Centerpieces

I just got a quote from a caterer for the wedding.  It is TWICE what I told them my budget was.  So I am freaking out.  So when the going gets tough, the tough get crafting, at least that is what my "aunt" Karen used to say.  Or maybe it was "the tough go shopping."  But since I have to spend three years of my future child's college tuition on a dinner and some chairs, I decided on cheap crafting instead.  I have been googling and spying etsy and everything I can think of for cheap centerpieces.  It seems that everything that looks cheap really ends up being 8 to 10 dollars a table.  That's not cheap.  13 tables x 10 dollars a piece is $130.  Silliness.  For something that is just going to get thrown out. 

Could I make a cool centerpiece for like 2 dollars?  Have you met me?  Of course I can! 

I love tissue paper poms, but I thought just placing those on the table would be lazy.
Here is a pretty one from etsy:

But some other things I thought of doing started looking like more work than building The Great Wall of China, like these beauties.  I could do them, but that started looking like a TON of work to have a cluster of these on each table. 

 So I made a tissue pom and then added one more step- a light from Dollar Tree.  Voila!  Now I am going to throw some votive candles around it... but not too close..... and maybe throw some flower petals on the table and its done.

Here is the one that I made today, sitting on the coffee table.  It is a little wonky because I was playing with it a lot, adding tissue paper, removing tissue paper, just all-around experimenting with it, so it is a little beat-up looking. 

This one workds because I can make it for a few cents worth of tissue paper (fewer sheets actually let the light shine through better) and a Dollar-tree light. 

Here is the Dollar-tree light.  The tissue paper is just resting on top of the light.  For the real one, it will be affixed with tape or something.  Or perhaps the bottom layer of tissue will just be wrapped under the lamp.    The lights are battery-opperated, but Dollar Tree has inexpensive batteries too. 

What do you think? 

I really shouldn't post until I make a pretty one.  I have a fear that people are going to steal my idea, take a better picture, and post it to their blog and get a million hits and take all the credit.  But then I remembered that no one really reads my blog like that.  Lol.