DIY: Elegant Centerpiece Idea

My lovely sister got engaged back in June while we were vacationing in Italy. It was the most romantic & perfect proposal you can imagine… Picture this: 12 am, clear starry skies, full moon reflecting in the sea, we are sitting at the beach, on the shore of the Adriatic Sea…and thanking the Universe for that beautiful night. (It was the eve of my birthday on top of it all =) )… So the setting couldn’t have been more fitting. It was like a scene out of a romantic movie!! He got on one knee, pulled out a ring, told her a series of sweet words & asked her to be his wife…

I’m tearing up just thinking about it…

It was totally perfect, and I am so excited for their Destination Wedding in May… =)

They decided to celebrate the engagement by inviting our closest friends & family to a restaurant. Our mom was so excited about organizing all the little details, I can’t even tell you! It was so cute! She “commissioned” me to create the Centerpieces for all the tables.

Now, I’ve never created anything like that before, but I know I love to create & work with my hands… So I got to thinking and had a vision in my mind of what I wanted.

I wanted it to be simple, elegant & beautiful! And it had to be on a budget

So the point of this post, is to show you how you too can create the centerpiece for your next party yourself, without braking the bank. All you need is a little creativity & outside-the-box thinking…

You won’t believe it, but I purchased all of the items, except the roses from a Dollar Store!  After browsing all the other craft stores, I found what I wanted at a Dollar store… I found it a little amusing…

So here are all the pieces that I used to create this centerpieces:

A tall long vase

Small angled vase

Pink Pearls

Thin, light pink ribbon with subtle silver linings

A hot glue-gun & a pair of scissors (not pictured)

My vision for the tall vase was to have the ribbon spiral down, in an elegant curve.

I started off by plugging in the hot glue-gun & let it get hot so the glue would start melting. Once it was nice & hot, I put a small drop of glue right at the top ridge of the tall vase & pressed the end of the ribbon right onto the glue drop.

Note: If you’ve never worked with hot glue-gun before, here is what you should know:

- Obviously it’s very hot, so be careful not to touch the glue directly
- It’s extremely sticky, and if you get it on your fingers it will become like spider webs, but once it’s dried (which is literally 10-15 seconds later) it comes off easily off of the fingers. So not to worry.
- And the main point is that it dries extremely fast, so you have to work quickly once you actually squeeze out the glue.

Now that the ribbon is safely secured to the top, I can start spiraling the ribbon around the vase. So I would position the ribbon where I wanted it, and then put a tiny drop of glue every 2-3 inches between the drops and press down the ribbon into the glue, and hold for about 5 seconds…

Go all the way around the vase, all the way to the bottom.

When I reached the bottom, I put a little extra glue at the edge of the bottom to secure the ribbon tightly.

Then I cut off the ribbon…

I wasn’t going to do this in the beginning, but then I thought it would tie in the design. So I added a few pearls vertically down on one side of the tall vase…

Speaking of pearls… I had to cut the string and get all the pearls off the string, because I am crazy, and I was planning on glueing each separate little pearl individually to the top ridge of the second angled vase… You will see in the end, it was worth it!

I was now ready to glue the pearls all the way around the top ridge of the angled vase. So I would squeeze out a drop off glue, and press down the pearl into it. Hold it down for 3-5 seconds & move on to the next one…

Oh, one thing I should mention… I made sure all the holes of the pearls were on the sides facing each other, when placing them down. That way you wouldn’t see the holes at all…

I know anal & insane! I had a vision, ok? And that was the only way to achieve it… I know it was a li’l crazy and it required a whole lot of patience, but I kept focused on the end result… And look how fabulous it turned out?! =)

The last step was to put the angled vase on top of the tall vase. I didn’t actually glue them together until I transported them safely to the restaurant and placed them in their spots on the tables. The hot glue is strong, but not permanent. So I made sure to have it with me, just in case things started to fall off, which they did… But I was prepared for that & brought the hot glue-gun with me to the restaurant. So I just glued the suckers back on & all was well in the world again. =)

To finish off the look, I got tall white candles and glued them right in the center of the angled vase. Then I poured some water & put in some beautiful, pink, fresh cut roses. Depending on the size, you can fit anywhere from 3-5 of them in each vase…

I was very pleased with the way it all turned out. It was the exact replica of what I had in mind.

It was modern, simple, elegant & beautiful…

My mom was very ecstatic with the finished product & so was the happy couple along with all the guests.

I leave you with these few images I took to end on an inspiring note. Don’t be afraid to work with your hands to create exactly what you want for your next party. It might take a bit of elbow grease, but believe me the amount of pride & satisfaction you will feel over having created something will make it up without a doubt.

Be brave & allow yourself the freedom to create something! =)