Traditionally flowers go in the centre of the table at wedding banquets, but this can work out very expensive and rather wasteful since the flowers die a few days later. Here we look at a range of ideas for wedding table centre pieces that cost less and usually give you something you can take home or sell.
Handmade chocolates and berries
This super pretty table centerpiece features a platter of delicious hand crafted chocolates drizzled with melted chocolate and fresh berries. Not only will this fabulous idea wow your guests but they’ll also enjoy helping themselves to the sweet treats in between courses. This lovely centerpiece would also make a fantastic arrangement for a drinks table at the evening reception.
Here’s a closer shot – you can see that the pretty sweets each have a cocktail sword allowing them to be picked up without getting messy fingers from the drizzled chocolate! You could recreate this yourself without the help of your caterer using good quality chocolates, little plastic swords and berries – arranged on a plate or cake stand if you don’t have a platter like this one.
Flower balls and candy jars
Who could resist this sugary display of pretty sweet jars and containers full of almonds and marshmallows? The jars are tied with pretty ribbons and the contents labelled. The jars would look beautiful in the centre of the guests’ tables, giving them a sweet treat to enjoy throughout the evening – or set them up as a sweets bar, allowing guests to visit and fill up little cones or paper bags when they fancy a treat.
The perfect sweets for your wedding? Sugared almonds, little packets of love hearts, lemon sherbets, palma violets and marshmallows – these are all the perfect colours for a really pretty wedding table display.
The sweets are set among elegant balls of artificial flowers in matching pastel colours.
Cake stands
A cake stand of colourful, glittery cakes is the perfect wedding table centerpiece and you can match the icing exactly to your theme.
As an alternative, why not fill your cake stand with brightly coloured wedding-themed biscuits that your guests can nibble on or take home with them as a sweet wedding favour?
Biscuits can also be presented in pretty red heart shaped boxes rather than on a cake stand, or strung together with ribbon to make a lovely hanging decoration.
Letters and flowers
Block letters like these are really popular and easy to pick up cheaply – they make a wonderful table decoration and centrepiece, especially when combined with a few pretty artificial flowers like in this pic.
Crisps and a nautical theme
I adore this creative wedding table centerpiece of a ship’s wheel used to hold a delicious selection of crisps and snacks. Little treasure chests of pearls and shells continue this creative, nautical wedding theme.
Fruit display
There’s no reason that fruit has to be confined to the desert table! It is a pretty and cheap way to decorate any of your guests’ tables, while adding a lovely treat for them to nibble on between courses.
Bird cages
Bird cages are a beautiful alternative to flowers because they open up so many possibilities. Here are some ideas:
Use a large candle in the centre of the bird cage or a number of smaller candles if the cage has holders for these.
Wrap artificial flowers around the cage or add flowers on wires here and there.
Fill the cage with artificial flowers – the foam type work well for this.
Add butterflies on wires to the outside of the cage.
Fill the bottom of the cage with artificial rose petals.
Use LED battery powered lights or battery powered candles to add lighting to the cage – allowing you to add in petals, flowers, butterflies and beads too without the risk of them catching fire.
Have one large cage left empty for wedding cards.
Here are a few favourites:
The cheapest place to buy a number of bird cages is eBay – these start at around £2.50 for the small bird-cage shaped tealight holders and range up to about £15.00 for the large sized cages that are ideal for cards.
Cocktail glasses
Giant cocktail glasses (or martini glasses) are another really versatile table centrepiece that you can do a lot with. Here are some ideas:
Fill with chocolate balls, covered in coloured foil to match your wedding colour theme – or sugared almonds.
Fill with rose potels or artificial flowers.
Put shiny glass stones in the bottom, add water and have floating flowers or a couple of floating tealights.
Fill with clear crystal pearls/water. These last for about 30 days when water is added and can usually be reused once they have dried out.
(For really large glasses) fill with water and a couple of tiny fish – make sure you have a home for these afterwards as it’s not kind to keep them in a cocktail glass long term!
Here are some favourites:
…and again, eBay is a fantastic place to pick up these lovely glasses at bargain price:
Crystal trees
Crystal trees make another fantastic and beautiful centrepiece but they do cost a bit more than the above two options even though they are still generally cheaper than flowers. An option is to hire them – or you can buy them and resell after the wedding, keeping one as a lovely keepsake. A very cheap alternative is to make your own by spraying some branches white, fixing together and attaching strings of twigs that you can buy cheaply on eBay.
Here are a few to inspire you:
…and some available on eBay to buy that are quite reasonable:
Vases
Vases make a really cheap centre piece as you can put so many different things in them and you can of course use them afterwards! Ideas include:
Twigs – spray them white or silver and leave plain or hang with crystals
Flowers – you only need a stem or two with some foliage or twigs to make a stunning centre piece
Stones and floating candles in shorter, wider vases
Here are some ideas to inspire you – what we love most about these is their simplicity, you just don’t need a £40 – £80 bouquet to create a statement piece with flowers. Take the charming twig vase for example: you can easily make this yourself using plain old jam jars, surrounded with twigs, tied with rafetta or natural sting and full of blooms that you can pick yourself on a country or woodland walk.
Cherries and flowers
This bowl of scrumptious rich dark cherries mixed with beautiful deep pink peonies and fresh green rose buds makes an absolutely stunning wedding centre piece. If you love the idea of using cherries for your wedding as much as I do, be sure to check out our full article on a cherry themed wedding.
Other ideas
Here are some other ideas for wedding table centre pieces that we spotted from around the web. A word of caution – if you decide to put water and floating candles in a glass container, make sure that there is sufficient distance between the candle and the glass. Some shallow glass containers with curved walls will crack if the candles float to the edges (as they usually do) from the heat of the burning candle. You shouldn’t have this problem with a deeper bowl with less water in it, or a bowl that doesn’t have curved edges like the one in the gallery below – but if in doubt, buy one and test it out at home to avoid a disaster on your big day!
Featured Image Credit: Red Giant Digital