The Center of Attention!

One of the things K & I have been looking at a lot lately is the centerpieces. I mentioned the table cloths we found at the Sodo Park open house that we really liked.  As a refresher, here they are:

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We'll probably do navy long tablecloths under those. Then, we're thinking we'll do Sodo Park's standard white china. The question, then, is what do we do for the centerpieces?  Since I realized that I really don't need a bouquet, we've been trying to figure out what we want to do for flowers.  I've thought about everything from hiring a florist to create the centerpieces & all of the decorations to buying vases & sending someone to Pike's Place Market on the morning of our wedding to get flowers for the tables that need decoration.  The Market has beautiful bouquets of flowers at incredible prices.  Check out these:

(photo by Joe Mabel, taken from here)

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And the big bouquets are all around $20. What a great deal!

Am I brave enough to leave it up to chance, though? Am I willing to accept whatever flowers are there instead of planning my own? Can I give up the control?

For those of you who know me, you can imagine what a challenge that might be! :-)

I think I could only go with this option if we decide to have non-floral centerpieces. I'd think like to have flowers decorating the gift table & bar, as well as possibly having some flowers around the seating areas.  That way, we could take some of the money that we don't spend on flowers and spend it on lighting like they had at Sodo Park for the open house. 

I'm sure by this point you're wondering what we'd have for centerpieces if we didn't have flowers...(ok, you're probably not wondering - but humor me). At this point, it looks like at least half of the tables are going to have...cakes!

I was browsing through my Real Simple Wedding Planner (this one) and it mentioned having table cakes as the centerpieces. We looked around at a couple bakeries and found some great samples. Check these out:

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I love this idea. One of the bakeries we've talked to recommended having some covers over them. This would be perfect because it will keep people from touching the cake before it's ready to be served. Plus, it protects the cake from being sneezed on or something gross.  So, that's the plan for half of the tables.  I'll let you know how our search for a bakery goes.

But wait! There are still half of the tables left centerpiece-less....I can just picture the people at those tables now, wondering why their tables are so plain. In my next post, I'll tell you what we're thinking about for them...