Wedding Centerpieces: Adorable & Affordable

I have never been a “matchy-matchy” person. I like to bend the rules and experiment with design concepts I love. When it came time to decide on a color scheme for our wedding I completely went against tradition. It was too difficult for me to choose just 2 or 3 colors. So I thought to myself – why not use all colors? I just needed to find the right balance.

After reading some wedding magazines and blogs, I noticed I had my eye on anything and everything country. I didn't want to go overboard (which is easy to do during the wedding process) so I made a list of things I knew that I wanted for the reception, and then went from there.

• Flowers
• Take-Home Centerpieces
• Mismatched Picture Frames
• Candles

Real flowers were a must and I always love it when a party host allows the guests to take home the centerpieces. With that, I immediately realized I needed inexpensive vases (since flowers can cost a pretty penny). Mason or ball jars can be ordered in bulk for less than $1 each, so I ordered 4 different sizes for flowers, branches, a floating rose, and candles.

It became obvious I couldn't do all of this alone. My mind was starting to fill up with ideas and I needed help (we all know the groom plays very little part in wedding crafting) - so I consulted with my sister-in-law who happens to be an interior designer.

We knew in order to keep focusing on this "country-chic" theme that I fell into; we needed to find the right mix so things didn't look too cheap or too traditional. We wanted to "dress up" the jars to make them a little classier and bring in some color, so we decided to wrap them in fabric. This was a simple task being that my sister-in-law knows fabric distributors and was able to work her magic.

While my sister-in-law was gathering fabric in every color and pattern, I was on the hunt for mismatched pictures frames. They are pretty easy to come by at thrift stores, and very inexpensive. I spread the word to the family and told everyone to keep an eye out for frames: any size, any color, any shape.

I wanted to use the picture frames for table numbers. I thought it would be fun to brush chalkboard paint on the glass of the frame and hand-write the numbers in chalk. The black & white face offset all the different colors and made the numbers easy to pick out in a crowded room.

Once we had all of the jars, fabrics, and frames gathered we grouped everything by color. Without even realizing it, we were creating color schemes for each individual table at the reception hall. It was the perfect eclectic look I was going for.

I put a lot of thought and time into these wedding centerpieces. I enjoyed not only the final product, but the process as well. I would do it all over again – exactly the same way.

Floral Talent By: Judy Ipema (grapevineflowers.net) Photo Talent By: Victoria Sprung (sprungphoto.com)