Easy and CHEAP wedding decoration

This whole project took me ten minutes to do and I had everything I needed in my kitchen so it was 100% free.  Not too bad!  If I was going to do this over, especially if I was making more than one, I would tweak a few things.

First, buy some inexpensive forks at a thrift store (don't use your own actual forks for this) because you're going to need to bend the prongs.

Second, I would paint the pot instead of cover in fabric.  Fabric is absolutely fine but it would be a little tedious to do this same thing in fabric 50 times if you planned on using this idea as placeholders for your wedding dinner.  Plus, painting makes it look a little more polished.  I've posted samples of both.

Third, I'd consider getting those fancy silver disposable forks or the white ones and spray painting them black, something like that.  The actual forks are great but are a little tall.  If you get the plastic kind, you could cut a bit off of the bottom.  This would be a cheaper way too, buying a box of 50 plastic forks versus 50 regular forks, even if you bought the real ones at a thrift store.

You'll need fabric or paint, a small pot, some floral grass, ribbon, clay (I used play dough), and forks.  Scissors, paint brush, and glue too.

I stuffed the pot halfway with the play dough and tested out the fork to make sure that the pot and dough would hold it.  Here's where that plastic fork may be better since it wouldn't be as heavy.

I measured out what I needed to cover the pot in fabric, I used white felt for this pot.  After I glued on the felt, I glued on the two different colors of ribbon.

Next, you'll need the craft grass.

I added the craft grass, put the fork back in, and picked out a picture.  The picture may bend a little in the fork so I'd suggest not using the originals of your pictures.  Make photocopies (black and white would look cute) and mount them on stock or scrapbook paper.

For painting, I used regular acrylic poster paint in black and white.

Added a ribbon and a place card and voila!  You're done.

It got me thinking too, could you buy blocks of Styrofoam, stick the fork in, glue the base and cover the foam in a pretty fabric?  This way it's smaller, easier, cheaper and could fit on all of the tables.  Maybe even placeholders for those sitting at the head table.

I stumbled upon this beautiful photo holder on another blog and thought it would be great for a centerpiece at a wedding reception or maybe at the entrance to the dinner, by the guest book maybe?  The forks make it a natural fit for a sit-down formal wedding dinner and it's really cute and inexpensive to make.

Have an idea? Share it here by posting a comment below. Let's all help each other out.