Thursday, March 11, 2010

5 Steps to Creating Unique Centerpieces



Step One-Main Container
 Find inspiration online and in bridal and home decor books and magazines. Pick your central container according to the size and shape of your tables. A regular ballroom table should have a centerpiece that is between 10 and 12 inches or more while long thin tables should not have a centerpiece bigger than 4-6 inches but would look great with more than one per table. .

Step Two- Romantic Illumination
Choose your illumination, especially if you are having an evening reception. Most candles that are
in an enclosed container are usually allowed in most hotel or motel halls. Find out before getting your heart set on a certain idea.Mini votives can be placed around a main centerpiece. Floating candles can also be your main centerpiece when floating in a low bowl. You``ll probably want to scatter petals, leaves or shells around your main bowl depending on the season and theme of your wedding. Confetti is not always permitted but could also be a great touch around a candle bowl. If you cannot use wax candles or if you want something
different, there are many new products on the market that look amazing, such as battery candles, fiber optic lights and LED lights.You can even use glow sticks in yellow for the brightest or in your theme color if you prefer. To get a glow  effect for your centerpiece, buy some tulle and cut it in sections to fit into your bowls.
When the time comes, in the late afternoon or just before your reception, you’ll want someone trustworthy to be in charge of lighting the candles glow sticks or battery candles just before the beginning of the
reception. If your reception is to be held in a  ballroom, double check if the staff can be responsible of this for you.

Step Three- The Filler
Decide how you will fill your bowls or containers.
The simplest idea is to just put water in the bowls and float one or more candles. An upgrade
to that idea is to add food grade coloring in your theme color to your water if your container is
clear. Although it is a little messier to mix colorant into the water (get the drops from the baking
section in your local supermarket), it could be beautiful in the right color combination. Light
blue water with a dark blue candle is a beautiful combination. You can do the same idea with colored beads, stones, sand, shells or colored wax granules,
Magic Crystals are also great  to use instead of water to hold flowers or candles or a number
of other theme items. Sometimes called by diff erent names, they are small beads that hold in
water and become much bigger when they are hydrated. “Soil Moist” a gardening product that
is designed to hold moisture in the plants for less watering is basically the same thing as Magic
crystals.

Step 4 -Easy Floral Elegance
Nothing beats fresh flowers for wedding elegance. Floating flowers is an easy yet simple and beautiful way to fill your centerpiece bowls. Flowers that you float should reflect your theme flower or theme color. Flowers that work very well for this purpose are daisies, roses, gerbera daisies or carnations. Most small to medium   flowers would work well for this purpose. Even garden grown blooms would do best floating in bowls.Another easy floral idea is to use very tall vases, fill the bottom with your filler of choice and use tall line flowers such as delphinum, larkspur, calla lilies or large blooms for example hydrangea and roses.


Step 5- Put it all together

Do as much preparation ahead of time to reduce stress on wedding day. Fill bowls with any filler that is not liquid.( If using a watery filler, you will need to fill your bowls onsite. Each container should have approx. 2/3 water, sand or other chosen filler, unless in the case of really tall vases in which case 1/4 should be sufficient.) Pack all ingredients of your centerpieces together making sure to think of every aspect of preparing your centerpieces onsite. Will you have a container to fill with water if using? Will you have scissors to cut the ribbon ? etcc...Organisation will go a long way to preventing stress and creating beautiful, original centerpieces. Make yourself a reminder list of things you will need to bring or steps to making the centerpieces if being put together by others (in which case you should definitely have a model for the assistants to copy.

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