty does work when a cocktail hour is held in a separate room and the doors to the dinning area remain closed until after the bride and groom arrive, or later.

If the idea of having the centerpiece serve double duty doesn’t appeal to the bridal couple, there are still other tricks that can be used to stretch the budget.

Renting vases, bowls and other containers will give a bridal couple access to classy centerpieces which might otherwise put them over budget. Decorative and affordable containers also can be purchased at discount stores. A bridal couple should ask their florist if cost will be reduced if they arrange a rental or provides containers. These could be standard vases or bowls, or a grouping of decorative stemware which the guests or bridal and groom could reuse later.

There are tricks that can add the illusion of size to smaller, less expensive arrangements, such as single plants or vases of solitary roses.

The easiest way to achieve this is to use a flat object under the centerpiece to make it appear larger. Drapes especially made for this purpose, linen napkins, mats, trays, or natural objects such as slate or slabs of wood, all work well.

For a country wedding, homemade mats could be created from mix and match fabrics, and later stitched together to form a keepsake quilt. Another way to add size is to use candles with the centerpiece. Candles are inexpensive and holders can be rented. Many times candles are provided by the reception hall for low or no cost. Rose petals or sparkles scattered around the centerpiece will give the illusion of larger size—but most often, skipping them and adding a few more flowers to the centerpiece will provide as much if not more visual impact.

To reduce the cost of fresh flower centerpieces while maintaining the same size, style and color, use less expensive types of flowers. Some brides cringe at the mention of carnations and mums, but in the hands of an experienced floral designer the visual impact of arrangements created with these flowers will hardly differ from those made with more expensive varieties—but the budget will be reduced dramatically.

It all comes down to number crunching, forethought and imagination. The bridal couple should take time to figure out the total wedding budget and how many tables will be needed for the reception. Armed with this information, they can imagine and discuss what their centerpieces would look like if there weren’t any budget restrictions. Once they know what their dream wedding reception would look like, then they can decide if any elements could do double duty, shop for similar containers at discount and rental stores and discuss alternatives with an experienced designer.

 

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