Wedding Centerpieces Created from Thrift Store Items?

Sure you could order glassware, vases or expensive wedding centerpieces to adorn your tables at your wedding. However, if you have shopped around at all you know just how expensive that can get! If you are planning a wedding on a budget there is no need to blow a lot of money on wedding centerpieces when you can make your own beautiful, elegant wedding centerpieces for a fraction of the cost. All you need to do is hit your local thrift store and stop by a craft store and you are ready to get started. Here are instructions on how to make beautiful wedding centerpieces on a thrift store budget.

To begin, head to your local thrift store and buy enough wine glasses or goblets to place several on each table. Don't worry about matching them since the variation in styles, heights and sizes will actually make your centerpieces more beautiful and interesting.

Next, head out to your local craft store. Find the aisle with the craft wire and look for heavy armature wire in silver, gold or copper depending upon the colors of your wedding. Depending upon how many tables you have and how many wine glasses you are using you will probably need to buy several rolls of wire. While you are in the wire section, pick up one spool of matching wire that is very fine that you can string a bead on.

Now, head to the bead section of the craft store and look for some large crystal drop beads. If you can't find them at your local bead store you can order them online for just pennies per bead. You just need one bead per glass.

You will also need a spool of ribbon in your wedding colors. You can use wide ribbon or thin, delicate ribbon depending upon your personal taste. Narrow ribbon will allow more of the wire to show whereas wider ribbon will hide more of it, so you may want to consider that when you are purchasing the ribbon.

Finally, you will need to purchase enough floating candles to put one in each glass.

Once you have gathered together all your supplies you are ready to get started. Begin by coiling the wire tightly around the stem of each wine glass making sure that each coil lies right next to the one before and none of the wine glass stem is left showing through. When you reach the bowl of the glass, continue wrapping the wire a small distance up the bowl. When you reach the end, use a pair of needle nosed pliers to bend the wire downward into a loop and cut off any excess wire with a pair of wire cutters.

Next, string a short length of narrow wire through one of your crystal drop beads. Thread the narrow wire through the loop you just created on the wine glass and twist it to secure it. Your crystal drop should now be hanging down from the loop on the wine glass. Cut off any excess wire with your wire cutters.

Now, tie a length of ribbon into a bow around the wire loop. This should hide the wire so that it looks like the crystal is hanging down from the center of the bow.

Position several wine glasses on a pretty piece of fabric in the center of each table and fill them partway with water. You can make it more interesting by varying the heights of the wine glasses on each table. If all your glasses are the same height, try filling them to different levels with the water to create the illusion of varying heights.

Finally, put a floating candle in each of the wind glasses. If you would like you can wind ribbon or scatter flowers among the base of the wine glasses to give the centerpieces more volume.