Centerpieces...round 2

Well, this weekend on our usual Saturday outing, the family and I hit up Hobby Lobby. Oh what a great idea that was! The whole reason for my suggesting that we go to Hobby Lobby in the first place started with my Valentine's Day gift from Matt. A few weeks ago, as we were discussing how we weren't going to get each other gifts this year, I just happened to mention to him...if you ARE going to get me flowers, I would reccommend finding Coral Gerbera Dasies, because I've been wanting to get some to play with anyway...I thought this would be a much better use of our dwindeling money, not only do I get a nice bunch of flowers for V-day, but I get a sample of my wedding flowers to play with. Believe it or not, he actually LISTENED, and when I woke up and came into the living room on Saturday morning, there they were! My coral gerberas! They DO exist! (I was beginning to think that I just made up this color of flower...). Anyway, I digress. So I had the flowers, now I needed a few other supplies to test my centerpiece ideas out - floral foam, and some more candle holders. So when everyone agreed to go to Hobby Lobby with me, I was super excited! And as always, I walked away with WAY more than I anticipated (I think there's a rule about that at Hobby Lobby...) Not only did I find the floral foam, some almost-coral silk gerberas, 3 more votive holders & 3 more candles, I found the most AMAZING piece of fabric EVER. No really. I almost cried. My cousins Caitlin and Shelley were on the hunt for something coral in the fabric department, when I heard Caitlin say Brooke! What about this?? as she points to this heavenly piece of satin. Like I said, I almost cried. Kind of like the flowers, I was starting to think my coral color in my head didn't really exist. But it does! I have proof! And it comes in the form of a yard of Satin. :) I bought a yard to play with, but I can tell you right now I WILL be going back and probably cleaning the store out of this stuff before July. It's $2.99 a yard (not bad, right?) and did I mention how FREAKING AWESOME it is!?

Anyway, on to the point of this post. I saw a picture somewhere (I have NO idea where, and I didn't save it...sorry) of a table runner on a round table. Yes, sounds kind of strange, but it looks fabulous. So I decided I wanted to do this (and what do you know, I have a great piece of fabric to try it with!!!) So here it is...my mock up of our reception tables...

what do you think?

*Disclaimers--ignore the blurriness of the picture, it was the best I could do with my cell phone. Also ignore the baby gate in the backround (I swear that was out of the picture!). While you're at it, ignore the crappiness of our kitchen table. Basically, ignore everything but the GORGEOUS fabric and my make-shift centerpiece. Use your imagination here folks...

As you can see, there are only 4 gerberas in this version. Matt (the awesome guy that he is), went to 3 different places hunting these bad boys down, and 4 was all he could come up with. He did so well though...I honestly didn't know he knew what coral was! :) But as I mentioned earlier, I got some silks (in almost-coral...that's what I'm calling it, it's really just hot pink...) at Hobby Lobby, so I added those in to get the "full effect". Here's what that looked like...

again, cell phone picture, so not the best. Although, I am pretty proud of the angle I got on this one...looks all "artsy" and what-not... :)

This one gives you a pretty good idea of the overall look I'm going for. So...what do you think??? Matt wasn't quite as thrilled with the result as I was...but he's a guy so what does he know, right?! I think with all real gerberas (instead of the flimsy fake ones) this will look AWESOME. I am still in love with the coffee bean idea. Oh, and by the way, those puppies aren't nearly as cheap as you (ok I) may have thought. $8.99/lb! Yikes! (To fill that vase would take at least 2lbs...more like 3) BUT...my awesome Maid of Honor just happens to be dating an awesome guy who's family owns coffee shops (I know! It's fate!). So he has the hook up on a restaurant supply store where I can get these things for like $3/lb! SWEET! I also came up with this little trick which will not only save on the amount of beans I need, but will also help keep the flowers alive and beautiful. Check it out:

I just stuck a piece of floral foam in the middle, and poured the beans around it. Genious! I know! It's tricky getting the beans to fill in the entire area, but with a little practice I'm sure I'll become a pro.

So there you have it. Centerpeices round 2. I am MUCH happier with the results this time. I just need to find about 10 more of the vases, a BAZILLION votive holders, and a crap-ton of candles. Oh and the fabric for the runners. But luckily I have an awesome family (and soon to be in-law family) that is helping. I told you about Jess and the coffee bean hook up, Matt's mom Jamie is going to attempt to make the candles for me, and my aunt Terri is going to help make the runners. So I just have to scrounge up all the materials, and get going on this! Oh, and I have to decide about the main table linens. The venue offers black, white, or ivory. Of those I would go with ivory. I really like how that coral looks against the brown, though, so I may just have to look into renting brown linens. Oh and I guess I need to work on getting the flowers too, huh. So much to do......

P.S. As of tomorrow, we're officially 5 months away! AHH!