Centerpieces on a budget
BY TRESA ERICKSON

You've been working on your wedding for months now and it is finally getting down to the wire. You can't put off selecting the centerpieces for the tables at the reception any longer. Your budget is tight, so live floral arrangements are simply out of the question. Lucky for you, there are hundreds of ideas for inexpensive reception table centerpieces.

Traditional and some not so traditional ideas for center pieces are:
• Balloons
• Baskets of artificial flowers
• Birdcages
• Bowls of fruit
• Board games and puzzles
(these work especially well for
children's tables)
• Candles with artificial

greenery
• Cards received prior to the
wedding
• Champagne buckets
• Dishes of personalized chocolates
or other candies
• Fish bowls
• Glass bowls with floating
candles
• Hurricane globes with sand
and seashells
• Old books and maps
• Pens and journals for guests
to write their good wishes
• Picture frames with various
photos of the couple
• Placemats featuring artwork
from the couple
• Potted plants
• Scrapbooks of the couple's
childhoods
• Straw hats
• Wooden hearts and love
poems
To save even more money, might want to consider having centerpieces that will serve a double purpose. For example, the personalized chocolates could serve as wedding favors, while strawberries dipped in chocolate could work as a preor post-dinner treat. Another trend is to have cakes on every table as centerpieces, which the guests can then eat at their leisure. The wedding cake can be smaller, and with various flavored cakes at each table, you're sure to offer something that will suit every tongue. Guests will enjoy comparing and sharing cake flavors.

The sky is the limit when it comes to inexpensive wedding centerpieces. Depending upon what you decide, you may even be able to create them yourself and save yourself even more money.