30 Budget And DIY Wedding Centrepiece Ideas

You can either buy these from somewhere like Etsy, or make them yourself if you’ve got time and are good at crafting. They use really cheap materials like paper and wooden sticks but the effect is brilliant. You could use the centre of your pinwheels to show the table number too.

Baby’s breath or gypsophila is a really budget-friendly and pretty flower, so if you want to keep your flower costs down then it pays to go big with this bloom. We think it looks particularly smart in vintage birdcages (cheap to buy from sites like Hobbycraft), or collect jam jars or wine bottles to use as vases.

Another easy and cheap idea for a wedding centrepiece is to purchase eucalyptus from you local florist or flower stall at the market and then drape it artfully across your tables. Long tables in a rustic venue look really good with this style of foliage runner.

Buy some glass vases, fill them with water (add food dye if you want some colour) and then float candles on top, et voilà – a pretty and budget-friendly way to make your wedding reception look chic.

You can buy inexpensive wooden lanterns from places like Dunelm and Wayfair. To make them wedding ready simply add a candle and some greenery, like eucalyptus, or flowers to the base. A collection of different sized lanterns looks particularly stylish in the centre of a wedding table.

Image Credit: Matt Gillis

We love this idea because it’s so eco friendly as well as being cheap and looking amazing. You just need to take a trip to your local garden centre get some pots, plant them up with pretty flowers and then write the table number on the side with chalk.

Place them in the centre of your wedding tables to do double duty as centrepieces and table numbers. Once the wedding is over take all the potted plants home and put them in your garden as a lovely reminder of your big day.

Image Credit: Wisteria Photography

Paper lanterns don’t just have to be strung up from the beams of your venue to make an impact. If you want something more eye catching than simple glass vases for your flowers, place a paper lantern around each one to make it look like your flowers are planted inside it.

To make them look really stunning add a little LED light so the lantern glows romantically.

Your can buy or hire colourful silk table runners or dazzling sequin runners from plenty of wedding stylists and hire companies and they look fabulous on their own or with a few simple floral arrangements or candles.

A simple yet effective way to have floral centrepieces is to fill some hired or cheap vases with sand (for extra style points dye the sand to match your wedding colours) and then choose a few large bloom heads like peonies, roses and dahlias to place on top.

This one is so easy and so chic. Simply buy some inexpensive rose petals and sprinkle them generously along your tables or in the centre if you’ve got round tables. Dot a few tea lights or candles in glass jars throughout the petals for maximum romance.

At summer or destination weddings, citrus fruits placed creatively along long trestle style tables or displayed in nice boxes in the centre of a table can look really vibrant and stylish. It’s another eco friendly option too, as the fruits can be reused afterwards, perhaps in cocktails at your post-wedding party!

Image Credit: Onelove Photography

Potted succulents can look really exquisite as wedding centrepieces and as they are quite small you can even tell guests they can take them home as wedding favours too. This centrepiece idea is easy to create – simply dot succulents of different sizes around the centre of your table. Metallic pots look particularly chic too.

Image Credit: Jillian Mitchell Photography

Collect retro looking tins from antique shops or flea markets (or modern ones and spray them metallic) and then gather some wild flowers the day before your wedding to pop inside. The contrast of the cool tin design with the pretty florals is always a winner.

Having a tropical themed wedding? A really cheap way to make your tables look incredible is to lay overlapping palm leaves along the table like a runner with a few candles or tea lights dotted throughout. Palm leaves are really affordable and all the greenery will make your wedding reception feel like an oasis. Ask your florist to help you source the leaves.

Image Credit: Magdalena Studios

Who needs wedding centrepieces when your food is the star of the wedding table? If you’re opting for sharing platters when it comes to your catering, then let the food do double duty as table decor too. As wedding ideas go they don’t get much more budget-friendly than this.

Image Credit: Emma B Photography

If you’re having an autumn wedding, it can look really chic and seasonal to have pumpkins as your table centrepieces. Don’t just keep the pumpkins in their natural state though. Have fun painting them to match your wedding theme. You could turn them into lanterns too for a really romantic wedding reception.

Image Credit: Casa de Perrin

Drink a lot of wine? Then save the corks (or ask friends and family to) and you can make them into unique and quirky vases that add a little French flair to your wedding. This is an easy DIY project but may take some time if you’re having a large wedding. To make this centrepiece you simply glue the corks in the formation you desire and then slip a glass vase full of flowers inside.

Another way to make a cheap glass vase look a lot more stylish is to spray paint some coffee beans to form a base that looks like chic pebbles. Again, this is a really easy DIY project to create.

You just spray paint the beans inside a cardboard box and allow to dry before tipping them into your vases. Fill about half way and then top with candles, greenery, succulents, plants, roses or other florals for decor you can be proud to say you made yourself.

If you want floral arrangements but don’t have the budget for real flowers or want to create something a little more unique, then you’ll want to consider paper flowers.

If you’re skilled enough at DIY your paper flowers can look so realistic that your guests won’t realise they’re not real flowers until they’re sat at the wedding tables. Display your flowers in vases or as a continuous runner if you have enough.

Image Credit: Posie Flowers

Show off your colour palette at each wedding table with this fun and easy DIY project. All you need is some glass jars and sand. Dye the sand to match your wedding colours and then pour them in layers into the glass jars. Top with candles, greenery or floral decor for maximum impact.

Buy some chalk paints in your wedding colours and paint mason jars. These can then be filled with wild looking flowers for lovely rustic and cheap wedding decorations. If you’re not keen on too much DIY, this is the ideal project as it’s so quick and easy to do.

Who would have thought the humble egg and egg box could be turned into something so pretty. This rustic DIY project is so affordable, but looks amazing and your guests will be very impressed at your creative skills and imagination.

Turn egg shells into tiny bud vases by emptying out the eggs (washing thoroughly) and then filling with flower heads and greenery. Then simply display in egg boxes.

Image Credit: The Merry Thought

Save all the wine bottles from your engagement celebrations and use them as cheap DIY wedding centerpieces. Choose glitter to match your wedding theme and then glue and roll your bottles in it or simply spray paint in a metallic colour. Different heights and textured bottles filled with single stem flowers or candles look amazing as wedding centerpieces.

If you’re a whizz at DIY then you could give these fabulous paper pomander centrepieces a go as an affordable alternative to real flowers. Display them at different heights on a tray or wood slice for a more rustic look. Choose natural flower colours like pink and yellow to make them look real rather than too faux.

These centrepieces are guaranteed to add some drama to your reception tables. Buy ostrich feathers and spray paint the fronds in your wedding colours or leave them plain and then display in really tall vases (ask your florist if you can hire these).

Use this party staple to create the wow factor at your wedding on a budget. All you need is a lot of colourful balloons and puff (you’ll want to use an inflator for this!).

Simply blow up all the balloons and then tie them along a piece of string that you can lay across the centre of long tables. Intersperse with fresh blooms, plants and greenery.

Our top style tip is to make sure the balloons are all varying sizes to make it look aesthetically pleasing.

Are you both music lovers? Take some of your favourite sheet music and use it to decorate mason jars. Then pop fresh blooms inside and you’ll have some personalised, DIY and budget-friendly floral centrepieces.

Worried your guests might get bored during the reception? Then give them something eye catching to play with instead of a traditional centrepiece.

We love the idea of filling a bowl with lego pieces, as not only does it provide a huge amount of colour to your tables but will be a fabulous talking point for your guests. Pair with floral arrangements to soften the look.

Image Credit: Gemma Clarke

You could use any board games as centrepieces really (and your guests will love to play them if they have time!), but Scrabble works particularly well as you can use the tiles to spell out the table name or a message to your guests. Place a floral arrangement in the middle to make it look wedding ready.

We’ve all seen lovely log slices with candles or flowers on top used as wedding centrepieces, but how about using logs in a completely different and stand out way?

Stack up some logs and then paint the rings on either end in a multitude of colours and before you know it you’ve got a cool and fabulous table decoration.

Ask your florist to dot some wild blooms in between the logs if you want to elevate the look. This centrepiece would work particularly well at a rustic wedding.