Center-Piece Test Drive

Like Miss Mitchellville I 'm not gettin' hitched until October 2009, which by my count is um, oh, a million light years away. One part of long engagements I'm coming to appreciate though is that I can do a lot of wedding day-dreaming, and I don't have to worry about making a decision right away. However, on Sunday, just for fun, I decided to put some day dreams in action and test out putting some center-pieces together

Our reception will be a small cocktail affair, so fewer people means fewer tables. The cocktail part means I'll have a few big 5 foot rounds, but I'll also have small cafe (2-seaters) tables and some cabaret (the tall bar type) tables. All this should give me some flexibility in the number and size of arrangements I'll need. So I've told you, now it's time to show!

Here's the first one I put together. Ignore the jars for right now! And the ribbons! This is just what I had around the house! I'm just focusing on the flowers.

This is a single hydrangea stem, about $3 from Whole Foods. I tucked three little clusters of white daisies at various places in the bloom. The daisy bunch was approx $4 and had over a dozen flowers. Hydrangeas are great because they are in season April to October and a single stem is inexpensive and practically a center-piece on it's own. I'm thinking of testing out something similar for my bouquet.

This was the big surprise on Sunday since I'm not really into roses! I've been saving these Martinelli's Apple Juice bottles because they are so cute and have a little leaf pattern on the top. I put a couple of little daisies and these little pink roses in the little jar and it was just little! And cute! The roses are "filler" roses, I believe, and came in several shades. There were about 12 blooms in the package and it was only $4! PS--If I wasn't sold on my own color combo (chocolate and pale blue) I would be all about the pink and navy. The flashy pink just POPS! off the more conservative navy.

I picked up these pink peonies on a whim as well. They are not in season in the fall, but I was experimenting, right? I'm not using any tricky tricks to get the flowers in the jars, I literally just set them in there. I think keeping the color palette simple and using only 1-2 flower varieties per arrangement made it easier to make them pretty.

I can't think of anything more simple, fresh and unassuming than this! A single peony in a little jar with a bright contrasting ribbon. I kept trying to tie bows around the jars, but found I actually like the simple knots better. Anyone can tie a knot!

Here's three of the different size arrangements on the kitchen table. This is what I would likely want for the couple of big tables. I'd use one small arrangements on each small table. Sorry the pic is so dark, I was having a lighting fail.

All told, I spent $20 on flowers and I have a 18 blooms left over. I had the ribbon from previous crafty stages, but if I'd had to purchase it, I would've spent around $10-$12, mostly because I used two satin ribbons. It took me under an hour, start to finish, to put everything together. We're on day two and all the flowers are still looking good.

Thoughts? Does anyone else plan to try their hand at doing their own wedding flowers?