Ethical sourcing of table decorations!

[Deleted User]

Hiya,

I'm getting married in a few months and as both of us are very fond of the outdoors (he loves mountains and lakes and I love nature and wildlife) I'm trying to use a lot of natural decorations. I'd really love to do something along the lines of thisof a slice of a tree trunk with some glass jars with flowers and candles on it for the table centrepieces... but I want the woood to be sourced both ethically and locally and I don't want to spend a small fortune. I will need less than 10 of them. Does anyone have any idea where I could find this kind of thing? (I'm based near Leeeds by the way)

On the same theme can anyone suggest the best way to get large glass jars? I have plenty of smaller ones but nnothing that would be suitable as a vase for flowers.

And lastly, I don't want to use real flowers as I think it's a huge shame to chop down fresh flowers and use them for a few hours and then let them die. I'd rather use fake flowers as I know they can still look quite good. Can anyone suggest a good place to source some decent fake flowers?

Thanks!!

DomRavioli

Get google out and start phoning/emailing suppliers.

You cannot have ethical/local and cheap. Pick one and stick with it, or change your budget or theme to match what you actually have available. Will anyone notice that you don't have a bit of wood under a filled glass with flowers? If you're on a budget, skip the detail. It may sound harsh but literally nobody will care whether it is on wood or not (apart from possibly you, but its whether you want to spend that money on a bit of wood used for a couple of hours, or whether to spend it elsewhere such as photography, food etc).

It is one day, literally people will not care if its not perfect, they are there to see a marriage not a show.

Fake flowers are good from ebay and amazon, you can have silk or foam and there's a fair few ebay sellers that make to your specifics.

Glass jars can be from Home Bargains/Quality Save, they usually have them for less than a tenner. Ikea can also be good (there's one at the White Rose centre).

nimbo

Pop into some charity shops for the jars / vases. Choose a few that support caused you feel are worthy and jars are sorted. Although they will be Mish mashed. My sister in law has done this and they look awesome.

For the logs - do you know anyone with a log burner? or is there anywhere that sells logs locally. You may be able to find somethings that you could slice yourself - or ask a man with a chain saw to slice for you? It would then need a lot of sanding. Or have a look on fleabay?

Dependant on time of year you are marrying you could maybe lick some wild flowers locally - or grow loads for the purpose? Allow people to take the table decorations home and they won't be wasted? Personally I prefer cut flowers to fakes ones.

Hobby craft used to have a good selection of fabric flowers but I haven't seen their choices recently. quality save or b and m recently had some in - but it was limited choice and linked to I think To Mother's Day so they may have gone now.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the tips guys!!

Mrs_Huggett

Remember that fake flowers will usually be produced in somewhere like China and then shipped all the way here..and made of stuff that will take years to breakdown..why not look at using cut annual flowers ..they are going to die naturally anyway..find a great gardener amongst your family and friends who can help grow them for you? Or just use some flowers from everyone who is close by and has spare stuff near the day. the wooden slices are available on ebay but they're not cheap and again I've seen many of them listed as coming from China!! If you are on facebook try asking on your local neighbourhood page for jars..or join your local freegle group and ask there. Less is more and keeping it simple means less stress less expense and less waste. Good luck!!