Centerpieces for tables at reception

Hi Katy! I enjoy both kinds and did some of my own with fake, but left the centerpieces real and my florist handled. One item to consider, if you go with fake is we have a lot cluttering our house before and after and that part is/was stressful. Part of me wishes I would have my florist do everything because she setup and tore down and I wouldn’t have so much clutter 😂🌺🌼💐

I’ve personally never seen fake flowers for wedding centerpieces in person, but I’ve seen some beautiful arrangements posted here by DIY couples. I prefer real flowers but they can get pricey! We opted to do tri level candle vases with 2 or 3 mini flower arrangements at the base. It saved us money and I’ve never actually seen this done in person so I’m excited to do something different compared to our circle of friends/family. Our florist will be handling all this because I’m not creative & don’t want that stress!

I’m having all fake flowers at my wedding. We’re on a very strict and low budget so we can’t afford real flowers. My centerpieces are carriages with hydrangeas and blue and white roses with candles in the middle. But Katie is right it does take up a lot of space my mom has all mine in her garage thank goodness but it’s covered in bins for that wedding.

View Quoted Comment Yeah! I am looking to save money anywhere I can and know using all real flowers will be super pricey. I am happy to put them together over time and store them in my basement.

Our venue has an all inclusive package & flowers are included in it ($400 max). I’m doing both real & fake. My bouquet, sweetheart table centerpiece & cake will be real. I bought fake flowers at Hobby Lobby that I’ll assemble for my bridesmaids (also bought a bouquet to toss). My fiancé doesn’t want to wear a boutonnière so that saved on cost. The venue has centerpieces included & i can add flowers (at a cost) but I think they look fine as is.

Most brides prefer to not keep flowers (bouquet or centerpieces) and it is common to send them home with guests. Real vs fake is personal preference. The only time I have seen fake flowers as centerpieces is at restaurants, not weddings, and those tend to be more expensive than real in order to look realistic. As a guest I've never paid that much attention to them anyway unless were tall enough no one could see across the table.

Our venue is all-inclusive, so any florals for ceremony and reception decoration (centerpieces, aisles, etc.) are provided by them for our use. They are silks, but I've looked at plenty of pictures from the venue (they customize for all styles of wedding) and they look great. I guess it all depends on personal preference; for me, flowers were pretty far down on the list of importance. Even my own bouquet is probably going to be wood, because I would like to keep them; my friend did this and hers still look beautiful :-)

I think fake flowers are fine! I used fake rose petals

View Quoted Comment Was your bouquet fake or real? What about your bridesmaids?

Are you set on having flowers as part of the centerpieces?

There are a lot of great options that don't include florals, or ones that include something simple like baby's breath.

Use fake all your bouquets. It is more economical and long-lasting.

What is your budget? This should be considered first. The look of real flowers are gorgeous but are expensive. If you like to DIY, you could make them yourself. One thought, do you need to have your centerpieces be flowers?

I have a lot of guests and a bridesmaid with allergies, so doing real flowers was never really an option unless I wanted to make people sick. Plus with fake flowers you can get ones that you like but are not in season pretty easily.

View Quoted Comment Budget is.... well to save as much money as possible. I don’t want to go in debt over this day. What other options are out there for centerpieces that don’t include flowers?

View Quoted Comment For no flowers, I've seen stacked books, tea set peices, candles in various glassware, stacked wood slices and branches, pictures in frames, glass filled with string lights, and various combinations of all those things. There plenty of ideas, do you have a theme or look you are going for?

View Quoted Comment I did lanterns for my centerpiece with flowers which were made from wood. My MIL bought the lanterns but they were affordable $160 for 10. The flowers were leftovers from the assortments that I bought to make my bouquets.

View Quoted Comment We’re doing mason jars filled with lavender

View Quoted Comment Wow super cute! We are doing a fall, rustic type theme I guess you could say. I am planning on doing the vases with water and a floating tea lite but was hoping to have two different centerpieces. We don’t have family to help us financially so we are doing this all on our own. And although I want to save money wherever I can, I also want everything to look nice.

I personally would go with real floral. However I’ve seen many others use fake or silk and it does look really good, but I personally prefer real. You can try to check out your local Whole Foods floral section and pre-order. We are doing mostly fiftyflowers.com which is bulk wholesale.


This can be kind of risky LOL! If for whatever reason it turns out to be a disaster for us we plan on running to every supermarket we can the day before to get whatever flowers we can find LOL! We also ordered Garland from Costco’s. As I said it’s definitely risky and we do have a back up plan, but its literally saved us thousands. Our average quote was 6000 for floral where we live and I just could not see myself spending that much on flowers for one day.

I personally never really pay that much attention to centerpieces at weddings! It's just not something from the day that I ever remember, and I don't expect my guests to analyze the centerpieces or care that they're not real flowers. So for those reasons I decided to go with faux flowers for everything and really simplify my decorations. I just couldn't justify spending the money on real flowers when I know not many people will notice or care about the flowers and they'll all end up in the trash at the end of the night. With faux flowers I can re-sell everything and get a little bit of my money back. But it's all personal preference. If real flowers are important for you to have at your wedding, go for it! If you want to save money and decorations aren't at the top of your priority list, skip them. There are lots of people that make faux flower arrangements too if you don't want to do it yourself.