How do you prevent your guests from taking the table decorations at a banquet or reception?

by Laura
(Houston, Texas)

In an organization to which I belong, I was appointed to handle decorations for a recent banquet. I worked hard creating two dozen tall centerpieces adorned with silk roses. The cost of the decorations was justified by our ability to store and reuse the centerpieces again when leasing our meeting space to other parties.

However, at the end of the banquet, a number of our members and guests felt free to pull the silk roses out of the centerpieces, and take them home.

One man even removed a dozen or so roses, then gallantly presented them to the ladies at his table as if he had bought and paid for them. Since then, I have been told that for some reason guests now feel they have the "right" to either destroy or take the table decorations home, whether they are paying attendees, as at an organization banquet, or invited guests, as at a wedding reception.

I don't want to have to make an announcement asking the guests not to take the table decorations, as that seems insulting to the majority of well-mannered guests who are not thieves. And I don't want to print the request in the banquet program either.

But, how do I prevent attendees from damaging the centerpieces and taking the table decorations at future banquets and parties? Would it be proper to send a bill to those who purposely damaged or stole decorations?