I am a super crafty bride-to-be looking for a way to dress up our linens for the reception. Due to our budget, we can only afford white tablecloths and napkins. I was thinking of doing a napkin holder in a coordinating color ribbon but I need more ideas…help! Our wedding is a wine themed wedding at the gardens of a historic house.  The centerpieces will be modern style hurricanes and coordinating color ribbons, with a pillar candle surrounded by corks.  The tables are of course round, so I couldn't do like a runner in a fabric that would match.  I haven't decided our exact colors yet (the wedding is September of 2010!) but any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Since you have wine theme, why not use the warm rich grape colors to be your color theme as well?  Burgundy, dark purple, and light green.

For a budget-friendly way to dress up the tables, you may want to consider using corks to be place card holders, it looks very rustic chic!  Another idea will be picking up or buying willow branches, glue 2 willow branches together as a “L” shape to frame the charger, then put some inexpensive metal or ribbons or thin green vines to decorate.  For centerpiece, how about using clear square vase, putting a layer of corks, then a layer of dark purple grapes on top, a layer of corks again, and layer with green grapes and so forth?  By not using flowers and expensive fabric/ribbons, it's going to cut down the cost a lot.

Hope it helps!

I did one retirement diinner where the budget would only cover white linens. We used ribbons in the accent colors.

Lay two lengths of ribbon across the table so that there is one on either side of the two opposite place settings, then do the same the other direction(perpendicular to the first set). The second set can be the same or a different color.

You will end up with 4 place settings that have ribbons on either side and 4 place settings in between if you have 8 guests  to a table.

Find a local winery or wine making shop in your area.  You can purchase empty wine bottles in different shaps and sizes.   You can also purchase or rent some simple wine glasses for around the cylinders filled with colored water and floating candles.  These are available with and without stems to create different levels on the table.  If you can find a local winery in your area they may let you cut leaves from thier vines which you can press and place on the tables with a votive candle placed on each one of the leaves.