Wedding on A Budget: Alma Mater Wedding Reception Centerpieces for $20 or Less

Looking for affordable Wedding Reception centerpieces and ideas you can make yourself? Here are five simple projects that make beautiful Wedding Reception centerpieces using your college or university as the inspiration! So, no matter where you went to college you can incorporate these ideas!

All of the materials are super affordable and should allow you to make a nice large Alma Mater Wedding Reception centerpiece. These are all great for a long dinner table that needs quite a bit of decoration in the middle to fill it up.

You can make a beautiful and simple affordable centerpiece put of some simple Pom pom strands, Candles and a Platter. Simply look through your closet for some left over pom poms from your college football games. You could also buy some large pom poms in your college or university colors at the local arts and craft store.

Cut the strands of the pom pom off close to the handle. Lay them out in a border on your large platter. Place you candles in the middle of the platter. Use candles that match one of your Alma Mater's colors.

If you do not have enough large platters, then try asking your bridesmaids and wedding guests if they would not mind lending you theirs.

For more centerpiece ideas for your big day click here.

For a more formal and colorful affordable Wedding Reception centerpiece you will need: Glass Jars, Candles, Miniature flowering plants in your school colors, and some Ribbon (Optional). Place your pillar candles in the glass jars. Pour in some sand around the candles. Now, place your small flowering plants inside. I recommend using two colors of flowering plants. One in white and one in red if your Alma Mater colors were white and red.

You can leave them in mini terra cotta plans or temporarily plant them in the sand. You can add more detail with some ribbon that matches your Alma Mater color scheme.

You can use any type of flowering. This fits well into a College or University themed wedding.

If you are renting china to use the day of your wedding reception, then rent a few extra plates in your Alma Mater colors to make this simple and affordable wedding reception centerpiece. Again, go for two colors if possible. Most college and university have school colors that are two colors.

For this simple centerpiece you will need: dinner plates, candles, and flower garlands. Now, take out one of those extra plates and try placing some pillar candles in the middle of it. So, again, if your Alma Mater colors were red and white, you could have a white plate with red candles, or a red plate with white candles. The latter would be a touch more elegant.

You can make it more formal by placing a simple ring of floral garland around the plate as well. Again, keep your alma mater color sin mind. So, I recommend also keeping the flowers the same color as the plate. So, red flowers, red plate, and white candles. You get the idea!

This is a great way to carry on a uniform look on your College or University Wedding Reception table if you are already using a special china pattern. You can make flower garlands ahead of time.

Finally, for a simple and affordable centerpiece on you wedding reception dinner tables your will need: teacups and saucers in your Alma Mater colors, tea candles or floating candle, and single matching school color flowers. Go ahead and rent some extra china in your college colors again for this one.

This is another great budget Wedding Reception centerpiece if you have some china or tableware. Make a row of ten teacups and saucers down the center for your Wedding Reception dinner table. Stick with all one color. So, in this case red would be the example.

Fill every other one with water. Add a floating white candle or a tea candle in this example case. Next, You could add a little water to these teacups and put in a single stemmed white flower. This is an elegant way to light up your entire Wedding Reception dinner table and keep your school colors in mind.

Check out more projects by Rebecca.