All posts tagged Tablescapes

I love the idea of integrating something special into your tablescape that means something. For this tablescape, I made salt dough cutouts (super cheap, and a cute accent!) of the State of Oregon. The idea of having a state cutout is fun especially if you’re having a destination wedding and want to welcome your guests to their destination. Paired with napkins in a contrasting color, those little guys pop!

For this tablescape, you need to make salt dough cutouts! Salt dough is easy to make — one batch is just one cup of salt, one cup of water and two cups flour. Mix them together into a dough, roll them out with a rolling pin and cut out with a cookie cutter — the shape choices are endless. Try your initials, the state where your wedding is or the state you’re from, or hearts. Bake them in the oven for two hours at 250 degrees and then get ready to decorate with them.

On Monday, I showed you how to create these cool painted geometric flower pots — today I’m showing you how to create a budget tablescape from them! Potted plants make ideal centerpieces because they can be gifted to guests afterward, they’ll last way longer than cut flower centerpieces and you can pick less expensive plants which will make a big impact on your bottom line.

For this centerpiece, you’ll need your own painted pots (see the DIY tutorial here) plus some fun plants to fill them. I chose heather, a small shrub, and Corsican Mint, which is a ground cover plant that offers a nice punch of green. These are both very affordable plants (about $5 for the heather shrub, and $2 for the mint). Pair with a pop of color in the napkins you choose and a fun table number and you’ll have a winning centerpiece.

Making a budget tablescape is all about finding low-cost materials that are still pretty and charming. One of my favorite low-cost materials that work well in decor are fruits and vegetables. Citrus fruits are the perfect thing for a summer day and they can provide a cheerful centerpiece for very little cash.

You really only need two things to do this tablescape — large hurricane vases (which you can most likely rent from your rental company at a very low price) and boxes of lemons and limes. Talk to your local grocer about getting a discount by buying fruit in bulk quantities and you’ll save even more. On the big day (or the day before), enlist some friends to help you peel off those pesky little stickers and fill each hurricane vase with enough lemons and limes. After the wedding? Fresh-squeezed lemonade for everyone!

I have a thing for clever or beautiful packaging. I can prove my devotion to it with the bottles in the photo below. Both of the bottles featured in this tablescape, I carried home with me from my European travels. There are so many well-designed bottles and packages that I like the idea of hanging on to some for your wedding decor.

The only thing this tablescape will require is a little planning. Find the pretty bottles of wine, vodka or water and switch to that brand for awhile until you’ve collected enough. There’s no need for them all to match. Then clean them out and fill them each with a few flowers. I used roses, which you can buy for approximately $10 a dozen, but you could go with a more budget-friendly bloom and you’ll be sailing way under your $25 per centerpiece allotment. It’s good for your wallet, it’s good for the environment and it’s lovely to look at. Win, win, win.

Happy Valentine’s Day! And of course, you had to expect that on a wedding-focused blog, we were going to totally eat it up. To celebrate today, how about a fun Valentine’s tablescape?

In coming up with a way to have striking tabletop decor at your wedding without spending a fortune, it’s important to think outside the box on materials. A classic wedding tablescape features a floral centerpiece — but that can be expensive.

Enter the humble cookie cutter. In pink and red hearts, they are the perfect foundation to a tablescape. As a bonus, they cost about a buck. And paired with inexpensive ceramic lovebirds, they make for the ultimate ode to love.

To make this tablescape yourself, you must first find cookie cutters. I found mine at a local kitchen store, but buying them online or in bulk is most likely to save you more money. These ceramic lovebirds came from Target at $2.99 each. That means that for $25, you can have a set of lovebirds and 19 cookie cutter hearts at each table. Pile the hearts up, scatter them around or put one on each plate. It’s sweet, romantic and even a bit modern. Happy Valentine’s Day!

With all this winter weather lately, here’s some pep for your day. I love this tablescape because it’s loads of fun, incredibly inexpensive and super easy to put together.

Glitter dots are so colorful and exciting that you could get away with no centerpieces. And that will save you lots of money.

To make this tablescape, get to the craft store — stat! — and pick up 12×12 sheets of glitter scrapbook paper to fit your wedding colors. Also pick up a round paper punch for about $10. Then park yourself in front of a movie, cut the paper into strips and punch as many circles out as you can. Collect the circles in a bin, and when you’re setting up your tables, sprinkle them all over the table for good measure. That’s it! Fun, peppy and so easy to do.

Do you have a crush on terrariums? Cause I TOTALLY do. Every time I see one I pretty much lose it. They’re cute, they’re low-maintenance and they have a certain design quality to them. Here’s something you may NOT know about terrariums, though: They can be cheap. And you can make them yourself.

The idea for this tablescape is a little different than the usual tabletop decor for a wedding: This time, you actually skip the centerpiece altogether. Instead, you put a small terrarium at each place, which doubles as a favor. And anytime you have a double-duty item, you’re talking about a money saver.

Making these little terrariums is an easy task. You just need little globe vases (which you can score at the Dollar Store!) plus a bit of soil and some rocks, and these little succulent plants. Layer the soil and rocks in the bottom, put the plant in the middle and then put each vase at each place setting. You can even make them in advance — they don’t take much maintenance (just a little drip or spray of water about once a week). Each terrarium costs about $4 to make, so at an 6-person table, you’re talking about $24 per table, which includes your favor budget. Boom.

Hey all, and happy new year! We’re so thrilled about all the great content that’ll be coming your way in 2012 from MarryThis! This morning, we’re kicking off with a new series on budget tablescape ideas. It’s really easy to dump loads of money into your tabletop decor, so this series will show you some ideas for centerpieces and color schemes that you can pull off for less than $25 each.

Some of you know that about a month ago, I got back from a truly amazing trip to India, so I’m kicking off this tablescape series with an India-inspired post.

The amazing thing about India is all the colors and textures you see in the environment. I combined a pattern with oranges and reds in it with mustard yellow napkins and a teal candle to make the table vibrant and fun.

To do this tablescape for yourself, start with white or black linens from your party rental company, and ask for napkins in a bright color. Then your decor begins:

First, use a scarf that won’t completely cover the tabletop but will set the  table’s visual tone.

Second, set up your candles with one large pillar in an India-inspired candleholder (which will cast enchanting shadows throughout the night) and then use a smaller tea light in a contrasting color glass holder.

One secret to making this simple centerpiece look lush and exotic is using small round tables. By doing this, there will be less room in the center to fill, and the combo of the rich scarf and deep colors will fill up the entire table nicely.

Stay tuned for a new budget tablescape every couple of weeks. I’ve got some cool ideas coming up, but if you have one, let me know at sara@marrythis.com.