Ideas for Inexpensive Wedding Centerpieces

Weddings can be expensive events. The caterer, the venue, the reception venue, the band, the drinks, the music, the flowers, and the decorations. Centerpieces certainly set the mood, and as the reception is often longer than the ceremony you'll want to make sure your guests have aesthetically pleasing decorations on their tables. There are many ideas for inexpensive wedding centerpieces available and many more yet to be developed by innovative brides and their friends and family. Here are just a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Floral arrangements are always a good choice, but flowers can be expensive. Instead of going to a florist, try a produce or farmers market - you'll get fresh cut flowers, but at much less than you'll pay at a florist. You could also use wildflowers - if any friends, family or neighbors have gardens, they can contribute. If you have enough time, plant a wildflower garden well in advance of the wedding to grow your own inexpensive wedding centerpieces. Also, with a very slender vase and some decorative stones, beads, or colored water you might try the look of a single flower per vase, instead of a whole bouquet. Or try two flowers per vase to signify the newlyweds - either way, having just a couple flowers per centerpiece can save a lot of money, while still presenting an elegant centerpiece.

If you like candles, there are hundreds of ways to use them in centerpieces. You can usually find inexpensive lantern holders at craft supply stores to hold simple, low-cost cylindrical candles. Or, use canisters, such as coffee cans, with holes punched in decorative designs as centerpieces.

If you like the floating candle effect, those centerpieces can be expensive due to the cost of the specially-designed floating candles. Instead, try using the tops of plastic champagne glasses and put small, inexpensive candles inside of them. You will get the same effect, but for much less money than purchasing special floating candles. You could also try floating the heads of wildflowers on the water.

A combination of the floral and candle idea is to put a candle on top of a mirror, surrounded by flower petals or confetti. This gives an elegant but simple look, and it is very easy to get the items and put them together in a short amount of time - after all, there is a lot to do before a wedding and in addition to being inexpensive, you need simple and easy to set up centerpieces for the tables.

Another idea is to obtain small boxes of various sizes and wrap them in decorative paper, stack them decoratively on the table covered in flower petals or confetti, or tie them together in stacks. This would work well to accent smaller inexpensive wedding centerpieces, and make them more prominent on larger tables.

While not a traditional centerpiece in any sort of way, you might consider putting a disposable camera at each table, perhaps adorned with some ribbons in the wedding colors. This might not seem inexpensive, but by encouraging your guests to take pictures with the provided camera, you will get many more photos than you would with just your regular photographer, and there is less of a chance you will miss out on recording special moments from your wedding reception.

These are just a few ideas to spark your imagination. The best ideas for inexpensive wedding centerpieces might come to you as you look at craft shows and craft supply stores. Your local arts and crafts center may be having a sale on a particular item that will lend itself well to making an inexpensive wedding centerpiece.