centerpiece vent- nothing is working! Edit- It worked!!!! Update on pg 2

Shellie, Micheals Craft store has marbles for a little over a $1 per bag and of course you can use the weekly coupon to help with the savings. You will need something to hold the flowers down, however I think that floral wire is stronger and hold the flowers better than fishing wire. To hide the marbles in the bottom you can use plain/printed ribbon to wrap the base of the flowers, this way noone can see what is inside. I hope this helps.

Dolllar STORE! I as just there yesterday and they have a horde of river rocks and clear glass pebbles. Best price around!

At the dollar store i bought natural looking rocks for 1.00 a bag. Maybe u could check that out to save u money. They have large and small ones if u got a couple bags of the large ones and put just a few at the bottom of your vase and glued the flower to that it might work. It would still look minimal but still very beautiful.

Water beads - get the clear ones. You put the flower in the vase, pour in the water beads (you have to rehydrate the water beads first) and then when you add water the beads disappear entirely. The flowers stay put (I tried them and it does work) One packet makes 1-1/2 quarts of water beads. Below is a pic of how my test vase looked. I did put the colored glass beads in the bottom but they were not needed at all. I just wanted to bring in my wedding colors with them.

I have two packets of clear that I will gladly mail you to play - just PM me your address if you want them.

Dollar Tree also had bags of stones - 2 pounds - for $1 each. You can order them online, I believe. That's what I'm using for our centerpieces.

When I looked at dollar tree around here and they didn't have any colors we liked. We want plain ones, and they only had colorful.

We did look into water beads, at this point we are weighing in all our cost options to see when will be the most affordable while still being the look we want.

The dollar tree does have the water beads, they have 8.5 oz. jars for a dollar. Here is the link for them online. http://www.dollartree.com/floral-decor/floral-arranging/Decorative-Accents-Clear-Floral-Hydration-Beads-8-5-oz-Jars/202c204c204p310620/index.pro Online you have to order a case of 36, but maybe if you talk to your local manager (if you don't need that many) They may order a case in and let you buy what you need. I knew I purchased them there a couple years ago for centerpieces for a birthday party, but they are listed as a new item online, which is why maybe they haven't been in stores yet.

Have you tried those clear water beads? when you fill the water, they practically dissapear and you can arrange your flowers in them and they should stay put I believe.. you can find jars of it at the dollar store

http://www.dollartree.com/floral-decor/floral-arranging/Decorative-Accents-Clear-Floral-Hydration-Beads-8-5-oz-Jars/202c204c204p310620/index.pro

Edit: obviously I didn't read that others have suggested the same thing lol

It worked it worked it worked!!!!!

we went and got lead tubing and so far it's holding them down! we split the stems a bit, but I think with practice we could get them in without a problem. And the best part- it will cost around $10 to do them all!!!!

(Don't mind the short flower being a little dead, it got a lot of abuse yesterday and I don't think we got all of the glue off so it couldn't get water all night long)

Awesome - glad you were able to figure it out! Just be careful to wash your hands after handling the lead tubing.

Im glad you got it to work.

That looks pretty cool. I like it without the stones.

Thanks. I am so happy we figured it out because I love the no rock look. It will take a few practices to make sure we don't split the stems

Love it!! I've never seen them without rocks very nice!

I am trying to submerge my callas also and keep them down. Where did you find lead tubing? How did the end up holding up??