Wedding centerpieces take on a whole new flavor when you dispense with the flowers and go edible instead.
The centerpiece can actually be part of the meal, presenting, for example, an appetizer of raw fruits, vegetables and dipping sauces artfully arranged in tiered trays. “You can decorate it with edible orchids, carrot flowers, tomato roses—the sky’s the limit for what you can do with veggies,” says Rich Helms, events coordinator at Bachetti’s Catering in Wilmington.
The same can be done with petits fours, cookies and other mini-desserts, which allows the centerpiece to stay intact until the end of the reception and gives guests noshing opportunities well after the meal has been cleared. Large glass jars of candy are an eye-catching option, and the candy colors (maybe custom M&Ms?) can coordinate with the wedding colors.
Why not make the wedding cake the center of everyone’s attention by having smaller, 8- to 10-serving cakes on every table? The bride and groom also get their own personal-sized cake to cut for photos.
“Smaller cakes make a really fun, edible centerpiece,” Helms says. After the bride and groom cut their cake, the servers hand out plates and pie servers to every table so the guests can serve themselves.
Whole fruits displayed in a tall glass vase provide a “fresh summer wedding palette,” suggests Tom Covello of Celebrations Design Group in Claymont. He’s done wedding centerpieces using Granny Smith apples or pears (a nod to the saying, “the perfect pair”), but other fruits—such as peaches or lemons and limes—work equally well.
An (inedible) option for fall, Covello says, is to fill glass jars with nuts, berries, mini-pumpkins and ornamental squashes. —T.G.M.