I have just been called upon to make centerpieces for a up and coming church banquet. I need to make fifteen centerpieces and they have to all be under five dollars each! We are going with a fall motif.
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Ears of dried yellow or "Indian" corn can be mounted on small squares of thin wood (cut from paneling scraps, plywood, etc.). The ears can be mounted with a drywall screw through the bottom of the board and the large end of the ear. Then add straw hats, or other decorative hats to the thin end of the ear of corn. Mount craft eyes and a piece of pipe cleaner shaped like a mouth to make the face.
Deanne
We just had to make centerpieces for an upcoming convention at our church and we needed them to be inexpensive as well. We bought ivy bowls from the craft department at Wal Mart (77 cents a piece). Cut sheets of colored tissue paper (to match our theme) and laid it on the bottom of the bowls. We went to a local craft store and found small bunches of flowers for $1.47 each. These went in the bowls and we had inexpensive but pretty table decorations and all the parts are reusable for future events!
Connie
Try using gourds, mini-pumpkins and Indian corn. Hopefully one of your members has some from their garden to donate, otherwise they are relatively inexpensive. Lay a few fall leaves on the table and arrange a few gourds and pumpkins and corn on top. Or take a small pumpkin and hollow out the center; then put a small piece of water-soaked oasis in the hollowed-out part; then, using leaves and greenery from your yard and a few fall colored mums (also hopefully from someone's yard) make a small floral centerpiece in the pumpkin. Perhaps you even have some other nuts, berries or dried materials in your yard. Have fun and be creative!
Sue from Wisconsin
Use Mother Nature's bounty! Hollowed out mini pumpkins, gourds, zucchini, apples etc., can become containers for flowers or candles. Be sure to take a thin slice off the bottom to help the veggie/fruit sit up straight. If you don't have a garden, ask around, I bet someone has extra they can share. You could also use leaves and other outdoor treasures. As for flowers, the cheapest would probably be daisies or chrysanthemums.
Candice
Every fall we host a harvest party for our church. I get containers of any kind at dollar store. Fill them with fall artificial fall leaves and flowers. If your event isn't until fall, you can get very small real pumpkins and cut top off and fill with artificial fall flowers. I also have used those wicker type paper plate holders, and hot glue flowers from Walmart all over them. Hope you have fun.
Find the nearest magnolia tree or pine tree. Take off some of the blooms and leaves and arrange them in the center of the table. Then get about three tea lights and put them in with your arrangement. If you do not have a magnolia tree available, find a pine tree and do the same thing with pine cones, the needles and tea lights. With the pine cone idea some cinnamon sticks mixed in makes it even better. Cheap, Easy and Beautiful!!
If you have any ideas send them to me! I am always searching for something new.
Kim
I have done many decorations for church and Harvest themes! The best ones were the cheapest! I have used solid yellow, orange, brown, gift bags with similar colored tissue many times. Put opposite colors of tissue in the bag, though. I then use curly ribbon of the same colors and tie it to the middle of the handle or the side of one handle, and curl. Make the ribbon about the length of the bag when curled for the full effect. If you still have a few bucks to spare you can also add those little sprays with harvest things on them in clusters that you find at the local craft store for around 99 cents or less each!
And for variety I have also used the plastic wine glasses (which can be reused for other occasions.) Put all three different colors of tissue (or napkins work great too if you can find them cheap,) in the glasses and then use the curly ribbon and curl some of it up in small pieces and have it flowing out of the glasses or around the bottom of them. You can also sprinkle pieces of ribbon curled up all over the table. It looks great and has a good response from everyone when they realise how cheaply you were able to do it all. You can reuse it again if you don't give it away for door prizes. Hope this gives you some ideas.
Wanda
I had to work at a transportation convention for my work place, and they made small gift baskets as centerpieces, then raffled them off later. Everyone liked the little baskets.
Get inexpensive baskets (about 25 cents to 50 cents each at garage sales, flea markets, old Easter baskets from thrift stores); paint them appropriate colors for your theme (hopefully someone in your group has leftover paint, otherwise buy the cheapest spray paint you can find). If baskets are not available, use small sturdy boxes (free!). The deep lids from some boxes work well, or cut down a larger box, or go to the grocery store and ask for smaller boxes. Paint the boxes, or cover the boxes inside and out with inexpensive colorful wrapping paper (go to the Dollar Store, use old paper you have leftover, or even use the comics section from the newspaper).
Fill the baskets or boxes with tissue paper (leftovers you have or get it at the Dollar Store), or run some tissue paper (or any paper, even comics and newspaper) through a paper shredder for "filling" for the box.
If you have a Fall theme, you can collect free pinecones, acorns, dried flowers, dried seed pods, colorful leaves (press/wax them to preserve them ) to decorate the outside or inside of the centerpiece baskets or boxes. Or buy inexpensive colorful fall gourds (about 25 cents each) to add to the basket. You could also use fall produce in the centerpiece baskets/boxes, such as red and gold crisp, fresh apples (get a half bushel at the farmers' market), small pumpkins, squashes, dried corn, etc. Fruit basket centerpieces could be quite pretty!
Get the cheapest ribbons, too, and attach some homemade bows to the outside of the centerpiece baskets/boxes.
If you can afford it, put a small assortment of theme-appropriate "gifts" in the basket, along with your tissue paper or shredded paper filling and decorations. For the convention I worked at, one of the "gifts" in the basket was a small can of local maple syrup, which was gotten cheaply because it was in a can and bought in bulk. You could use things like: bulk candy, fruit and vegetables, pencils, pens, gift food items, etc.
Or you could simply fill your centerpiece baskets/boxes with dried pinecones and a pretty scented candle. Simple!
Another option is to attach mylar balloons to the tops of the centerpiece baskets/boxes, if you can find these for a reasonable price.
Lastly, find a way to raffle the centerpieces off at your function. People will love this! Let your imagination go wild, and have fun! Good luck!
Ness - Lakeview, NY
Go to your grocery store and buy small gourds and squash, even zucchinis. Wash them well, and spray them with a fast drying car wax. Use thrift store containers for your center pieces, and gather autumn leaves or even colorful shrubbery branches and arrange in containers. Last but not least, you can hollow out just the top of one squash for each centerpiece, and place a candle taper in it. I'm sure that you could purchase the gourds, candles, thrift shop containers, and even florist oasis for under $5 each centerpiece.
Terri - West Palm Beach, FL
You can buy some of the little pumpkins cut out where the stem is to make a hole and then place a candle in each. They make nice centerpieces
Cauleen - Croghan, NY
Take a 2 liter pop bottle, cut the top off about 3 inches so the top stands by itself. Buy a taper candle (find them at a dollar store), netting, potpourri. Put the netting around the cut end of the bottle, tie at neck of bottle with ribbon, fill with potpourri, put candle in top of bottle. You can also use artificial flowers.
Maggie
Find a dollar store that sells candle holders or votive cups for a buck or less. At that same store you may also be able to pick up some tapers or votive candles too! The one around here sells 4 tapers for a buck. For fall, pick white, yellow or orange candles. Then go out to nature and find fall things to either glue to the candle/votive holders or to just assort and decorate around the base. Acorns, nice pretty dried leaves, assorted dried seed pods, fall wild flowers, pine cones, etc. Artificial versions may also be acquired at a craft store. If you find a garland of fake leaves say, you can always chop it down or break it down into it's elemental parts to be spread out among many centerpieces.
Gather at the base some mini gourds, if available, and you have a handsome centerpiece that should fit very nicely into your fall motif!
Lisa
I was in charge of our church Homecoming Banquet and a choral fundraiser last year and had to come up with an inexpensive yet elegant table centerpiece for a dozen tables. Having just had a bad storm in our area, which downed many of the trees in our yard, I decided to take advantage. Using his chain saw, my wonderful husband sliced tree slabs, about 4-5" thick. Then I gathered attractive long, leafless tree branches. Choosing the branches I wanted for each slab, I drilled 3-4 holes into the slab (not going all the way through). Since I would be placing them on tables I hot-glued felt pieces to the bottom of each slab. Then I hot- glued each branch into one of the holes until each hole was filled with a branch. I then hot-glued silk fall leaves of varying colors sporadically on the branches. To enhance the branches I purchased gold-colored medium weight craft wire and twisted a good length to only some of the branches. Finally I placed an inexpensive moss around the bottom of the branches where they met the tree slab to give them a wonderful finished look. They were inexpensice and quite impressive serving well for both functions. At the end of the final event I simply let the host/hostess of each table take the centerpiece home, which would also work wonderfully for Thanksgiving. Please feel free to use this idea. It was simple, and with a little elbow grease, fun! Gina Cypher, Woodstock, Virginia
Use inexpensive clear bowls, cylinders, etc and put an inexpensive gold fish in the bowls. Arrange tea candles around the bowl and light them. Make the fish bowl a door prize for each table.
Please don't use live goldfish as centerpieces! Goldfish are sentient being, not decorations. Goldfish do not do well in so called-goldfish bowls. Most of you guests will not have the equipment or knowledge to properly take care of them when they get home, and as a result most, if not all the fishies will wind up getting flushed within days. Goldfish are not intended to have the life-span of a fruit fly. When well cared for they will live 8 to 10 years!
Goldfish are beautiful! The important consideration is planning. They need to have a large tank to thrive in following the gathering. As long as careful planning is observed, goldfish and some other fish make beautiful, unforgetable centerpieces
At my wedding we used fish bowls with a colorful betta fish in each. We decorated the bowls with stones on the bottom and tied a ribbon around the rim of each. Each centerpiece was less then $10. We made an announcement that anybody could take a betta home if they wished and all 17 of them found happy homes. We provided little baggies of food and traveling cases so the bettas made it home easily.
5 of these large flower bows in the color of your choice placed in a shallow container will make a bright and beautiful design
check them out at web site below
giftbows10.com/
I AM GETTING MARRIED IN THE FALL. MY COLOR IS BLUE AND I WANT TO HAVE A FALL SETUP. SO I THOUGHT ABOUT A GOLDFISH CENTERPIECE WHICH INCLUDES: A BEAUTIFUL VASE, TWO GOLDFISHES, BLUE, ORANGE, YELLOW MARBLES AND A GREEN PLANT IN WATER. BLUE TABLE CLOTH AND 2 ORANGE CANDLES ON EACH SIDE. BEAUTIFUL FALL LEAFS ON THE TABLE WITH A LITTLE LIGHT IN ROOM.
I saw this done with red rose petals and I thought it was really pretty. You can do this with many different types of leaves and petals. I think maple leaves are very pretty. Set these out close together and get small glass votive holders with candles in them among the leaves(the dollar store is great again). Or for another idea, you can use glass vases, bowls and such and and submerge apples, acorns, and persimmons in water. Then spread leaves around the base of them. You can use smaller containers to save money. Here is a picture shown of the rose petals I saw. It's a great idea!
I need an idea for inexpensive centerpieces for our 50th church banquet. I have these beautiful gold bags and gold and black balloons to the bag to use in the middle of the table.Just doesnt seem elegant. I also have candles to sit around the bag.Please help!
Place a mirror/candle holder in the middle of the table with an ivy ball in the center of that. Place a tea light in the ivy ball and light it.
Around the outside of the ivy ball sprinkle your rose petals, leaves, candy, or your choice Tie a colored ribbon around the top of the ivy ball. For more sparkle place a votive candle at each corner of the mirror, or evenly spread abound the candle holder. This looks beautiful in Red for Valentines, Christmas, or even mixed with a little blue for the 4th of July, or orange and green for the fall.
Need some ideas for a dinner and singing at our church this Saturday night. Needs to be inexpensive, for about 30 tables. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
For my son's wedding reception in late October we used dead tree branches, ones with lots of "character", secured them in a weighted clay pot and hung 5 or 6 clear votive holders with tea lights from them. The pots were finished off with mossy covering and the trunk of the branches were wrapped with the ribbon in the same brown as was being used in the wedding. The centerpieces were high enough to not be obstructive during dinner and got rave reviews from all the guests. We made 12 and they cost less than $100 for all of them. Here's a not-so-good picture of one. If you have questions you can contact me at beckeye59 at gmail dot com
Use ivy bowls, Filler material, rice, corn, beans, epson salts and then place a tealight in the bowls for an added touch tie a ribbon around the rim
We had to make 21 centerpieces for as little money as possible. We went to a corn field and cut the top 32" off 42 stalks of corn (we did ask the farmer first) making sure they all had the tassles still on top ($0). We bought 7 rolls of an open-weave shiny copper ribbon from the Dollar Store ($7 plus tax) and 4 bags of small gourds & mini pumpkins from the grocery ($16). For each centerpiece, we put two stalks together with a rubber band around the bottom about 4 o 5 inches above the ends, stapled one end of ribbon over the rubber band, and wound the ribbon very loosely two or three times around and through the stalk's leaves with the end (cut on a sharp diagonal) ending up by the tassle. These were laid on the table with a couple gourds (three or five arranged around each would have been nice but we didn't want to spend any more money). Very easy, very inexpensive and we got lots of compliments. $23.00 for 21 centerpieces!
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