How to Make Inexpensive Wedding Flower Centerpieces Like a Pro

The last few weeks, I have been spending a bit of time talking about some of my favorite DIY wedding decor ideas from my sisters wedding.  Creating something beautiful for practically nothing was a very satisfying feat!  Today I want to show you how we made easy and inexpensive summer wedding flower centerpieces.

This inexpensive wedding centerpiece DIY is something practically anyone can do.  My sister was very clear what she wanted to have for her wedding.  She wanted some simple flowers, including Ranunculus, babies breath, and greenery. She wanted to incorporate blush and cream colored flowers while using a ton of beautiful greenery to balance them out.

The problem in here lies the simple fact that flowers for weddings are expensive.  Getting what she wanted from a florist, already assembled was not really in her budget(or at least she didn’t want it to be).

I totally understand, flowers are expensive and they only last one day!  Little did I know that my sister had uncovered a secret and it was what helped us get what she wanted for less!

The secret being, that she found she could order flowers from Costco as well as purchase some from Trader Joe’s.  She decided to skip the florist, and we decided that we could arrange the flowers ourselves.

You may be thinking….thats hard!  Well actually, it’s not. You just need to keep yourself organized.

She was able to get some really pretty blush roses, a ton of babies breath, and other pretty greenery.  In addition to that, I had cut down a ton of Manzanita bush that we used on her wedding backdrop , as well as on on her DIY wedding signs.

It is a great addition since it does not wilt like a normal plant or flower.  It behaves more like a pine tree.  The leaves are thicker and stay gorgeous for a while.

So, my sister took care of the details as far as ordering and picking out what flowers and filler she wanted.  I made sure we had enough containers to hold all of pour arrangements.  Since we were doing a fun outdoor woodland wedding, we decided to go with something a bit more unique.  

And you will never guess what we went with.  Pickle jars.  Listen, hear me out.  Have you ever purchased the giant bottle of pickles from Costco or the grocery store? They have the coolest designs on them.  My sister and I collected them of a few months to make sure we had enough….yes we eat that many pickles.

We also used some large mason jar bottles that I had been collecting.  Once they were all used together, you could not tell them apart.

The day of the wedding came, and with my sister being completely distracted (with good reason), I took the wedding flower centerpieces on myself and got them set up.

If you are going to attempt arranging and creating your own wedding flower centerpieces, there are a few tips that I can share that helped me.  

• The first thing I did was lay out all the containers I was planning to use, including extra containers for the food and cake tables.  This will help you to be able to visualize how much you are doing and when you start adding flowers, you will be able to distribute more evenly.
• I have laid out the containers all together at times and also placed them on their tables so that I could constantly get an accurate visual of what the centerpieces would look like on the tables. I do this every time I make centerpieces for any event.
• Second, I laid out all my flowers and fillers.  I wanted to know how much of each I had so that I knew how to distribute them out.
• Third, I filled the jars with water so that I did not need to do this after.
• Now, I want to stress that each one of these centerpieces ended up being slightly different, which is what we wanted.  But, they still looked the same, or at least almost the same.
• I started by taking one kind of flower and and distributing them to the containers.  I divided them up, and made sure there was some for each vase.  I also made sure to keep a few flowers back for the wedding cake, which I was decorating also.

Once I had the first set of flowers distributed in the containers I repeated the process.

• I repeated the process of adding flowers to each container, making sure they were all balanced.  Once I had all the flowers separated into the containers, I started adding the filler.  
• At this point, they still weren’t exactly arranged, I did that after I had them all divided out.
• I continued this process, making sure each container had the same amount of fillers.  If I found that I had an uneven amount, I would add a bit more of another filler plant to keep the sizes consistent.
• I also kept a few pieces of filler out for the cake as well.

Once they were all divided up, it was time to have some fun arranging the flowers.  Here are some of my wedding flower centerpiece arranging tips:

• I like to start with the largest and tallest flowers first.  I will make sure that they are trimmed a bit so that they are not a  lot taller than the rest of the flowers.  But I like to have a gradual decline in height as they go outward.
• Make sure to trim your flowers properly, on an angle for the absorption of water.
• You can use a flower frog or this cool mason jar accessory to help you keep your flowers spaced evenly.  I did not use one.
• Once I have added my larger/tallest flowers, I will start to add the greenery.  I like to add the greenery next, to make sure I have it spaced around the larger flowers.
• Once I have the greenery in place, I will add the smaller flowers and babies breath.  I will dot them in between the large flowers and the greenery.
• You can see here how I did that in this centerpiece.  The key here was to make sure I didn’t have a big clump of one flower or filler in one spot. I wanted them to blend in complimenting each other.  I also wanted the babies breath to peek out a bit, showing its wild side.

I also made sure that if I had some that liked to cascade a bit, I would add them to the outside so that they would flay out a bit.

We wanted these to have a touch of a wild look to them while also looking elegant.

I find flower arranging to be really relaxing.  It allows me to get into my zone.  

We ended up adding simple fabric pieces to the top of our tables, which were old wire spools.  They were the perfect height for out chairs and we even had a very large one that people could stand at and visit.

Not only did we use the flowers on the tables, I made some for the cake table and the food tables.

They looked beautiful with the elegant cupcakes I made and so great with the contrast of the wood spool tables.

For the wedding cake, my sister wanted it to be simple.  I made a naked cake, that I iced simply.  I then added a few large flowers, and then dotted with some green filler and babies breath.

We also had a bit of the greenery left over so I added bundles of it to break up the spaces between serving dishes, etc.

This wedding was the ultimate DIY.  We worked hard to create exactly what my sister wanted.  

It was a big joint effort.  My sister worked really hard and so did I.  I should mention my husband and my sisters new husband worked really hard too! They took care of all the heavy lifting and non fun stuff.

So, do you think you can make your own centerpieces?  Yes, you can!  Just follow my simple steps and you too can create some beautiful wedding flower centerpieces of your own!

Have a great day friends!

Looking for more wedding inspiration?  Check out these posts:

Budget Saving DIY Wedding Signs on Wood

DIY Wedding Backdrop with Dropcloths for Budget Friendly Style

A Woodland Themed Outdoor Wedding

 

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