There are so many decisions to be made before your wedding day. And just one of the many is how to decorate the tables at your reception.
The traditional answer is to use flowers, but perhaps you can’t, or don’t want to go the standard route. Maybe a close friend or family member is allergic to floral arrangements. Or maybe you just want something really different from what everyone else does. With a little creativity and forethought, it’s a snap.
There are some options for those who think outside the box on this issue. Flowers aren’t the only way to go when it comes to wedding centerpieces.
• A very attractive and simple idea is to cut tree boughs and to arrange them in the center of each table. (It’s free, too, if you or a friend has legal access to these trees.)
For a winter wedding, use small branches from pine and holly trees; also consider any tree with red berries, including cotoneaster and yew. The combination of pine and red berries is very striking, set against a snowy white tablecloth. Ribbon or raffia could be loosely tied around the boughs if you like.
For a spring wedding, cut branches from pussy willows; for fall, use branches from any tree that turns brilliant colors in autumn, such as Japanese maple.
You might want to assign a friend or family member to this task. All they will need is a good pair of garden shears and a cardboard box in which to put the boughs. Cut a number of lengths, from 1 foot to 3 feet, and then have someone with a good eye arrange them on the tables.
After the reception is done, these boughs can be taken home by guests or put on the compost pile.
• What could be more romantic than candles? Consider an arrangement of beautiful candles to coordinate with the colors of your wedding. These could be lighted or not during the reception, as you see fit.
If you choose to let them be unlit, enhance the candle arrangements with thin curled ribbon festooned around the base of the candles. If you want to light the candles during the reception, then don’t use the ribbon – it could possibly catch on fire – and instead sprinkle some shiny confetti on the tablecloth around the candles.
If you display many small candles on the tables, your guests can take them home as a wedding favor.
• Living, non-floral plants are also very attractive. One bride I know had the bright idea of placing small potted succulent plants, such as jade plants, on each reception table.
The plants were clustered in the middle of each table in attractive wrapping. These were taken home by guests after the party ended, and could be planted in guests’ gardens as a reminder of the couple’s special day.
• If you want to make your wedding centerpieces really special and personal, think about something you and your spouse-to-be have in common, or something that reflects your personalities.
For instance, a couple that has a special hobby in common can use that theme on the tables. Say they love to travel. Why not decorate the tables with toy planes and mini-Eiffel Towers, or perhaps other tokens of faraway places? Use your imagination. A golfing couple, for instance, could use attractive baskets of golf balls and tees.
