DIY – Do It Yourself is becoming a very popular mantra in the wedding industry, particularly in our current economic situation.  Although we are a wedding planning company, we do encourage couples to DIY to save money if they have time to plan their own weddings.  Although professional vendors will be able to provide you with better quality work, if an aspect of your wedding isn’t as vital, try to cut some corners to save money.  Planning Elegance’s blog will provide you with a new tip each month to help you save some cash for your wedding.  February’s topic is DIY Fruit Centerpieces.

These can be easy and fun!  Just remember that if you have many guests at your reception, you will need lots of help with these DIY Fruit Centerpieces.  Fruit centerpieces are one of the best DIY aspects for your wedding reception because you can save TONS of money by using fruits to limit the amount of flowers you have in your centerpieces or by eliminating flowers from your centerpieces all together.  Other advantages to DIY fruit centerpieces is that if you cut the fruit, they will emit natural fragrances into the room, so lemons and oranges are great for this!  Additionally these make summer and spring weddings look more natural and beautiful, it will give your guests a stronger sense of your outdoor or summery theme.  Best of all, you can go green with this!

The first thing you need to do is buy glass vases or containers for your centerpiece.  Now, don’t rush to Tall Mouse or any other craft store for these, because you will get drastically marked up pieces at craft stores.  Search your local downtown (like the markets in downtown Los Angeles that have EVERYTHING) for pieces that you can purchase at a wholesale price since you will be buying many pieces.  You can also try looking online, but beware of shipping costs for heavier pieces.  Next decide what type of fruit you want to fill the vase with, the most common are oranges and grapefruit, but you can go beyond that with anything that is colorful or has a beautiful shape like sliced apples, whole grapes, or pomegranate seeds…be creative!  Choose another filler like flowers or candles.  If you have time and the season is right, you shoud try to grow your own flowers to save tons ore money since flowers are one of the most expensive aspects of wedding decor.

Now think about your process.  Try to assemble the centerpieces the day before your wedding instead of on your wedding day, if possible.  Have your bridesmaids or cousins help you, you can also ask your wedding coordinator to handle this for you.  Make sure that you have multiple people in charge of setting up the centerpieces on your wedding day and that you have allocated them enough time to do so.  If you want to sprouse up these centerpieces, you can add a ribbon to tie around them, a few candles surrounding the piece, colored water to make a dramatic effect, or small lights under the pieces to make them stand out.  Whatever the case, be creative, have fun, and make sure not to stress yourself out.  If you try this for your own event, or have done it before, feel free to send us a picture at info@planningelegance.com.  Enjoy your naturally scented DIY centerpieces!

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