When you're planning a budget-conscious wedding, you're going to have to do some things yourself. Instead of going out and purchasing invitations, you can print your own. Watch some flower arranging tutorials on YouTube and learn how to make your own bouquets instead of paying someone to do them. Make your own centerpieces. The trouble with making things is that it oftentimes looks like you made them. Which is fine and dandy for, say, a baby's birthday party. But for a wedding? You need something you can make yourself that doesn't look like you made it yourself. Spoiler alert. In this post, we are making these twine-wrapped wine bottle centerpieces: Twine-Wrapped Wine Bottle Centerpieces What You'll Need: Wine bottles and/or beer bottles (I used two wine bottles and a beer bottle) Waxed twine What You'll Do: To start, you're going to need empty wine bottles and an empty beer bottle and some waxed twine. We had all this in our apartment already, so my materials cost was $0. I didn't pay a single penny to make this display, which is perfect for my budget. (Side note: Everyone has been asking me where to get the twine. It seems like most people are having trouble finding this in craft stores. You can pick up waxed twine in a variety of colors at Amazon. That link brings you to all the waxed twine on Amazon. I would not suggest regular twine or a combination of twine and double sided tape). To start, tie the twine tight around the top of the wine bottle. All the bottles I used had a lip, so I used that as my original guideline. It's okay that it doesn't go to the top because you're not going to have it go all the way to the bottom. That symmetry will work in your favor. Tuck the excess waxed twine down and begin wrapping the twine around it. Don't cut it. There's a good chance you'll cut it too short and the wine bottle will eventually start to unravel ... which is not what you want on your wedding day. It'll be a little bumpy where the excess twine is but the annoyance of that is negligible. You want to be really careful when you're doing this. Loop one at a time. Make sure the loop is pushed all the way against the twine before it. Don't leave any hollow spots and be very careful that the twine is flat. You don't want it to lay on top of another or get twisted. That's where the difference between looking like you bought it and looking like you made it lies. If you bought it, it will be pretty perfect. If you made it, you might have gotten lazy, left holidays (as we called them in elementary school art class) and didn't fret if the twine was bumpy or overlapped. If that's the case, if you really don't care, don't make them. After you've been doing this a little while, you're gonna wanna come up with some way to speed up the process. One loop at a time is a really slow method. If you're like me, you're going to try to loop a few at a time. And then you're going to push them up with your finger and move along. Except that doesn't work. You're not able to pull as tightly as you need to when you do multiple loops at a time. And you'll start to feel that it is loose and not as tight to the wine bottle as you need it to be. I tried some damage control and tried to twist the twine to make it tighter ... and instead, the entire project basically exploded in my hands. I had to unravel it all and basically start over. Not the time saver I was looking for. Stick to the one loop at a time method. And wrap. And keep wrapping. And keep wrapping. Now is a good time to mention that I didn't bother pulling the labels off the bottles. The twine is so tight that there is no space between the loops to see the label. And, it's thick enough that there's no way for the label to show through it. So don't bother scraping the labels off (which is an arduous task. I should know. I had to remove all the labels to make these glittered wine bottles). At the bottom of the wine bottle, its gets slightly narrow. And that's where you need to stop. The wine bottle will tell you when you hit this point. I know, that sounds crazy, but it's true. You'll feel that the twine is just slipping off. The change of shape is doing that. Don't fight it. Give in. Let the bottle win. Cut the twine about three inches out, and tie it in a knot. Trim the twine a little, but not too much. You'll have the chance of unraveling from this end. You don't need glue or anything. Just tuck the excess twine under the last full loop and you're done. Seriously. No glue needed for any part of the project. The wax is sticky enough that it acts as an adhesive so the waxed twine sticks to the wine bottle. Ta-da. Now, continue making these until you have enough for all your tables. I made three in the example above. Two are wine bottles of different shapes and the third is a beer bottle. That's exactly what we had lying around the house. We had two wine bottles and one beer bottle. No more, no less. We did have a small glass jar for pesto, but that didn't exactly fit. BRIDAL BABBLE: If you try these, or have another DIY creation, email A Bride On A Budget at abrideabudget(at)gmail.com. We'd love to check it out. Planning your wedding? Don't miss a DIY project. Be sure to sign up for our email list below. Enter your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner