Calm and Centered {Choosing a Practical Centerpiece}
November 2, 2012
Of all the things I’m looking forward to about our wedding, I am incredibly excited that we will be able to serve our reception dinner family style (big portions of every dish on the table, rather than individually plated portions). My fiance is Italian, and serving our guests a wonderful family style meal has been important to us from the beginning. So fun! So simple! Wrong. Like every wedding decision, our choice to serve family style has had a domino affect on a number of other decisions. Most notably, our centerpieces need to have a small footprint. (Goodbye to all those low and chubby pink peonies and English roses I was lusting after all over Pinterest!)
So, my latest challenge has been to find a centerpiece that fits our lush, botanical aesthetic, while keeping the table free for steaming bowls of polenta. Here are a few I’ve liked so far:
I couldn’t resist this very Art Nouveau Parisian lantern…so dreamy!
I’ve become a little obsessed with footed arrangements. These arrangements have an elegant, vintage feel to them, and allow for stunning florals, without the precious table space. Here are a few catching my eye this week (the first two were sent to me from–not taken by–our amazing engagement and wedding photographer Shang Chen).
Source: Tec Petaja Photography
How have you made your centerpieces more practical?
So cute! Love your blog Allegra! We served our dinner family style too, so we sort of ran into the same thing. I did clusters of different sizes and shapes of vases – each table had one super fun vintage footed vase, one super tall skinny ‘eiffel’ vase, and then a few random ones. It worked out well. :)
Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
<3 Brigitte
Great post Allegra! I definitely agree that a cluster of vases is the way to go. That way you have room for moving and changing things on the day of to ensure that everything fits and doesn’t look cluttered. Are you doing round or rectangle tables? Rectangle will make for a much easier setup as you can do a centerpiece and two dishes on either side. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Brigitte: thanks so much for your sweet comment! I love that idea! Your wedding was so beautiful!
Allison: Unfortunately, our venue only has round tables, but I do love the idea of rectangle!