Weddingbee Blog

When we last left off in the saga that is our centerpieces, I had a vision for milk-glass bud vases filled with flowers set up along our tables.

Flowers by La Partie Events / Photo by Erin Hearts Court / Image via Elizabeth Anne Designs

Just to give you an idea of what our reception space looks like, here’s a picture of the set-up:

Photo by Randal Kurt Photography / Image via Brock House

We’ll have three tables of ten people and two tables of twelve people. How pretty would it look to have bud vases set up down those long tables? I figured I’d need 22 vases total, so I was on a mission to source them! However, if I wasn’t able to track enough down, I had a back-up plan…

The other week Mr. Gazelle was working the 7AM to 7PM shift at work. I decided to put the hours between when I got off of work to when I had to pick him up to good use. I printed off addresses for almost every single Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Value Village in town. Plus I scoured Kijiji for ads and estate sales. Armed with my trusty Garmin GPS, I ran around the city on a mission.

I had no success at the Salvation Army at all, and while Value Village did have vases, they were clear-glass versions of the milk-glass ones I had been searching for. It wasn’t quite what I wanted, but it would have been a good back-up plan. I lucked out at several Goodwill locations, though.

Luckily I was able to find all of the vases I thought I would need! Here’s a look at some of the ones I found:

I love the short round hobnail one that is actually a perfume bottle! I pulled the cork out to give it a rinse, and it still had some extraordinarily stinky perfume in it. I also found a few large vases to hold our bouquets at the head table.

In order to save costs on the floral centerpieces, we’ll actually be doing them ourselves. Costco has an amazing selection of fresh-cut flowers, and did you know that you can order flowers in bulk from them in Canada? I figure that we will pick up a bunch of white or cream roses and fill in with other colours or other flowers if there is anything else that catches our eye. I would have loved to echo the flowers in our bouquets, but sadly that is a little out of our budget.

The Back-Up Plan

What was my back-up plan if I couldn’t source milk glass? Well, it starts with the Snartig vase from IKEA, available for $0.99 here in Canada:

Snartig vase via IKEA

I found a great DIY milk glass tutorial on Ruffled where a can of white glossy spray paint can turn ordinary glass into pretty white glass!

Image via Marry You Me

So if you want the look for less or can’t source inexpensive milk glass, this would be a great alternative!

Do you have any suggestions for inexpensive vases or flowers?