Top 10 Fall Wedding Lantern Centerpiece Ideas

Lanterns are becoming a wedding staple! They look beautiful at rustic weddings, garden weddings, church weddings, beach weddings, and more, no matter what time of the year.

However, there are important things to keep in mind when you’re designing your centerpieces. For example, lanterns at a fall wedding should be styled differently than the lanterns at a spring wedding. Not to mention, you will want to consider whether or not it’s important for you to avoid what everyone else is doing, or if you’re willing to choose popular options to save money.

If you have your heart set on using lanterns as centerpieces, our fall wedding lantern centerpiece ideas are a great way to get started creating your décor! A few of our favorite wedding lantern ideas for fall include:

• Candles
• Flowers
• Fairy lights
• Unconventional filler
• Hanging lanterns
• Geometric lanterns
• Paper lanterns
• Mix-and-match lanterns
• Unconventional lanterns
• DIY lanterns

Simple Lantern Centerpiece Featuring a Tealight Candle: Wedding Forward

Candles

Classic wedding lantern centerpieces include candles. That’s the point of lanterns, after all!

Flameless candles are a great idea if you want to avoid dealing with open flame regulations, or if you’ll be using other decorative elements in the lantern too. If you want to keep with a fall theme, choose off-white and tan candles instead of bright white candles. You can also create a mood at your reception if you choose scented candles that smell like pumpkin spice, pecan, and cinnamon apples.

Lantern Filled With Fairy Lights Surrounded by Greenery: The Knot

Fairy Lights

If you want to light things up without candles, consider wedding lantern centerpieces with fairy lights. Keep things simple by filling each lantern with fairy lights, or combine fairy lights with other elements, like flowers or flameless candles. Choose lights with a yellow glow over white or blue to create a warm, welcoming fall atmosphere.

Lantern Filled With Flowers: The Flower House

Flowers

No list of fall wedding lantern centerpiece ideas is complete without flowers! Blooms and greenery can be used alone or with other elements, like candles. They can go inside the lantern or decorate the table around the lantern.

The flowers you choose are important in the fall. Stay away from spring blooms and choose flowers that bloom in the fall like:

• Chrysanthemum
• Celosia
• Fountain grass
• Aster
• Dianthus
• Black-eyed Susan

Lantern Centerpiece Filled With Mini Pumpkins: Shelterness

Unconventional Filler

If you want to be a bit more creative, skip the candles, lights, and flowers and create more unconventional fall wedding centerpieces instead.

For example, small grapewood branches would be right at home inside lanterns at a rustic celebration. Mix in sea shells if you’re getting married on the beach in the fall, or place a mini pumpkin inside each one at a harvest celebration. Leaves are also an obvious choice in the fall. You’re only limited by your imagination!

Hanging Lantern Table Centerpiece: Elizabeth Anne Designs

Hanging Lanterns

Centerpieces traditionally go on tables, but modern wedding lantern centerpiece ideas include hanging them above the table as well!

Hang lanterns along the length of the table, or hang them in a cluster right above the center of each table. Rattan lanterns are great at a boho wedding, while glass lanterns are a better choice for glam weddings.

Don’t have the ability to hang lanterns from the ceiling? Use a stand to hang small lanterns in the middle of the table instead!

Geometric Lantern Centerpiece With Flowers and Candles: Piper and Muse

Geometric Lanterns

Geometric details are popular with modern brides, making them a great source of inspiration if you’re looking for fall wedding lantern centerpiece ideas. You can find glass geometric lanterns that hang above the table, but you can also find lanterns in many different shapes with flat bottoms so they can be placed directly on the table.

Paper Lantern Filled With a Floral Arrangement: Wedding Bee

Paper Lanterns

Paper lanterns can hang above tables, but if you want to be a bit more creative, they can sit on top of the tables too! Round paper lanterns can feature flower arrangements, while paper luminaries can feature decorative patterns, images, and even table numbers. Not only can these paper wedding lantern centerpiece ideas look stunning when executed properly, they are affordable too!

Different Types of Lanterns Arranged on a Table: Wedding Wire

Mix-and-Match Lanterns

There’s no rule that says all of your lanterns have to match! Some of the best wedding centerpieces with lanterns include many different sizes and styles of lanterns. This look is great at eclectic and rustic weddings, especially in the fall. There’s just something about stylish décor that looks thrifted that fits right into the autumn season.

Mini Lanterns Made Out of Squash: Reading My Tea Leaves

Unconventional Lanterns

There are lots of fall wedding lantern centerpiece ideas out there that utilize actual lanterns in their many forms, but with a little creativity, nearly anything can be transformed into a lantern.

Mason jars can double as lanterns at fall farm weddings, while vintage birdcages can be transformed into lanterns at a Victorian wedding.

Gourds are the perfect natural lantern to use in the fall! Pumpkins are the obvious choice, but if you don’t want a reception full of jack-o-lanterns, you can also carve holes in squash and other gourds that are just big enough to hold candles.

DIY Photo Lantern Centerpieces With Flowers: Martha Stewart

DIY Lanterns

You can get the exact look you want when you DIY your lanterns. Homemade lanterns can help you save a lot of money too! Wooden frame lanterns are great at a rustic style wedding, while DIY photo lanterns can be a great way to share pictures of the bride and groom with guests.

Love the look of stained glass? You can paint your own stained glass lanterns too!