One of my favourite places to go idea hunting is on Martha Stewart Weddings and for this post I was looking around on the flowers page, specifically centrepieces.

One idea I like very much is having a multitude of different vases as centrepieces! A mixture of vases in different shapes and sizes- or as in one of the pictures, a mixture of old fashioned tea tins- with different flowers in makes for a very striking visual impact. You can even have little individual flowers in tiny pots in amongst the candles.

There are so many options! Painted terracotta vases, bowls, teapots, coloured glass, slim glass vases, painted glass bottles, boxes, baskets, porcelain vases, even antique silver jugs and vases. In one of the pictures you’ll see there are no flowers on the table at all- just tapered candles in several different glass candleholders and it looks stunning! You can of course, colour coordinate the vases.

An added bonus of having multiple vases as centrepieces is that you can use them as gifts for your guests. Little potted plants make wonderful thank you gifts as well as gawjiss decorative table decor.

I had so many ideas when we started planning our wedding, but I managed to whittle my list down and by the time we got together with the decor company for the first time, I had only two concepts. It was either feathers, or an ornate Victorian theme.

After chatting to Kelly from Kelro, we decided on the feather idea. She was keen to do it and I think I was more excited about that one than the Victorian idea by then. We opted on a different style of decor for the chapel, but still something that fitted with the feathers.

The chapel aisle was lined with small birdcages hung on ribbons from the ceiling. They were filled with flowers, candles and feathers, and each one was different. The purple and red colour scheme was used in the chapel and in the reception hall, and the front of the chapel had two big flower arrangements on white stands flanking us as we said our vows.

After the ceremony, the two big arrangements and the cages were whisked into the reception hall where they were used to decorate the buffet tables, the coffee station, the bathrooms and our main table.

Our tables were covered with red and purple table cloths, and in the centre we had tall vases covered in a sheer white fabric with battery operated lights inside topped with a fountain top of white ostrich feathers! There were a few small candles on the tables as well, but the main thing was the feathered centrepiece. The serviettes were bound with strands of jewels and pearls on wire at each place setting, and there were no flowers on the tables.

We used photographs from our couple-shoot earlier in the year to make up triangular table number cards. One side had the table number on it, the second side displayed the menu and the third side had one a photographof us on it.

It was very striking and I was very pleased with the look of the reception hall.

After I dragged my fiance to 17 different venues, and we rated, photographed and reviewed them, we chose Helderfontein Estate as the perfect place for our wedding.

Helderfontein Estate scored the highest on our ranking list after we’d visited all the venues, and the criteria we looked at included ample secure parking, a big enough venue to have space to move between the tables and still have a decent size dance floor, a chapel on the same property, overnight space for us and for our guests, and close to home and family.

Another issue was that the venue had to look pretty in winter as we were planning a July wedding. This was also why we started looking at venues in June and July the year before we got married. Many venues look exquisite in summer, but winter means no flowers and no green grass and no ivy… then they’re not pretty at all.

Helderfontein was beautiful when we went to see it in the middle of winter in 2009. The huge stone building that in summer is covered in ivy are very striking in their own right in winter. The reception hall was more than big enough for everything we had planned, they had ample secure parking and they have over 50 rooms available for overnight guests!

On our wedding day, we each had a room to get dressed in and they were on opposite sides of the property so that we wouldn’t accidentally see each other. We did the majority of our photographs before the ceremony to make the most of the available light and we had more than enough beautiful places on the property to take photographs including these huge stone walls and dams on the property.

That night, after the reception, we had the honeymoon suite to sleep in! The underfloor heating as well as the bed’s electric blanket had been switched on and there was champagne chilling in an ice bucket… ooh and a platter of eats and snacky things like cheese and biscuits and strawberries!

It was fabulous. We had breakfast with our parents early the next morning before we set off on honeymoon, and the best part about outsourcing everything was that we only had to take our clothes and gift home with us!

In South Africa, these little paper toys don’t really have a name, but they get played with by every generation, everyone knows how to use them and just about everyone knows how to fold them! Here are some pictures of cootie catchers at other weddings so you can see just how wonderfully versatile a “toy” they can be. They’re fabulous as conversation starters and they recall fond memories for most people.

I spotted these in a Martha Stewart Weddings magazine a few years ago, and it stuck in my head as a suggestion for my clients. No one ever used it, and when I started planning my own wedding, I figured they’d be a fun way to keep my guests entertained.

I roped my mom and sisters into helping me fold mine- I made two different ones- and they looked like this:

One had “tasks” for people to perform- like “toast your table” or “buy the best man a drink”, and the other had little facts in about myself and my new husband.

Here are a few links you may find interesting if you’d like to use them: How To Make Cootie Catchers; Lip Smacking Good; DIY Template; Ideas (bing). And here are a few photos of the ones I found when Googling them.

You can read all about

my wedding cupcakes

here!