I have been planning to use my ceramic animal collection in our wedding decorations ever since I hinted at the idea here. I wanted to use them for our table centerpieces so that each table would be a different animal rather than having the typical table numbers. In order to display them I literally needed to put them on a pedestal, and I didn’t want to spend a lot on something we’d probably just end up donating, so I decided to DIY some cake stands.

When my mom was in town a few months ago we raided several thrift stores to find different sized plates and varying heights of bud vases, candlestick holders, and glassware. I didn’t want to spend more than $1 per piece since I’d need at least 10 sets, which was harder than I thought since Goodwill has decided to have super random pricing on glassware. Why spend $3.99 on a candlestick when the one next to is is only .99c?

After an hour or so we had several different shaped and sized pieces to work for my cake stands.

After testing out different arrangements with the “bases” and plates  I put the animals to the test to make sure that I had enough of the right sizes, and that the heights with the different animals had the look I was going for.

I picked up some Weldbond at Hobby Lobby for $5 to adhere the bases to their plates.

I turned over each plate and placed it’s base upside-down on the middle of the bottom of the plate. Then I traced the base’s circumference with a marker.

I used the tracing to know exactly where to put my epoxy, and firmly pressed the base onto the plate.

Then to make sure everything dried evenly, I placed a heavy book on each pair and left them over night to cure.

Some of the bases were pretty tricky because they didn’t have flat openings, so I just used lots of extra epoxy to make sure everything was going to stick.

After everything had cured I took each cake stand outside to paint. I used Valspar’s Lacquer Hi-Gloss spray paint to get a super shiny finish that matched my precious ceramic animals. And gave everything a couple light coats of paint.

I just love how a simple coat of white spray paint could transform these thrift store items into beautiful cake stands that only cost $2 a pop!

Next week I’ll share the best part of the centerpieces with you, which have literally taken four months to finish. Phew!