Mrs. Flamingo, Montreal, Canada
Age and Occupation: 25, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Nursing Student
Engagement Date: December 2004
Wedding Date: June 21, 2008
Venue: Imperia Hotel (modern chic hotel)
About Me: I am a passionate designer who loves anything pretty. I heart all paper products (eco-friendly of course). My passion revolves around anything considered glamour; vintage and modern. In my free time, I love reading Martha mags, designing jewelry and making a pit-stop at Starbucks for a chai latte. I'm also a chocoholic at heart and my family drools over my homemade truffles.
What To Do?
October 30th, 2007 @ 12:03 pm by Mrs. Flamingo
My wedding, having a vintage glam theme, is a mix of both the movie influence of the 30’s and the glam that came with it (chandeliers, red carpet, etc.). I’ve always dreamt of having individual chandeliers at each table at my wedding. It would be so luxurious, but for several reasons, it’s not possible. First off, I’m not allowed to hang things from the ceiling of my reception hall, not to mention that having a chandelier at each table would be too expensive.
Image courtesy of Brides.com
As an alternative, I thought of making a tree chandelier instead as it would be much cheaper. I would simply need to find acrylic crystal beads to hang from the branches I would gather in the woods near my house. The overall piece would be very glamorous… but still this isn’t exactly what I had envisioned.
Last month, I bought a new local bridal magazine and to my surprise I saw the picture below for a rental company ad. HOW AMAZING!!! Chandeliers, but on a stand… exactly what I need.
Image courtesy of Elegant Wedding Magazine,
Rental Company: Luxe Rentals
I’ve been searching for something like this ever since I started planning my wedding. So I decided to call and ask how much they cost. The lady said $75. WHAT!?! 75 dollars each for a rental!?! I have over 20 tables… that’s over $1500 just for centerpieces, and I don’t even get to keep them! I had allotted around $350 for centerpieces since I was making them myself, so as you can see my budget doesn’t agree with the price.
I’m disappointed… so close yet so far! I don’t know what to do. I was thinking of maybe only having a few, but that still doesn’t solve my problem. What do I do for the other tables?
27 Responses to “What To Do?”
Since the stand chandeliers are a bit high, why dont’ you only do a few tables and do the other tables with smaller candles and with the acrylic crystals, accompanied by some flowers that sit low on the table. It’s always a good idea to do different levels to create dimension in a room, so you wouldn’t need to rental one for each table.
http://www.illuminations.com/jump.jsp?itemID=105&itemType=CATEGORY&iMainCat=13&viewall=true
Check illuminations…maybe you can find something there that you can use. I think I saw chandelier options a while back maybe they still have some?
I must say that I am absolutely in LOVE with that crystal tree! Although, I agree the chandeliers seem to fit better in your theme than trees do.
I think it’d be refreshing to see a mix! It’s becoming more popular to do that these days isn’t it? Splure on a few chandeliers to give height to the room and balance it out with a some lower floral arrangement. Depending on the size of your reception area I think they can make it seem crowded anyway.
This chandelier-esque/hanging crystal idea reminds me of something Mrs. Bell Pepper used. Her centerpiece inspiration is one of my faves! 
She has photos in her posts:
Vendor Rave: Flowers By Mary Elizabeth McVeigh
My Wedding Flowers Part II: Our Centerpieces
Now I’m going to sit here and brainstorm a more affordable way you can maybe DIY these centerpieces for that vintage glam theme! The things I do at work… Haha…
Check vitage store, TJ Maxx, yard sales and start buying individual tabletop chandeliers. They won’t all be the same. But will still be glamorous. Or you can take the crystals or acrylics form the chandeliers you have gather and string them onto candelabras.
i know this isn’t exactly what you’re looking for but its a starting off point:
http://www.steffsgifts.com/catalog/i236.html
i also saw a few of those on ebay for cheaper…you can try that to find more options
I think ghost chandeliers are super cool.
They completely fail to address the budget issue, but…they’re still really cool.
Thanks everyone for all the input… 
Luxe, unfortunately in Canada we don’t have any TJ Maxx.
I was thinking of maybe using acrylic chandelier pieces from a awesome site I found.
For those interested: http://www.shopwildthings.com/
http://gothicfaerystore.com/index.html
I tried ebay, but the ones I found, don’t ship to canada. You see the issues I am having with these centerpieces.
why not experiment with some cheap hanging chandeliers to see if there is a way to DIY a stand? It might only require a dowel rod and stand.
Miss Flamingo,
Here is a smaller version of your table chandeliers. Like you said, if you do the biggers ones for only a few tables, you can do this for the other tables to cut your costs. You’d just have to string more crystals to get the effect.
I have an old brass chandelier I’m saving to fix up with paint and candles to hang above my bathtub… maybe you can find enough at yard sales and thrift shops to re-finish and adorn with beads. I agree you wouldn’t need to find 20. I think it would look great to have mix and matched centerpieces. I can’t wait to see the finished product - your theme and ideas sound beautiful!
Miss Flamingo,
Here is something half the price based in Canada.
http://www.wedding-candles.ca/family-detail.asp?ProductNoEXT=CPWC-910
something different but still creates the same ambiance…
http://www.cb2.com/family.aspx?c=585&f=2793
also, gotta love ikea…
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90118868
You can get cheap chandeliers on eBay for about $30 each (with shipping, maybe cheaper if you find a supplier). Here’s a link to a lot of 2:
If you did half the tables in those, and the other half in a sort of “inverted chandelier” with multiple glass cylinders with floating candles, I think it would look great.
I’m loving your ideas!!
I did hanging tealight chandeliers at my wedding. It’s such a shame your venue won’t allow them. I actually got them for a steal from another bride who was also married at my venue who was looking to unload them. Maybe you can ask your venue if there are any other ‘like-minded’ brides looking to share their decor costs. It could save you a bundle. Or try perusing your local message boards on The Knot or Wedding Channel and post about it. : )
Oh wow, what get pieces. Thanks so much everyone for all your help! I love the candleabras at Ikea… but rule of my reception site : all candles must be protected by a rim. The flame must be out of reach…. of anything that can burn.
Marrilee diaz… unfortunately I would love to ask other brides… but my hotel reception is new. They open official Nov.15 … I am their 3rd wedding. Could you imagine! I booked my venue without even seeing it. I hope everything will look fine 
This is actually a problem that I was having. Even on ebay strings of crystals get pretty expensive. Now that Christmas is looming, why don’t you look for crystal garlands? You can hang them on branches or flower arrangements, on tables, etc. If you don’t have young children at the wedding you could also try scattering loose crystals on the tables!
Ikea used to have a black chandelier that could be hung or placed directly on a table. I don’t see it on the website now and I have no idea what the product’s name was (helpful, I know!) but you could look for that… sorry, that was actually a pretty unhelpful suggestion.
A IB site that I was looking at reminded me of what you are going after and I thought I would share.
Feathers and Crystals were this IB theme.
For the description:
http://kvetch.indiebride.com/index.php?t=msg&th=31278&start=0&rid=0&S=3f1486d644906d14277f251a657c8be2
For the photos look at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15379571@N05/sets/72157602772204022/show/
[…] my FH and I found our centerpiece idea… you have no idea how this feels. We’ve had this dilemma for quite sometime now, but this weekend solved it all. We found an alternative to our first idea. […]
I was at earthbound trading co. the other day and they had small centerpiece sizes chandelier candle holders with the beads and everything in black and white. They looked just like babies of the second picture.
I was on the Container Store’s website today and ran across these tiny chandeliers. You may be able to find some use for them. Thought I’d pass on the link.
http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?CATID=74951&PRODID=10020959
[…] something so organic like branches, is truly beautiful. So magical yet so glamorous, its something I wanted for my […]
[…] so organic like branches, is truly beautiful. So magical yet so glamorous, it’s something I wanted for my […]
Have you settled on anything for the chandelier/crystal tree centerpeice? I am going to shamelessly admit that I am anxiously awaiting what you settle on because I have a very similar theme as you. My theme is “Olde city Elegance with Soft Romance” and I am using as design elements silver, crystals, wrought iron architectural elements, and romantic flowers. My wedding is not till Sept 2009. But had a meeting with the florist (early right! no just anal) and we would like to use silver candelabras draped with crystals, and they are EXPENSIVE! - to rent & buy. Loved the photo you had and agree they are beautiful. Luckily my wedding is only 50 people and only need 4. Found moderately priced crystal chandeliers, but how do you put them on a table?!!!! I am stretching here to think of something, within the budget. So I am really anxious to see how you resolve this ….
@Nicole: Hey Nicole, I think your not the only one waiting for me to post about my centerpieces. They are almost done, and I have to take pictures, so hopefully next week I will blog about them. Hang in there….
[…] avoided the topic of our centerpieces for quite some time now, because I didn’t know what to do. We absolutely wanted some type of chandelier on a stand, but I had to figure out how. During the […]
