This post is a 2-for-1 since I won't be able to post tomorrow. I wanted a picture of both the table coverings and the centerpieces we used for the tables at our wedding, and this shows them both.
I got this cool skull fabric for 90% off retail price at a fabric shop that was going out of business. I bought 15 yards of it at a whopping 50 cents per yard-- a total of $7.50 for enough skull fabric to make coverings for 15 tables. I also bought tons of fringe at the same store, which was a bit more expensive because I needed massive amounts, but at 90% off I still only wound up spending about $30 for all of it. I cut the fabric down to size and then simply sewed, and sewed, and sewed on fringe. For $2.50 each, I think they added a bit of spooky flair to the tables. This one looks a bit wrinkled on the table but I think it just got messed up as someone walked by because they generally laid flat.
I don't know exactly how I hit on the idea of candy bowl centerpieces, but I think it worked out really well! This actually wound up being more money than I thought it would, as I didn't really realize just how much candy we would need to fill 15 bowls. But people really liked them, because they were completely edible! Here's how the whole thing worked:
1. I went to garage sales, finding cool see-through glass bowls or big vases. I hit the jackpot at a garage sale of someone who'd recently planned her daughter's wedding, scoring 12 bowls for $2 each. They were basically new, as they'd only been used one night. The remaining bowls were ones I picked up for a dollar or less at various garage sales.
2. My mom and I hot-glued fringe (left over from the table coverings) to each of the bowls/vases.
3. My husband and I tried not to eat too much candy as we amassed amazing amounts (2 boxes full) for the centerpieces.
4. My husband insisted we had too much "filler" candy and not enough "good" candy a few days before the wedding and made a trip to the grocery store for lots of individually wrapped chocolate madness. We spent about $100 on candy, which was definitely more than I was expecting, but a steal compared to how much people usually spend on flowers, I guess.
5. We filled each bowl with candy and placed it in the middle of the table (on top of the skull fabric) on our wedding day.
6. As guests arrived for the wedding, our "greeters" (Mariah, Myagaa and Zoloo) gave each person a small candle holder with tealight inside (for our ceremony-- I got the candle holders from the same garage sale mentioned above) and told them to check the bottom. We put stickers on the bottoms of 15 candle holders, and if you got a candle holder with a sticker on it, you got to take a candy centerpiece home with you. This was a big hit with the guests.
So the centerpieces were about $10 each, in the end. The grand total for the table ornamentation on 15 tables was about $190 (not including the favors, which I've written about elsewhere-- those were 75 cents each including packaging, sucker sticks and the original purchase of the molds because we made them ourselves.) So if you factor in the favors, total per table was less than $20 for all decorative elements. The cheap fabric score really saved the budget, as did all the garage sale hunting.
Note guests in costume in the above photo. My little cousin Pam was a great vampire (on the right). She won a prize (yes, we had a costume contest) for best child's costume.
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