10 Tips on How to Transport Wedding Centerpieces

Centerpieces can beautify any space. They can also make your wedding day theme come alive. No wedding is complete without them.

But they can cause a lot of stress.

After spending all that time designing and creating your centerpieces, it can be downright terrifying to load them up and send them to your location. Few things are more disastrous than arriving at your venue and discovering that your centerpieces have fallen over, spilled, or shattered.

You don’t have to cross your fingers and hold your breath when it’s time to transport your centerpieces. Here’s how to transport your wedding centerpieces so you can ensure your table décor arrives in perfect condition.

Box With a Hole For a Flower Arrangement: Blooms By The Box

Create Your Own Flower Delivery Boxes

Vases are prone to toppling. Professional florists use flower delivery boxes to transport arrangements in vases. You don’t have to spend money on fancy flower delivery boxes, though. You can make your own.

Choose enclosed boxes that are tall enough to cover most of the vase, except the top. Then, cut holes that are just big enough for the vases to fit through. This style of delivery box will make your arrangements sturdier so they don’t topple over.

Use Boxes With Dividers For Flower Arrangements

Cutting holes in boxes can be time consuming if you have a lot of centerpieces. You can save yourself some time by using boxes with dividers.

Open top boxes of all sizes can be used, although deep boxes provide more protection than shallow boxes. They can be filled with everything from cardboard wine dividers to towels and bubble wrap. Pack your material around each vase to keep them from tipping into each other when the car is in motion.

Use Clear Masking Tape to Keep Everything in Place

Still worried about your centerpieces tipping or shifting during transport? Use clear masking tape!

The tops of vases can be taped to the tops of boxes to keep them secure. Packing materials and dividers can also be taped to keep them in place.

Use Minimal Amounts of Water in the Vases

Water can make a huge mess if a centerpiece does fall over, but even driving over a bump in the road can send water flying out of secure containers, destroying ribbons, fabric, and even the blooms themselves.

The solution isn’t to transport your flowers dry, which can cause them to wilt. Instead, put just enough water in the vases to touch the bottoms of the stems. The vases can be filled the rest of the way with water when you arrive.

Transport All of Your Centerpieces Together

Try not to divide your centerpieces up into different vehicles. It can bring you peace of mind knowing that all of your flower arrangements are in one vehicle with a single trusted driver.

Keeping all of your arrangements in the same vehicle can also save you the headache of hunting down missing centerpieces. Keep them altogether and you won’t have to search the venue to find groups of centerpieces that were dropped off by multiple people.

Transport Tall Centerpieces in a Truck Bed

Tall centerpieces can look magnificent on reception tables, but they can be difficult to secure inside a trunk or a back seat. If your centerpieces have to be arranged ahead of time, look into transporting them in the bed of a truck.

Don’t know anyone with a truck who can help? Trucks can be rented from some home improvement stores and professional moving companies.

Flower Arrangements Secured inside Containers in a Trunk: Creative Live

Avoid Transporting Centerpieces With Bulky Items

Whether you have short or tall centerpieces, they are completely or partially assembled, you should avoid transporting your arrangements with bulky items that have the potential to shift or topple over. Either pack the trunk so there is no wiggle room, or ask someone else to transport bulky, top-heavy items so they don’t accidentally tumble into your centerpieces.

Transport Elements Separately and Assemble On-Site

If you aren’t using fresh flowers, keep the elements of your centerpieces separate until you get to your venue. It’s much easier to keep dried flowers in bags and vase filler in boxes until you’re ready to create your centerpieces directly at each table.

Worried about having enough time to get everything all set up? Practice putting your centerpieces together at home so you can do it quickly when you arrive on-site.

Make Sure Loose Items are Secured in Containers

Vase filler, glitter, and other loose items look beautiful in vases and scattered on tables. Just don’t try to get any of it ready to go until you arrive at your venue. Leave loose items in secure containers with lids so you aren’t stuck picking up the pieces of a spilled container in your trunk.

Senior Citizen Receiving a Flower Arrangement From a Cart: Oprah

Plan Ahead For Transport After Your Reception is Over

Don’t forget to think about how you’re going to transport your centerpieces when your wedding is over!

Do you want guests to take arrangements with them so you don’t have to deal with them? Do you want to load centerpieces in your car so you can donate them to a local hospital or retirement home? Do you plan on throwing the flowers away and just transporting the vases?

Have a plan in place before your reception so you aren’t stuck trying to figure out what to do at the end of the night when everyone is tired.

Have fun creating your centerpieces, but don’t forget about coming up with a plan for transport! With these tips, you can transport your wedding centerpieces with confidence. That way you spend more time enjoying the day and less time stressing out about your flower arrangements.