I’ve been playing around with ideas for table settings and table arrangements for the wedding.  I’ve gone from idea to idea until I recently settled on using repurposed jars as the vases on the tables.  Not only is this option cost efficient, but it is entirely non-wasteful since I’m not buying a ton of vases I won’t need after the wedding.  But jars?  I use them for everything at home – from leftovers to vases to just storing things in an easy container.

So I put a call out to all my friends, letting them know that I needed jars.  Within a week I had a ton coming at me from all directions. Mr. W balked a little when he saw my growing collection in the garage.  Btu I explained that I needed several jars per table, and with 20 tables that would amount to 60-80 jars needed.  That wonderful man then set up my own wedding station in the garage where I could store all the pieces to my ADD ideas for the wedding as they came to me, and so they didn’t mix in with his power tools and car washing materials.

The other half of the table decorations dilemma was what to use for flowers.  I refuse to use a florist.  It’s way too expensive, and I can’t feel good about paying that much for something that is hardly memorable at a wedding, and will just get tossed afterwards.  Sure, they’re lovely.  But why can’t I do this part myself?

My original plan was to use the same paper flowers I’m using for my bouquet on the tables.  Mr. W completely balked at that one, straight up shutting it down.  So my next idea was no flowers at all, utilizing candles and other non-alive items as decoration instead.  But I could hardly get excited about this idea. So finally I settled on using the roses from my own backyard.  And the result came out to be pretty in such a backyard wedding kind of way.

And I was all set for this idea.  The roses grow in our backyard year-round, and are totally gorgeous and fragrant.  I loved how natural this looked, and how it was going to be another cost-efficient touch to our wedding details.  We’d likely have to supplement by buying more roses just before the wedding, but it would still cost less than using a florist.

But the part that this doesn’t fit in with is my color scheme.  I’m going red, white, and black for my theme, and the roses we grow fit more into a pink, orange, and yellow theme.  Beautiful for a sunset type of color scheme, but not really what I had in mind.  While I was adamant that this didn’t really matter, it kind of does.  So I was suddenly very excited when I came across a new idea using the inexpensive flower – carnations.

I put these together last night and had them on the table when we all sat down to eat for dinner.  My stepson took one look at them and mentioned how pretty they were.  And they are.  The stems cost me 50 cents each from Safeway, and would probably be half that price if I had bought them from Costco.  And I don’t necessarily have to stick to just carnations, but they do make a surprisingly lovely way to pop in some color while staying my theme.

I am using a dozen flowers per table, split up into 6 flowers per vase.  And then I’m using short jelly jars with tealight candles, embellished with white beans for the candle to be nestled in.  Totally simple, and definitely affordable.  I figure each centerpiece will cost me $5-$8 each, and look as lovely as I hope it will be.