Anyone have inexpensive party...table centerpiece ideas?!
Anyone have inexpensive party...table centerpiece ideas?
supposed to be an "italian theme"...but some things will cross over into general. Thanks for your input
Answers:
have some different colored and different kinds of pasta. stick in a clear tall jar. then pur color cornatied grains. for instance yellow angle hair pasta yellow wheat
I found some of those old wine jugs with the wickery stuff around them and put candles in them. I added a few sprays of ivy swirling between the two of them.
Don't forget the checkered table cloth.
Have fun!
You could put different plastic food items for the centerpiece like spaghetti and pizza or anything like pastas
Flowers and pre-made centerpieces can be really expensive, believe me I know it! I think the best bet is to use natural things you can find in the kitchen, grocery store, or outside your house.
I would take a pretty flower vase that you already have and fill it with different colored beans. Use red beans, white beans, and maybe put green food coloring on white beans to make green. Layer them in the order of the Italian flag. Pretty and easy!
Cranberries floating in a bowl with water is really beautiful. Put a few floating candles and light it, even better :)
Another good idea is to take a vase and put clear Christmas lights in it (try to use ones you already have to save money) then fill with potpourri, cranberries, or any kind of dried fruit/veggie. Potpourri is the best bet because the lights slightly warm the potpourri and it makes the whole house smell great.
Hope that helps!
FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR GO BUY SOME BAGS OF MINI PUMPKINS AND DIFFERENT COLOR GOURDS--I THINK THEY LOOK REALLY COOL IN A NICE LOOKING OPEN SOUP TUREEN.
Choose Alex's idea
Pick one color scheme and stick w/ it. That makes an impact inexpensively. Use a green tablecloth, red plates, white plastic silverware (like the colors of hte Italian flag). Color-coord. napkins, use fresh tomatoes and basil as your centerpiece (same colors, will smell great!), and maybe scatter dry pasta down around the table. You can stick baguettes in baskets to eat or decorate, spaghetti noodles in clear glass jars, standing upright, and use empty green wine bottles (or the raffia-wrapped chianti bottles) for candleholders to hold tapers.
The Italian flag is red, white and green - so you could layer red, white and green napkins down the center of the table, then take a basket, lay it on it's side and place some silk ivy inside and then put some really pretty tomatoes, white onions or garlic bulbs around like they had tumbled out of the basket.
A pretty low basket with loaves of Italian bread and crusty rolls would be very pretty. If you wanted more color - you could wrap some in red napkins. (And your guests could eat them.)
A beautiful piece of marble tile or a platter with a round of cheese and bunches of grapes would be gorgeous.
Pretty little terra cotta pots of fresh herbs (like basil & rosemary) lined up in a row with tomatoes and garlic bulbs interspersed would be so pretty - and your guests could each take a pot home at the end of the meal as a party favor.
A beautiful, bountiful bowl of fresh fruit with grapes hanging off the sides a la della robia would be beautiful and your guests could enjoy the fruit. (think grapes, nectarines, plums, apples, oranges, bananas). Trail ivy up and down the center of the table out from under this bowl.
You could also go very avant garde and pick out lots of different kinds of pasta and display these layered in hurricane globes, or go with a clear wide mouthed flower vase and use spaghetti and long noodles - arrange them in the vase fanned out like flowers. There are several pastas that are colored, and this could be really pretty. I would then wrap some raffia around the middle of the vase several times and tie in a bow. Then nestle this vase down into a variety of shapes of macaroni, wagon wheels, bowties, etc spilled onto the middle of the table. If you do this arrangement - I would take more raffia and tie around each napkin and hot glue a bowtie pasta in the center - and place in the middle of each plate.
Some pretty expresso cups overflowing with coffee beans would also be very pretty. I would put this on an underlay of a tan burlap table runner that you can fringe easily by unravelling and pulling on a few threads.
fresh flowers are great and they ARE NOT that expensive, you can get a beautiful centerpiece for $30- just make it yourself. Flowers can be bought at the grocery store, and if you buy cheaper flowers like daisys or lillies it might even be less