Weddingbee

My supersweet florist Karen of Huckleberry Karen Designs reigned me in this Sunday for a centerpiece trial. Since I was pretty adamant about DIY’ing our centerpieces, she insisted I come in to her studio for a trial, so she could give me pointers on how to set everything up, and to share tips and tricks about how to make the flowers last through the June heat.

I wanted a pretty minimal centerpiece, and my mom wanted orchids. Well, orchids, they aren’t the cheapest flowers around, so Mrs. Lemon stalked down some pretty awesome inspiration for me:

Image from Tropical Colours: The Art of Living with Tropical Flowers
Pieces by Floral Designers: Sakul Intakul & Devehastin na Ayudhya
Photography by Luca Invernizzi Tettoni
Featured on: http://gaileguevara.blogspot.com/

So running with the simple look, Karen came up with a simple way to recreate the centerpieces, for under $10 a table (for floral materials).

I’ve got 19 round tables total. Half of the tables will feature tall centerpieces, and half, short centerpieces.

Tall table centerpieces:

Using 24″ tall glass vases I bought from ebay seller HJK Imports, ($66 for 6 vases), Karen showed me how to set up our first centerpieces.

She added rocks, cut a slit in a large leaf about 3/4 of the way up, and added a cymbidium orchid to the front and the back of the leaf, for symmetry.

Then she filled the vase up with water.

All done!

I mocked the table up with 3 additional Cymbidiums, and tea lights. Here you can see that the front and the back of the centerpiece look virtually identical, giving our round tables a great 360 degree view. We cut the leaf to see what it would look like fully submerged, but I like the look of the leaf sticking out higher than the vase (above pictures) so we’re going that route.

Short Table Centerpieces:

Cutting small strips of a banana leaf, Karen placed a strip in each glass container.

Then, she added a Cymbidium orchid and filled each vase with water, and I added the same setup on the tables with the tealights and the orchids. Easy-peasy!

Afterwards, Karen and I grabbed a leisurly lunch and enjoyed the San Francisco sunshine on the restaurant’s patio. And with only a few weeks left till my wedding, look what I got:

Idiot.

COST BREAKDOWN:

TALL CENTERPIECES, Each:
These cost:
$11 for 24 inch vase from HJK Imports
$8 for 8 tealights and candles
$10 for 5 cymbidium orchids and large leaf
TOTAL: $29

SHORT CENTERPIECES, Each:
$11 for trio of vases from Pfalzgraff (search for a coupon code to get a discounted price)
$8 for 8 tealights and candles
$10 for 6 cymbidium orchids and small banana leaf
TOTAL: $29

The best part? I can lend out/sell the glass pieces later and recoup some of my costs!

Are you planning on DIYing your centerpieces?