Weddingbee Blog

Yep, my centerpieces are going to include beer bottles and candle holders known as hurricanes. While on a planning trip in Minnesota this past spring, MOH Big Eyes, my Mom Sword, and I all went shopping for centerpiece inspiration. I did NOT expect to buy anything on this shopping trip, but things don’t usually turn out the way I expect them to go, so I shouldn’t have been surprised!

First off, let me give you my vision: I picture our tables as being dark and romantic. I want to name all of our tables a different inspirational or fun word (as opposed to the ever popular number idea), and I just love Miss Cauldron’s idea of naming her tables with parts of a sailboat! Beyond that, I knew I wanted to include empty beer bottles as a nod to Mr. Sword’s culture and beverage of choice. But that’s all I had. It was all very abstract in my head, and I wasn’t sure how it would look in the end.

Here are a few inspiration photos I’ve found using bottles:

Image via Apartment Therapy

While I think the yarn look is super gorgeous and unique, I feel like it’s a bit too outdoorsy and vintage for our wedding.

Image via Wit & Whistle

As soon as I saw this idea of putting lights IN the beer bottles I fell madly in love! How beautiful and romantic yet dark and whimsical!?!

But how the HECK do you get the lights in there? My plan was to start saving Mr. Sword’s empty beer bottles and then attempt to de-label them. But he mostly drinks Stella or Peroni, both of which are green in color, and I definitely preferred the brown bottles.

Image via Wikipedia

So that fateful day when we were merely hunting for centerpiece ideas, when we waltzed into Kirkland’s Home store we ended up waltzing out with these:

MOH Big Eyes and me

There are six bottles, empty and clean WITH the bottoms cut out, perfect for fitting a string of lights inside!! And they come in this metal holder crate thingy that seemed just right.

I knew I didn’t want to have all beer-bottle centerpieces, and by some miracle I found something else at the same store that I fell in love with:

Gorgeous dark chocolate hurricanes that will shine beautifully with a candle inside! So, currently the plan is to have half of the centerpieces be hurricanes and half be bottles.

Our next stop was to check out Michaels for the word portion of the centerpieces. Here is what we found:

Mom Sword has offered to both HOUSE and FINISH the centerpieces. Thanks for storing them, parents!

A month or so later Mom Sword had made some nice advancements on the centerpieces. She had confirmed that the lights in the bottles worked and looked GORGEOUS, she had figured out a way to prop up the words so they will be visible to guests, and she had added ivy and ribbon to the overall look to make the bottom appear fuller and wider. She also discovered that Jo-Ann Fabrics had a larger selection of word options than Michaels did, and we were able to go with a font we liked even better. When you are naming about 15 tables you want options!

I would.

Mom Sword found two different paint colors to try on our words. While at first I liked the shimmery one better, we quickly concluded that the more matte-looking cream color would be easier to see in a dimly lit reception room. It’s hard to tell from this photo, but the one we painted in the lighter shimmer almost turned gray in the dark, and you could barely see it!

What started as a random idea was suddenly coming together beautifully! I’m so lucky to have such a helpful mom, too!

Who else is going for a more unique and non-floral centerpiece? Anyone else using words instead of table numbers? Are my beer bottles and hurricanes going to come together in the end?!! We hope so!

(all photos personal unless noted otherwise noted)