The Ashley Maria Blog: DIY Wedding Centerpieces

I am the type of person that if I have a vision in my head, it's a little hard to have people recreate it for me. Maybe I take on too much work myself, but I knew when it came to centerpieces for the wedding, I would be able to to save money by doing them myself, exactly how I wanted them myself!! We are having a big wedding and will need a lot of centerpieces, but knew if I started early it wouldn't be a problem getting them done!

I still have yet to add a little ribbon onto the bottom of the bouquet but loved the way they turned out. For the wedding venue, I did a mixture of 12" and 16" eiffel vases to make them differ by tables. Our venue has two levels with a the second floor being a balcony that overlooks the dance floor and main level tables. For upstairs I chose to do ivory lighthouse lanterns.

I wanted a smaller floral arrangement since (to me) receptions are suppose to be about seeing the others at your table and catching up. Nothing is more annoying then having to look 'around' a centerpiece to talk to someone! I'm also not a huge fan of real flowers. Don't get me wrong I enjoy receiving them.. especially unexpectedly; but they die and then what.. you have the pictures of them! I love the way peony's look and wanted to incorporate them into my wedding day. BUT the price of a peony is ridiculous and they die in less then a day. I was not having that! So I got the next best thing.. FAKE FLOWERS!

Of course I got looks when I said I am doing my own arrangements, but I think they came out great.. and after all- that's all that should matter right?!

First thing first.. these do take time and patience, and if you are like me, every one of them has to be perfect. I started purchasing the floral early in an effort to not have to fork out so much money all at once. I bought the bushels from Hobby Lobby when they went on sale for 50% off. I also purchased online, making it easier to buy in bulk. Sometimes stores will only carry maximum quantities per week or month.

I used two bushels per centerpiece. The bushels I used already came assembled in a bouquet but I wanted to make it fuller. So (the most time consuming part of it) I took each bushel apart and reassembled combining two together. I wrapped each with green floral tape as tight as possible. I wanted to have some greenery 'hang' off the side, so I purchased additional vines and hot glued them into the wrapped centerpieces. I ordered starfish from a shop on etsy that I could stick out of the bouquets. Since the bouquets are a little top heavy, and to tie the 'beachy' theme into the wedding, I added sand to the vases. I may still add a ribbon to cover the stems, but kinda like how it looks without and the rawness (is that a word??) of the stems.