My first review is going to be DIYing my own centerpieces. But first the disclaimers 
I'm the type of person who likes to DIY! I realize it's not for everyone. I also "practiced" by making centerpieces for my shower. Upfront planning is key. I gathered my vases/mint julep cups, candelabras, and candle holders ahead of time. The florist (will write a separeate review) that made our bouquets and bouts also delivered my DIY floral centerpieces for me and I hired a Day of Coordinator (mary rose memories - amazing!) to set everything up for me the day of so that I wouldn't have to worry about it. Do not try to do anything on the actual day of your wedding. For that matter, do not do anything the day before either!
Ok so the details:
Candelabras: My friend and I actually purchased the candelabras together from a local florist My friend had her wedding one year before mine and I didn't mind that they would be seen before my wedding. This cost us $500 for 12 candelabras. She used only 10 of them and I used 11. They came in pieces and I assembled them about a month before the wedding with my sisters. It didn't really take too long (maybe an hour?). The worst part about it was transporting them from Delaware (my parent's house) to Tendenza. We shouldn't have left them "standing" in the back of my SUV. Instead, we should have laid them down so they wouldn't be banging up against each other. Other than that, I don't regret purchasing them one bit! They turned out beautiful! We purchased bulk tapered candles online. They were pretty inexpensive as well. We spent $90 on them total and we had enough candles for both our weddings. If I were to do it over again, I would leave them unassembled and just had the coordinator assemble them at the venue because it's not really that hard to aseemble.
Floral Centerpieces:
I needed to make 20 small arrangements so that I could place the underneath the candelabras. I also needed four larger arrangments to go on the tables without the candelabras. I planned on making all 24 arrangements with a mixture of hydrangeas and roses. The julep cups were purchased from the florist that made my bouquets and bouts at $5 each and I purchased mercury hurricanes at michaels over the holiday at $7 each.
Roses - I called the floral lady at the Christiana mall Costco and had her set aside 7 bunches of 24 roses ($16.99 each) for me which I picked up Thursday afternoon before our Saturday wedding. I asked for very light pink roses. The ones she set aside for me were light pink but was darker than what I wanted. I still bought them though because I thought they were fine. I also saw a couple of VERY light pink ones on the floor and bought two bunches of those. In total I spent $119 on roses.
Hydrangeas - I purchased the 30 stem white hydrangeas from costco.com. They were shipped to my parent's house in Delaware early Thursday morning. Someone has to be home to sign for them. Once they came in, I took them out of the box, dipped the heads in water for a second and shook off the excess, cut a little off the stem and them put them in buckets with water and flower food. To be honest they looked pretty sorry when they arrived but by the time I got back home from my pedi later that afternoon, they all perked up and looked amazing! The 30 stem hydrangeas cost me $94 including shipping.
One hydrangea and 5-6 roses went into each juleup cup arrangements
Two hyndrangeas and 5-6 rises went into each mercury hurricane arrangement. I also put floralites inside the mercury hurricanes (friend gave them to me)
Other little add ons:
I also purchased votive holders from the crate and barrell outlet and stemmed votive holders from a friend. I forgot what I spent on everything including the actual tea light candles from Ikea but I'm gonna guess it's definitely less than $100. The short votives when underneath the candelabras and the stemmed ones went around the floral centerpieces. I also had smaller rectangular tables (4 total) and I only put stemmed and unstemmed votives on those tables (no floral).
Thursday evening, I made all the arrangments. I had way more flowers than I needed so I made two additional arrangements. One was an all rose arrangement which went on the sweetheart table. The other one I just left at home.
Friday morning I took all the arrangements to the florist (only 15 min from the house). They stored them in their cooler and delivered to the venue the next day before they delivered the bouqets and bouts to the hotel.
I would do this all over again and do not regret one bit making them myself. In total, I spent:
Candelabra + tapered candles: $300
Mint Juleup Cups: $100
Mercury Hurricanes: $28
Votive Holders + Tea lights: $50?
Roses: $119
Hydrangeas: $94
Deliver: $40 (they only asked for $20 but I gave extra )
Total: $741
I had 20 tables to decorate so breakdown is $37/table. I definitely think I saved for the type of centerpieces I wanted
Ok now the pictures:
Flowers before they were arranged
smaller julep cup arrangements (lighting in the basement makes them look yellow!)
Larger mercury hurricane arrangements
Size comparison of the arrangements
centerpeices in action!
centerpieces in action!
