Wedding 08: Branch centerpieces

Task: Create centerpieces for ten 8-person round tables.

Goal: Assemble some of the images below which use painted willow or birch branches.

First thoughts: Buy a quantity of willow branches and paint white. The bride-to be has found that Michaels craft store wants a high price for a very small quantity of branches. I have found this resource, which sells 40 to 50 stems of Curly Willow for $15 per bundle which sounds like a good deal. They also sell Mitsumata, Birch, and Manzanita stems. Once you soak the bundle they expand a bit and you can reshape them, meaning that as few as five may look perfectly fine at each table.

Unique Wedding Celebrations in Australia

Other options: If for some reason, the willow does not work you can use any other kind of interesting shaped branch and attach decorative paper, felt cutouts, or already-created items.

Attach decorative paper flowers using Martha's cherry blossom tutorial.

For Krystal's wedding, she created tissue paper flowers and Amber took blooms from silk flowers and attached them to real branches.

Designer Angela Adams painted these red and attached purchased birds (as seen on the Rachael Ray website) or you can use feather butterflies from a craft store.

How about using a fairly heavy gauge wire and "hanging" kites from your branches or create groupings of brightly colored origami good luck cranes? So many possibilities...