Branch Centerpieces. Anybody know how to make them?

June 23, 2005 12:45 PM

Branch Centerpieces. Anybody know how to make them? The future Mrs. and I are cutting corners at our wedding by serving as our own florists. Ideally, they'd look something like this but with white lights or candles replacing the Asian motif. Help from experienced DIYers would be appreciated...
posted by herc to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

Since my wedding was in early January, we took the blue spruce Christmas tree and used it for our centerpieces. The tree was in great shape, not yet dropping needles. We cut all the branches off and trimmed down to get the pretty bits. We took florist frogs, those stiff green foam blocks, and taped them into some shallow dishes. We then took our brances stuck them in the frogs along with lots of mini white carnations. We also harvested some wild laurel and incorporated into the centerpiece. We added some blue bows and suddenly had a seasonally appropriate centerpiece.

For yours, I would get or make some bamboo vases. These can be sections of wide diameter bamboo. If you get a bamboo pole with a 4 inch diameter, you can cut it into sections. It should be hollow except were the natural joints are. Check with your craft store or a lumber store for the bamboo. I would use sand as the weight in the bottom of the bamboo. Sand is very cheap. Estimate about $3 per 50 lb bag at the hardware store. Depending upon how many you're making, one bag of clean playground sand should work. The branches could come from either a craft store or someone's yard. Also, check the craft store for lengths of battery powered white lights. If you find the battery powered ones you can hide the battery in the bamboo.

Since you're working with branches, I'd try to avoid candles.

I know you are wanting to avoid an Asian motif. I'm just suggesting bamboo because it is easy to work with, relatively inexpensive and looks great. Feel free to substitute the bamboo with any vase you like.
posted by onhazier at 1:20 PM on June 23, 2005

Sorry, I should have posted links for you.

Battery lights

Bamboo poles

Best wishes.
posted by onhazier at 1:36 PM on June 23, 2005

Depending on the season of the wedding (now? the fall? ) you can pick different things -- for example, at Christmas you can get those upright, christmas-y looking rosemary bushes that are about a foot tall. We just got purple fountain grass for our yard; they were about $5.00 each in gallon pots -- the color may not be very appropriate, but if you get creative with potted plants, it may turn out very cool. Slightly outside what you originally asked, but I'm brainstorming.

Other than that, craft stores or maybe off-season Christmas places (like this which is vaguely local to me) may have ornaments or glass globes or other nice items to replace the asian-looking bits of the one you've linked above. You can get fairly neutral ornament-type items that might be the correct color, shape, and size.
posted by Medieval Maven at 1:50 PM on June 23, 2005