One of the hardest things about planning a wedding is the budget. Of course we all want to have one of the weddings that you see on TV and in magazines, and those are great to turn to for inspiration. Unfortunately, those are usually weddings that have sizable budgets. Sometimes “budgets” that would buy a house! But there are definitely ways that you can have an awesome wedding and still stick to your budget.

There are so many different aspects of a budget, and every wedding is different. I’m not going to tell you that you can have an absolutely amazing wedding for 250 guests on a $10,000 budget. Now if you have 100 guests, that’s a little different. All in all, everything comes down to the amount of people you’re having at your wedding.

One of the things that is dependent on the number of guests is the centerpieces. If you have 200 people, you’re going to definitely have over 20 tables. And over 20 tables = over 20 centerpieces. When you have that many tables, having 20+ huge $200 centerpieces is definitely going to make a large dent in your decor budget. A good way to cut centerpiece costs is to mix them with large and small centerpieces. Have a few “statement” centerpieces, and then have small, affordable centerpieces.

So what might these affordable centerpiece options be? My absolute favorite thing used in centerpieces is candles. There’s nothing like a room that glows with candlelight. Using candles in a centerpiece is an incredibly affordable route to take. Use a small vase of flowers and put votives around it to make it larger. Put floating candles in different sizes of vases filled with water. There are lots of different ways that you can incorporate candles into centerpieces to give them a greater effect.

Photo by K&K Photography, Design by MMD Events

Photo by Lifelong Studios, Design by MMD Events

There are plenty of ways that you can use candles in centerpieces, and it won’t look like you “cut costs”. You can use floating candles, big pillar candles, cool votives…there are definitely lots of options. Just be sure to buy the right types of candles (that burn inward and for a long time). You can have your florist or event designer handle the candle centerpieces for you -they will know what candles will work best, plus you won’t have to worry about setting them up on your wedding day. So when it comes time to decide on your centerpieces and you might need to cut costs, don’t forget about how beautiful candles are!