Centerpieces can range from very ornate and expensive to nonexistent. I wanted something simple and budget friendly, but I still wanted them to catch the eye of our guests. Some brides decide to forgo centerpieces and flowers, but I wanted flowers and decorations, without breaking the bank. I did a lot of browsing on Pinterest to come up with ideas and ended up with centerpieces that were sparkly, simple and fit within our budget.
The first thing I did was come up with a design. I wanted a round mirror as the base, with a square vase in the center filled with grayish toned rocks and a large white hydrangea. I also wanted turquoise glitter square votives with candles to surround each vase. The pure white of the hydrangea would draw the eye, while the glittered votives would add some color. With the mirror underneath, the reflection from the glitter and candles would add lots of light and sparkle. Also, the grayish rocks in the vase would compliment the silver and gray tones used throughout our wedding as well as add a natural look.
I first looked for the vases and found the ones I liked, but they were $12 each! I asked around and luckily our friends, the Archers, had vases from their wedding that we could borrow for free. They were rectangle and slightly smaller than the square ones I wanted, but they had a similar look and free is always good! Then we looked into the hydrangeas. At first we looked into fake ones, since we assumed fake would be cheaper. For 1 hydrangea, it was $10, and we could get by with 1 per table. Then we talked to our florist and they were only $6 a stem and they were incredibly full and 1 per table was more than enough. Needless to say, we went with the real ones! Now onto the rocks. I found a pack of rocks at Michael's that were perfect and 1 pack would fill 2 vases. I decided to wait to buy until their next sale came out and luckily they went on sale for $1 each (originally $2.99 each)! I looked for mirrors, and not too many places carried them, and they were expensive. I looked into a party rental store and they rented large round mirrors for $2 each, so we rented those!
While the centerpieces were designed and put together by myself (with the help from my lovely bridesmaids!) the main DIY part of these were the votives. You can find plain votives and colored ones, but it was really hard to find glittery turquoise ones so I ended up making my own. Looking around town, even plain square votives could be as expensive as $4 each. I wanted 4 per table, plus more to line the head table. That was going to get pricey. I searched online and found some in the right size and shape, and they even came with candles to put inside! I bought a pack of 72 votives and candles for $68. I still had to add some glitter. I bought some turquoise glitter and Mod Podge from Michael's and decorated them myself. The glitter was $5 a jar, and I used 3 jars. The Mod Podge was $6 and I nearly used the entire bottle. I painted the inside of the votive with a layer of Mod Podge, dumped glitter inside and shook it (covered with a plastic bag) and then dumped the excess glitter back into the jar. Once they dried, I sealed the glitter with another layer of Mod Podge.
Here's the price breakdown of my centerpieces:
vases: free x 1 per table = $0
hydrangea: $6 x 1 per table = $6
rocks: $1 x 1/2 bag per table = $0.50
mirrors: $2 x 1 per table = $2
votives: $68 for 72 (about $1 each) x 4 per table = ~$4
glitter and Mod Podge: divided out per table it was about = ~$1.20
total cost for each centerpiece = ~$13.70
Not bad, right? By renting items, shopping around and doing a little DIY, we were able to have gorgeous centerpieces that fit in our budget!
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