The Center of Attention - Part 2

Last time I blogged about the cake centerpieces that half of the tables will (probably) have (We reserve the right to change our minds - it's already happened about 500 times in the planning process) and I left you with a pitiful depiction of how the people at the other half of the tables might feel if we didn't do something to address their centerpieces.

The problem is, we're still not completely sure what we'll do.  We could most definitely do flowers.  I've tried to look around for floral centerpieces that I like, but I haven't found any yet.  That's probably not a good sign for any florists that want my business.  To be fair, though, I haven't looked a ton and really should spend some time digging around for inspiration.

Another wedding favorite is candles.  I like candles a lot.  I originally wanted to do something like this:

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We bought some wax & did a test run. They came out great, but small....like tea light small. I tried to figure out what it would take to make them about the same size we expect the cakes to be (8" - 10"), but I couldn't come up with anything. We're also concerned about any restrictions from the fire marshall.  (Note to self: send email to venue asking about candle restrictions)

I know that you can have candles at Sodo Park because they had a lot at the open house. I really liked them and I think they added a lot of warmth to the space.  I'm hoping that we can do these luminaries as small tea lights around the space.  They're so cool looking, I'd hate to not do them at all.

My most recent idea came to me when we were at Ikea over the weekend.  We were swinging through the lamps - well, to be more accurate, K was moving me along because he'd just about hit his Ikea quota for the day - and I spotted these:

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Aren't they pretty?!?!  Not only do they come in the size we want, but they also come in a smaller size that would be great for the small tables during the cocktail hour.

The only problem is that they're lamps.  I'm reasonably confident neither Sodo Park nor the fire marshall would be crazy about us stringing extension cords across the floor of the venue to light our centerpieces.  I'm wondering, though, if we can take the lamp part out & make them into candle holders somehow.  We have to go back to Ikea soon to return some things we got & I think I'm going to pick up one or two and see if K can work some magic on them.

What do you think? Should I keep looking for flowers? Anyone placing bets on whether or not we can make the lamps look like candle holders?