7 Ways to use One Vase

It all started back in 2009 when my sister-in-law, Grace, asked me to decorate for her wedding. After talking, discussing ideas, pouring through magazines and experimenting a little - we came up with a unique aisle treatment for the church. Hence, the vase. Since then I have found various ways to make use of the same vase for many different occasions. So here goes:

1. Grace and Andre's wedding. We bought a tall curvy glass vase, filled it with rocks and pink sand to give a lot of weight and placed several large (and very tall) white branches in and finished off the look with white lights. I remember Grace's grandma being quite unsure of the whole white branches thing, but with the lights on she was convinced.

Here are two shots down the aisle: 

 2. Lucas' First Birthday. This was a while ago (Jan 2010) and I have a vague recollection of this arrangement being a very last-minute affair. It is a simple deal using crepe paper things that are usually used to wrap candies for parties. We threw in a bunch, in a gradient fashion and, voila, a super simple table center-piece.

 Here's the party room, all decked out. 

3. Aline's Baby Shower. We threw a baby shower for Aline in April 2010. She wanted a teddy bear theme and I created this whimsical teddy bear and flower arrangement.

 I used a smaller dish which was cradled in the top of the vase to hold the flower arrangement. The little teddy bear is resting on a bed of cotton balls and I taped some curly ribbons underneath the dish to hang over the bear. A little brown and pink ribbon completed the ensemble.

 The cake table with two of the five arrangements I made for the party. 

4. Elena's First Birthday. The vases got a little bit of a break - only being used again in August of 2011 to celebrate my little girl's birthday. We had a purple/blue/teal butterfly theme and I planned and experimented quite a bit on this center-piece before settling on the one below. Again I used the crepe candy wrappers as a base, glued the number 1 foam circles onto a bamboo skewer, wrapped the butterflies around the skewer and added a few sprigs of fake flowers to create the butterfly garden look.

 Settled on the table with a simple purple napkin underneath. 

The party room. 

5. A dinner party to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday, Dec 2011. My mother-in-law loves turquoise, so I started with that color and silver in my mind as I thought about the decorations. Her birthday is in December and even though we are in the southern hemisphere, the decor has a bit of the wintery, christmasy feel with the pine cones. I started with some fake tea lights in the bottom, covered with a glass and a few simple wintery sprigs in white and blue/turquoise (left over from a cousin's January wedding). The vase was then filled up with silver and natural pine cones and more of the sprigs. The arrangement was completed with three short cups filled with roses, a bunch of small white flowers and hydrangeas. 

 Here is a better shot of the tea light at the bottom. 

6. Dinner party. I made two different arrangements for the dinner party after seeing these white branches at the local market where I bought all the flowers. I used white rocks to anchor the vase (it is quite fragile and light) and added the pine cones and wintery sprigs to tie in with the other arrangement.

 Here is the dinner table - set for 18 with the two different arrangements. We didn't have enough place settings for 18 with one pattern so we set it up with two different kinds and switched the top plates to give a cohesive look. The white rocks also make another appearance as place cards - names written on the rock with permanent marker and placed in another flower-like candy holder. 

7. Christmas Dinner 2011. I had left the white branch arrangement from the earlier December dinner party and decided to give it a little twist for our family Christmas get-together. The white branches remain, this time wrapped in a funky black and white napkin and red ribbon. The white rocks remain with pine cones and bright red ornaments on top.

 The dinner table all set and ready for TURKEY! I used a red sari as a table runner and had to run out last minute to get the black and white napkins, which I think totally make the table setting. Maybe next time I would use the white set of dishes. 

So there you have it. Seven ways to use one vase. And I'm sure I will get more use out of it yet! Tell me which one is your favorite.