No matter how prepared a bride or groom thinks they are when it comes to wedding planning, there shall be an inevitable series of obstacles that follow like a televised assault course, attempting to disrupt the sprint towards the sunset-hazed finish line that is your happily ever after.
Even if you’re able to enlist a host of wedding planners, or have already built-up a collection of physical dog-eared binders stuffed with magazine cut-outs or virtual pins saved on Pinterest – when it really comes down to the nitty gritty of wedding planning, making design choices can become incredibly difficult.
Often, forming a cohesive wedding aesthetic feels daunting, and making your dreams a reality seems like a task only Disney imagineers could achieve.
One way to get around the mental block in wedding planning is through the wonderful world of DIY and crafts.
Forcing yourself to get messy and creative might just unleash a burst of inner-inspiration that has been hiding away due to the overwhelming nature of planning a wedding – no matter how far in advance you began your preparations.
Taking a step back and using your creative mind and nimble hands to produce some awe-inspiring, sustainable and value-for-money pieces might just result in those dream wedding decorations and centrepieces you had in your mind’s eye all along.
What are you waiting for? Get together with your bridesmaids and groomsmen and enlist as many family members as you can, crack open a bottle of wine and get to crafting. Keep scrolling for a round-up of ideas for DIY wedding centrepieces.
Twisty candles and recycled wine bottles
Perhaps the easiest DIY, and a skill that can be re-employed time and time again for other events is the good ol’ sustainable wine bottle and candle trick. We know what you’re thinking: “isn’t that something that university students do?”. Yes, to an extent, but there’s a way to ensure this DIY hack looks elegant, sophisticated and a far cry from student décor.
In the run up to your reception (and as a way to legitimise weekday drinking), try saving as many pretty wine and champagne bottles as possible with relatively narrow openings. You could even source vintage bottles with old-school labels for a dark academic aesthetic. If you’re planning on removing the labels for a sleeker, uniform look, why not dye the bottles to fit your chosen colours scheme? It’s easy with mod podge and food colouring – more instructions are available in our DIY wedding decoration piece.
Whichever direction you choose to go with your recycled wine bottles, topping with tapered candles will create texture and depth. This selection of 10 pistachio green candles by HAY are available via Selfridges, and are also offered in multiple colours and shapes.
Buy now £17.00, Selfridges
Rustic bird cage filled to the brim with baby’s breath
An idea for the lovers of all things shabby chic is a simple DIY involving vintage-inspired bird cages and your favourite wedding florals – though we highly suggest going with the easy to handle, delicate yet hardy flower know as baby’s breath. All you need for this craft is a collection of empty decorative birdcages (Wayfair offer packs of six for £16.99) and your precious blooms. We recommend really packing them in there, rather than placing the odd solitary flower or dried sprig. This not only makes for a more put-together look, but it ensures that there is no distracting negative space for your guests to peek through.
Buy now £16.99, Wayfair
Extra-large, floral-wrapped candelabras
Another craft which can be employed using the ever-elegant baby’s breath blooms, or other wedding florals of your choice is a simple flower-wrapped candelabra. Though you can purchase candelabras in all shapes and sizes, we recommend going with a larger size if you’re looking to create a statement centrepiece. This featured option from Culinary Concepts measures 38cm, but you could go even bigger if you’d like. Pair this craft with a set of tapered dinner candles in a colour of your choosing.
Buy now £74.95, John Lewis
Glass cake domes
Glass cake domes are traditionally used to simultaneously display and preserve fresh bakes, yet their decorative and translucent nature also lends itself to crafting. Depending on the theme, colour scheme and location of your wedding party, think about items and objects you could arrange under a cake dome for a centrepiece display – this might be layers of sand, starfish and electric candles for a beach wedding, or simply a selection of your wedding florals. If you’re looking for an elegant, Beauty and the Beast type of glass dome, here’s another option from LSA International.
Buy now £60.00, LSA
Candles wrapped with dried leaves and twine
An easy craft for a woodland-themed, outdoorsy wedding simply involves hot-gluing dried leaves to pillar candles of varying heights and sizes, and wrapping them with twine. You can also go one step further and wrap some candles with twigs you’ve collected, or even fragrant cinnamon sticks for a Christmas wedding.
Buy now £5.49, Amazon
Dried orange garlands
If you’re having a festive, December-time wedding party, another stunning and fragrant option for centrepieces involves making dried orange garlands. Either make them yourself or purchase pre-dried orange slices (the ones that are often bought to garnish cocktails with). You can combine this craft with the aforementioned candelabra option and wrap your garland around its base. Alternatively, you can purchase a selection of semi-miniature fake (or real) trees and shrubs to wrap your garlands around.
Buy now £12.99, Amazon
Decorative tins and tapered candles
Whether you’re using decorative tin cans like the ones we’ve featured here, or simply painting old, recycled ones for a more sustainable craft, hot gluing tapered candles to the bottom of tin cans is a lovely and simple idea for a rustic centrepiece. You could use pillar candles, twisted ones, and a mixture of slim, short, and tall candles for a more interesting look. Alternatively, you could source larger pillar candle to perfectly fit the base of your chosen tin can. If you’ve chosen to paint the cans a uniform, block colour, you could also wrap the base with a matching chiffon ribbon.
Buy now £9.99, Amazon
Customise floating tealight holders
Floating tealights in holders of varying sizes are an elegant and delicate design choice for wedding parties. But they’re far more customisable than simply filling them up with water and allowing the tealight to float on top. You can add fake flowers – such as these stemless chrysanthemums, to the surface of the water - or even ditch the water vibe altogether and fill them up with gemstones and decorative pebbles for an alternative, beach-ready look.
Buy now £17.89, Amazon
Create your own fairy-tale lanterns
Though incredibly romantic, plain old candle arrangements and hanging lanterns have been seen at weddings time and time again. Why not purchase a glass handle candle holder separately and make it your own? Instead of your standard pillar candle, fill it with these battery-operated miniature fairy lights, some fake moss and even succulents to create your very own magical fairy-tale landscapes.
Buy now £41.98, Amazon
