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How to Create a Sunflower Centerpiece perfect for a Rehearsal Dinner

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How to Create a Sunflower Centerpiece perfect for a Rehearsal Dinner with flowers from Trader Joe's or your local grocery.

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Sunflowers are the perfect late summer flower to enjoy during those last warm days before the crispness of fall sets in.

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Beautiful tour featuring 11 homes with ideas for using sunflowers! This tour is hosted by Amber from Follow the Yellow Brick Home. Be sure to read to the end where you will find links to the tours.

Welcome if you are hopping over from Debra at Common Ground!

How to Create a Sunflower Centerpiece perfect for a Rehearsal Dinner

Our son was just married in early July. It was a casual wedding in Morgan's church with the reception in a lovely barn venue.

We hosted the wedding rehearsal dinner at a wonderful restaurant in Charlotte, NC called Sullivan's Steakhouse. It was an amazing meal with an attentive staff.

wedding cake with sunflowers

The colors for the big day were baby blue with sunflowers.

Blues and yellows are pretty wedding colors for summer.

The pale blue is so pretty with the beautiful pop of color provided by the sunflowers.

I had very little time to prepare for the event since we had just returned from our two-week family vacation.

I've always enjoyed creating lovely floral centerpieces. I've never created one for wedding festivities.

If I can do it so can you!

The Details

While their wedding venue in the barn had more of a rustic feel, the restaurant that they picked was a bit dressier.

Also on OSH!  Saturdays on the Porch #57

I wanted to stick to a strict budget for this since the dinner itself was a chunk of change.

I did what I do best and shopped our house for items that I could possibly use for the tables.

I knew that I wanted to do some sort of a sunflower bouquet to keep in line with the wedding theme and color scheme.

I knew that I would need vases for the round tables.

There would be six round tables and one table for the groom's cake.

I was so excited that I had gathered seven of the blue and white vases that I could use for the arrangements.

The blue and white would work beautifully for the special occasion.

It was also a great opportunity to show my husband that my collection was a good thing. Ha, ha!

I have collected my blue and white from vintage stores, Dollar General, Kohl's, and Homegoods.

What I Used

I realize that you may not have this many vases on hand that work well together. Be sure to check out your dollar stores for glass vases and mason jars that would work well also.

I really felt like the blue and white vases and the photos on the table were unique ways to incorporate their look. By arranging the flowers more casually, it held true to the more rustic theme with a bit of a cottage touch.

The Flowers

The week before the wedding, I went to Trader Joe's and bought a bunch of hydrangeas, baby's breath. sunflowers and different varieties of eucalyptus. Make sure you as for a bucket of water to transport them home.

kitchen table

My plan was to do a test run to get an idea of how many flowers that I would need for the special day.

It just so happened that the day that I did my test run, we had a family dinner. It was so nice getting to set a table around them.

table set for dinner

I will say that all of the photos shot for this were with my cell phone…quickly. At the time, I was not thinking blog post, but maybe a quick Instagram shot.

sunflowers in blue vase

I was able to arrange two flower vases with the flowers.

sunflowers in vase

I then wrote out a shopping list for the next week.

Also on OSH!  Casual Farmhouse Tablescape

Be sure to ask someone at the grocery store when the best time is to come in for flowers. Trader Joe's actually refreshes their flowers each morning by 8 am!

sunflower tablescape

The Dilemna

Call me crazy for doing this, but we live 2-1/2 hours from the restaurant. I planned to make these arrangements the day before and transport them in our SUV in the extreme heat!

Cut hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers, but they can be a little finicky once cut and shrivel. You can easily bring them back to life by soaking them.

I was a bit worried about that happening, especially with the extreme temps that we have had in the south. Once we got to Charlotte, I would not have the time to go looking for replacements.

While the combination with the hydrangeas stole my heart and looked beautiful for our family dinner that night, I made the ultimate decision to not use hydrangeas for the rehearsal dinner.

Flowers Used

It was a given that I'd use sunflowers! I spent right at $100 on the flowers.

  • sunflowers
  • lime green carnations
  • lots of baby's breath
  • 2 types of eucalyptus
  • white flower (don't know the name, but common store flower)

I used 2-4 sunflowers per table arrangement.

I sprinkled in the green carnations and white flowers.

Filled in with eucalyptus.

Lots of baby's breath was used to fill in empty areas and create a full effect.

I'd thought about white roses with the sunflowers, but that would really increase the costs.

Honesty, the baby's breath is so pretty on its own.

Also on OSH!  Saturdays on the Porch #59

Decor Options

I headed to At Home Stores to get the needed supplies.

What I Had: all but 2 candlesticks, runner, easel, vases, beads

What I purchased: 2 candlesticks, inexpensive 4×6 picture frames, 1 matted frame to fit an 8×10 photo, votive candles in glass containers, pillar candles, and a set of 6 round placemats.

I placed one pretty round placemat in the center of each table for a layered effect. Trays would have been pretty, but pricey so that was out.

Then arrange one tall candlestick, flower vase, and smaller framed photo in the center of each table.

Circle the arrangement with four small glass votives around it.

couple sitting at table
Tim and Ashlyn

The staff was so sweet. They raved about the tables, and said they were one of the prettiest setups that they had seen! They couldn't believe that I used most of my decor, and arranged the flowers myself with flowers from Trader Joe's.

The Cake Table

table with flowers and groom cake

I used a runner that had blue and white in it from my own dining room.

This table got two larger pillar candlesticks.

The larger framed photo is resting on a cookbook stand from my kitchen.

The beads are also from home.

golf cake

It ended up being a pretty and simple way to decorate the cake table.

The flowers are all the leftover flowers not used for the round tables.

couple standing
Wood and Morgan, the now married couple!

These beautiful blooms would be so pretty for summer or late summer events. Sunflowers are such a popular flower.

I hope you are inspired to create sunflower centerpieces for your home or upcoming event.

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sunflower centerpiece for rehearsal dinner

You've got to visit The Ponds Farmhouse. One of my favorite blogs and from North Carolina!

Check out these other SUNFLOWER ideas!

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13 Comments

  1. Everything looks beautiful and it all turned out to fairy tale perfection! I love the blue with sunflowers on your table and everything at the rehearsal dinner is just lovely. The sunflowers cake is so simple and elegant. Love it all. Congrats to the happy couple!

    Thanks for joining the hop!

  2. You did a lovely job with the table decor, especially on a budget! I think decorating for special occasions like this is so fun! Sunflowers are just so gorgeous for both summer and fall I think.

  3. How are your kids old enough to get married already – gah – I feel like they were just starting high school! It’s been so much fun seeing how they’ve grown over the years graduating and leaving for college and all the fabulous adventures in between. I love the way the flowers came together and I’m dying over the cake. It’s too cute! Hugs, CoCo

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