My centerpieces were the most difficult to plan and budget. I knew I was not going with real flowers. My $250 budget did not allow for it. Yes, $250. I had to strategize and research how I wanted all this to come together. Pinterest was extremely helpful but became overwhelming. I continued to “pin” all kinds of centerpieces but when it was time to purchase vases and flowers, I didn’t know what to do. I finally found Afloral.com and Save-on-Crafts.com. I bought an array of spring like flowers for the reception (42 vases) and the ceremony (2 tall vases). In addition, I added some pearls on the bottom of the vases. I purchased the vases by the dozen from the dollar store. I ended up with too many flowers but I have sold some of the vases and flowers through Craigslist and broke even. I went a little over budget at $290.

Osteria Via Stato was wonderful with setting up the tables with my centerpieces. I dropped them off the day before my wedding with instructions and as you can see above, they turned out wonderful. As for my gifts and give-aways table, I was so happy everything fit. My give-aways did double duty as seating arrangements and cookies. Osteria provided the cookies for the guests as part of our wedding packages and they assembled them together. Since my budget for flowers was lower then the average wedding, I wanted to spluge on a house for our wedding cards. I found the perfect one on Etsy DoorCountyWoodworks. I felt that I can use it for a house decor or as a dollhouse for kids. I currently have this in our dining room side table.

Another non-traditional item is our guestbook. I opted out of everyone signing a book and it getting dusty beneath our coffee table. We had 80 guests and a guestbook would be too much anyways. So I found Etsy Peachwik which offered prints for guests to sign-in. I framed it and will be putting it up in the hallway.