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What feel are you going for? Usually that makes a big difference. One thing I really like are river rocks.
It makes me laugh because this was a Martha Stewart idea, but I've seen centerpieces made from black and white photos (printed on vellum, glued to a picture frame). 3 or4 Photos were connected to look like a square lantern and a candle was inside in the middle. Should cost less than 10.00 a table especially if you use a picture frame matte instead of a full frame. Here's the link:
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/photo-centerpiece?rsc=also_try
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I love centerpieces I've seen using old books and candles, one of my centerpiece ideas is to use cut wine bottles wit a mix of floating candles, fern fronds, fiddlehead ferns and button mums. The wine bottles are free (the bottle cutter is $40), and the floral bits should be quite cheap. I can't do a trial run until I get back to the states but I'll look for more photos.
Oh woah, and you're in Hawaii where I imagine there are tons of natural florals available!
We don't really have a theme . . . but if I had to describe a "theme" I'd say . . . simple, streamlined, modern. Oooh yeah, river rocks are a great idea.
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I love this idea from Real Simple and it incorporates rocks as well.
http://perfectbound.blogspot.com/2007/09/you-rock.html
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We used candles & flowers... but instead of candle holders we just used glasses. Think of outside the box materials, and then build off of that. If you stay within color groups, as ours was gold/yellow with the candles, then it makes for a simple but impressive show on each table.
Here are some photos that I've collected over time.
I, too, love river rocks, candles, and minimalist style.
Some comments: Clusters of single vases aren't the most inexpensive route (though, you can find some small vases @ the dollar tree, and you can order them in bulk on their website), but they are less expensive than large vases. At the same time, single flowers (which you can also order online) are much cheaper than large arrangements.
Bamboo is a great, minimalist style, that goes very well with river rocks (and I know of a pretty inexpensive, online source for "lucky bamboo" if you're interested.
The turquoise candleholders are a Martha Stewart idea, essentially they are two vases, one inside the other, with colored water between the vases.
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I think that potted orchids look really beautiful. Though they are not THAT cost effective, I know of some online retailers that sell orchids in bulk (you can get them for less around $10 each. )
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My centerpieces are about $18/table, but could easily be scaled back to fit your budget. I'm using 5 luminaries on the center of each table (4 smaller and 1 large). They to came from Martha, but the only skills required are using 4 pieces of double stick tape and finding a paper cutter.
It's super simple, and I'm using these rectangular vases from Ikea (6" and 9").
My FH and I are gathering tree branches and placing them (quite fully) in a vase and adding really fine sand to weigh it down and hold the branches in place. Then, we are buying lots of little, clear glass votives and we are twisting wire to make our own hanging votive holders. Obviously, we are going to hang those on the branches and that is going to be on either all of the tables or half of them. We're thinking of either doing vases filling with granny smith apples and dark purple or white flowers OR we're going to put several mini antique-looking lanterns or a large lantern on the other tables. We are going to other have strategic flower arrangements because I know how pricey it can get. What're you doing?
BTW, I included photos of what my FH and I are aiming for. Enjoy!
Oh yeah, about the pillars... We found those photos from a woman in Lansing, MI who said it costs over $750 to rent those for the reception. So, we decided to build them!! Yay!
The rest of the pictures display ideas that we might be leaning toward if we decide to do our branches with hanging votives on only half of our 28 tables.
Which of the alternative centerpieces do you think would "flow" the best with the hanging branches centerpiece and our antique/summer-night/romantic theme? (BTW, our colors are dark/medium purple (see David's Bridal's lapis), apple-y green and ivory.)
One FINAL thing--I found a cool website that shows lots of flowerless/minimal flower centerpiece ideas and here you are: http://www.tickledpinkbrides.com/brideblog/flowers/
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This is the inspiration photo for half of my tables. I'm doing tall florals for the rest but I LOVE this look!
http://weddingdish.thinklikeabride.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/jessica-and-ben-com.jpg
Thanks so much girls!!! This is a great help - so many great ideas. . .
i went to a designer's house one time and saw a vase half filled with pearls and coconut broomstick in the middle with pearls glued to the body and ends of each stick to make it drop around the vase..wish i had taken a pic..
How about fish? I've seen small fish bowls with something hardy, like a beta fish... then one of your guests gets to take it home (which may or may not be a good thing! but the kids would sure like it if you'll be having them at your wedding!)
Right now Pier 1 is having there Clearance sale...go... you be surprised what you will find. I purchase all of our tealights (200) for $2 and 10 containers for our candy buffet $15. If you cant find it in your local store check online. See if your reception site has anything that you can rent from them
Buy trays of wheatgrass from a wholesaler or health food store. They are recatngular in shape and about 8"x11". Glue a length of ribbon around the sides to hide the black plastic tray. Insert white flowers into florist tubes and insert into the wheatgrass. Looks like a meadow in bloom.
SHAY - great idea! How long will tealights burn? Our ceremony is at 4pm and the reception goes until 10pm so it will be at least 5 hours . . .
MissH808 - check out Mrs Green Tea's post about DIY tealights
http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/06/12/semi-diy-5-hour-tea-lights/
We're doing hurricane lanterns (vases) with candles, sand and shells but you can put all kinds of things in the lamps/vases.
With a coupon you can get the hurricanes at Michaels, Ac Moore, etc for around $6 and I got pillar candles for $1.99 at the Christmas Tree Shop.
Have you looked at fruit?
There are a bunch of cute ideas with bowls or column vases filled with apples or limes or lemons
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For my centerpieces, I got lucky because my venue has tons of vases and votives that I can use free of charge...but you'll honestly be surprised as to what you can find at bargain/thrift stores. I'm going to fill the vases with pretty beads in our wedding colors (gotta love Michael's!), individually wrapped Dove chocolates, and the place number for the table. You can order the Dove chocolates online and have up to 4 personal messages on the inside of the wrappers or you can go so many other ways - Hershey Kisses, M&M's, jelly beans - whatever! It also acts as the favors as your guests can simply reach in to the vase and munch away. Then, around the vase, I'll have tea lights in votives and scattered flower petals.
<font size="3">I bought scalloped edge vases at the Dollar Tree and decorated them with sheer ivory ribbon and simple pearl embellishment; . And i bought battery-operated votive "candles" and glued bronze wired ribbon around the outside of them to create kind of a "lamp-shade" effect and those "lamp-shade votives are going inside of the vase with gold/bronze/clear marbles around it. Then on the outside i am putting the marbles around the vase.</font>
<font size="3">Also i saw centerpieces that were large fish-bowl looking vases filled with coffee beans with a large pillar candle in the middle. . . looked VERY classy and chic</font>
Candles are always simple yet elegant. They can also be inexpensive. Considering buyin the vases at the nearby dollar store.
I went to a wedding that had scrapbook pages as part of the centerpiece. The pages were spread out over the table (maybe like 3 to a table) and everyone signed the pages that were later made into a memory book. You could maybe put other stuff around the table (think river rocks, confetti, whatever look you're trying to accomplish). It was really cool! Good luck!
This was our centerpiece.
The hurricane vases were $10 each at Michael's, but I purchased them one or a few at a time so that I could use the 50% off coupons or purchased them when they were on sale. So really they were between $5 and $6 depedning on the coupon/sale.
The candle rings we got on clearance the winter before our wedding (since they were fall items they were reduced) for probably $1 a piece.
The candles we had were assorted sizes and we got them at Ikea. They were $1 each.
So all told, it cost us about $7 or $8 dollars a piece.
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I don't have a pic but message me if you want one and I can take it when I get home. We bought clear glass dinner plates from the Dollar store ($1 each), a clear glass hurricane lamp (also Dollar store), added a small pillar candle from Ikea (2.49 for four or $0.62 each) and used some free rocks from the beach. The idea is that the hurrican lamp sits on the plate with the candle in it. Then we used a silver marker (also Dollar store--see a trend?) and using one word per rock arranged the rocks to form short quotes about love or marriage, etc. around the hurricane lamp.
We chose different coloured rocks so that the arrangement is varied but all natural looking. I've tested it and I really like the candle light glow/flicker on the silver words. Oh also, there'll be a coloured runner underneath all the glass so some colour will come in there as well.
Hey! I'm new, but I was just googling around for DIY ideas, and I came across this thread.
I, too, was looking for non-floral centerpieces. Flowers are just TOO expensive, and they die so quickly! I wanted to be able to make the centerpieces ahead of time.
I found someone who made ribbon topiaries. They're so cute looking, you can make them with any colors or patterns of ribbon. Also they're pretty inexpensive. I got 22 styrofoam balls, 24 dowels, 22 terra cotta pots, ribbon, spray paint, and and pins for right around $200.
They're not hard, they're just tedious. Cutting the ribbon is the hardest part. You have to cut it to 4inches, then you just make a loop, stick it with a pin, and keep going around the ball until it's full! Then I stick a dowel into the ball, take the dowel out, hot glue the hole, and stick the dowel back in. Then you can use floral foam or styrofoam, rocks, sand, or whatever you can find to hold the topiary up in the pot. I used foam. I hot glued it to the foam, and glued the foam to the pot. Then I hot glued moss to cover the foam. They take about 30 minutes to do from start to finish, but it's mindless, you can watch TV while doing it!! I made 18 in less than 3 weeks, and I didn't make any Monday-Friday this week.
As for keeping costs down, I always google for printable store coupons before I go out. Raid the dollar bins, you'll be surprised what you can find! And shop online! The balls at the local craft store were going to be $4 each, but I found them online for $1.90 including shipping! Ebay's your friend :) Oh! Also, go to freecycle.com. People post things they no longer need, and you can email them to pick it up. Someone posted moss, floral foam, and some other stuff that I needed, so I got all that for free!!
Good luck!
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Oh my gosh thanks sooo much!! I love that ribbon ball - so creative!!
Here's what I'm leaning towards as the centerpiece . . . one 10" tall cylinder vase with mini river rocks, a floating candle, and maybe a single calla lily. Palced atop a mirror and will also surround this main vase with about 8 - 10 votives . . What do you think?
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@bari416- OMG Thos ribbon topiaries are SOO cute! What kind of pins did you use?
Fruit are a great option. they are cheap and so colorful... i'm sure in hawaii you can get tons of colorful tropical fruit.
Candles and stones/river rocks are a another option and you can have guests write wishes/advice for the both of you on the river rocks, so they function as more than just deco.
Other options include Bamboo, paper lanterns, hanging parasols upside down from the ceiling, cylindrical vases filled with colored stones or colored water, you could even use fish in tall vases.
also..if you can't have open flames at your site, you can always get the fun LED flicker ones :) I'm going to be using them for luminaires I'm going to make. tHey should be fairly cheap-o too!
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I took pics of my centerpiece mock up 
On a tight budget and am looking to spend no more than $10 per centerpiece (we will have approximately 20 tables) . . . any ideas?
We're not into flowers so would be interested in creative (yet nothing to crazy Martha-Stewarty since we're not extremely crafty) yet budget and simple DIY ideas....
Thanks much!!