Tablescape Inspiration

One of my biggest challenges in saving money is going to be the decor. I want to have an elegant, beautiful, warm, glowing room with personal touches everywhere. I would love to have gigantic flower arrangements on each table but I have never understood paying so much money for flowers. Sure, they're beautiful but they are also very expensive and THEY DIE. Why do I want to pay so much for something that will be thrown away in a few days? So what's a girl to do? How does one create an elegant tablescape on a budget and without wasting a lot of money?

Candles. That's my solution, anyway. I love candles. They are inherently beautiful and elegant. They create a warm, magical atmosphere. And there are so many shapes and sizes, you can really fill up a table with them. Here are some pictures that I found on the internet that inspired this idea:

So with this idea in mind, I headed over to my local Homegoods. Oh, Homegoods, how I love thee. It just so happened that Homegoods had twelve crystal candlesticks and a few other goodies (like a beautiful cupcake stand, which I'll discuss in another post) ranging in price between $3.99 and $12.99. I bought them all! Here is a sample of my lovelies:

My goal is to find 12-24 more of these babies (or similar models) and have these grouped on the tables at the reception interspersed with votive candles. Well, you say, you can rent stuff like that for about the same price. Yes, yes you can. But if I rented them, I couldn't then re-sell them on ebay, now could I?

Bwahahahaha! Saving (and recouping) money makes me giddy.

So, whatcha think about my candlesticks? Do you have other suggestions for saving money on decor?