Mrs. Toucan, Boston
Age and Occupation: 25, Full-time Research Assistant, Part-time Graduate Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Actuary
Engagement Date: February 18, 2007
Wedding Date: June 7, 2008
Blogging Since: November 07, 2007
Venue: St. Catherine of Genoa, Jin Asian Cuisine Restaurant
About Me: I’m a Gemini to the extreme. On one side, I’m a girly girl. I read countless bridal and fashion magazines, and have an obsession with keeping up with the latest Hollywood gossip. On the other side, I’m a sports fanatic. Despite being a full-time bride-to be, full-time research assistant, and part-time student, I’m also a full-time Red Sox fan from spring training to October, and a full-time Patriots fan from mini-camp to February. I devote almost as much time researching my for fantasy football team as researching for our wedding!
Short Centerpieces
November 16th, 2007 @ 5:53 pm by Mrs. Toucan
I love, love, love tall centerpieces. They decorate any room so dramatically. Unfortunately, I probably won’t be getting them. My uncle will be shipping them from China, so most likely, I can’t have 30 centerpieces, each 25+ inches tall shipped very feasibly. So… it’s back to the drawing board.
Short centerpiece inspiration (click to enlarge):
Notice a common theme?
It looks like I like the footed vases/containers for short centerpieces. I think my favoritea are the top, left and the top center photos in the the first picture.
What are your favorites? Do you prefer tall or short?
19 Responses to “Short Centerpieces”
I like tall CP’s for tall rooms, where you want to bring the ceiling down, or to emphazie a dramitic vaulted ceiling. I LOVE these low, footed CP’s that you show, though.
If uncle is shipping them already arranged, perhaps they will be anchored/arranged in a piece of floral foam or something easily transferred to a tall CP vase?
And, if you could swing it in any way, I think that having both is a good idea, too! Maybe uncle can ship 20 or 25 low CP’s and you can locally buy/arrange 5-10 tall CP’s.
Apologies in advance if you’ve already posted about budget and limitations–I check in once in a blue moon these days. 
Best wishes!
I’m all for short ones. I will always remember going to a florist’s 25th anniversary party, and having to try to carry on a conversation with people across the table we couldn’t even hope to see, thanks to the massive columns of flowers and candles blocking the way.
so are you shipping REAL flowers from China? If so, will they survive? Or is he just shipping the holders?
I’ve been a big fan of short centerpieces ever since I read one of Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa books. I didn’t want anything that would block the view of other guests.
Short!! Love the look.
I love the lower right hand corner one. OMG I want those vases.
I love short centerpieces, but ours are all TALL (over 4″ tall — two 2″ rectangular vases stacked one on top of the other with a mirror between the two) because our ceilings are SO HIGH. The room is 4 stories high, so we really needed something to fill all that massive space.
I love low centerpieces though because they are fun and festive without being over the top and you can still converse with the people on the other side of the table!
I love the orange roses with the twigs. I don’t know about your color schemes or themes but that is a gorgeous, dramatic, and very modern look.
I really wanted tall (super tall ceilings at our venue) but I think I’m going to go with short. I don’t want the centerpieces to get in the way of seeing people across the table and think that even tall skinny vases can get annoying. Also, I want people to be able to take the centerpieces home which is much trickier with something tall and awkward.
I LOVE tall centerpieces, but then everything you read is like, “use short, your guests need to see eachother” - boo.
Those are quite lovely! I recently went to a wedding and they had tall center pieces at their reception…very extravagant looking but those you posted look just as beautiful. I’ll prob do high and low when it’s my time…ahaha
Mary, my uncle does silk flowers in China, so he will copy a centerpiece for me using silk florals. That’s why I can’t have tall CPs, because it’s so hard to ship things that tall!
I’m probably on my own for the vase/containers.
My favorite is the Orange one in the twig ball, but I don’t know where to get that type of vase, and it’s most likely out of my budget.
the orange one is my fave too. i also like the pink bouquet one next to it. i guess i like monochromatic.
Short, unless you have super tall ceilings that you’re trying to camoflouge. Like others said, it stinks to have to look around them to talk to people on the other side. If the room is alreadh pretty on its own, tall CPs detract from that I think.
i’m all about the tall centerpieces, but the key is to have them >2 ft so it doesn’t obstruct everyone’s view of each other. at our wedding, we had half tall and half short. the tall ones had a cylinder base that were filled in the middle with flowers too which was kind of neat. the only other thing is if you want to do a picture with guests at each table, the tall ones are kind of a pain for the photographer…i like the all pink rose one…good luck!
I agree with the previous ladies who say that it’s so much nicer to be able to see the people across the table that you’re talking to, and short centerpieces are great for that! I like the pink one on the top left of your 2nd photo board. Beautiful! 
I’m not a big fan of tall centerpieces. I prefer shorter ones, or a combination, so not every table has a tall centerpieces.
Miss T, if you scope out antique stores, you could find a variety of footed pedastals for your twig centerpieces, and then spray paint them all the same color with a high quality, glass approved spraypaint. It would add a bit of quirky charm, so it maybe wouldn’t work with a super modern affair, but it would cost much, much less than getting a dozen or so brand new vases.
we wanted taller vases than we ended up with but they were too expensive! ours were only about 15″ tall - 10″ cylindrical vases, and with lucky bamboo, stones, and gorgeous full dahlias. we compensated for the shortness by adding a circular mirror underneath with votives, additional stones, and more dahlias. almost all of them were taken home by guests! the centerpieces also didn’t distract from the natural decor of the mansion where we had our reception.
