In my first post I mentioned that I was married in June of this year. Did I mention that we invited 200 people and made it happen for under $5500? I don't tell a lie...
One of the huge costs that we cut out was a floral budget. Who knew that those treasures you see ALL OVER THE EARTH could cost you thousands and thousands of dollars, and then DIE the next day. Instead, I decided that creating flowers that would last forever, and cost WAY less, would be our best bet. I decided that to go along with our "vintage nature" decor, muted fabrics and stick stems would do the trick.
- My mom (bless her heart) and I neatly cut (with nice garden shears) a good bunch of solid dead sticks form my side yard, each about a foot long.
- Then, we cut a good bunch of fabric out, into strips (2 ft x 2 in) - We choose about 4 different coordinating fabrics to mix into the bridal party bouqets... 3 solids and 1 patern. We purchased the fabric from the clearance section, so it was all sorts of textures (ensuring they weren't too silky... because then they don't move like you want them to).
- 1 by 1 we woudl take a strip of fabric and roll/twist it into the shape of a rosebud. Once we acheived the shape we wanted we would take a spot of hot glue and seal the end of the fabric to the rose bud (keeping it from un-twirling).
- Then, because of the "rolling" motion, there will be a small opening on the inside underside of the flower. We put a spot of glue inside the hole, and inserted one of the sticks.
- Voila! we put about 7 stems in each bridal party bouqet, and we used about 21 in mine. They turned out better than expected... and we all still have them to this day as an awesome reminder of the best day of our lives (ok... ok... my life).
And don't forget the boys! we took one of the larger flowers (used for the bouqets) and an additional smaller flower (made special for the boys) and created these boutineers on tiny twigs! we added a patterned leaf (adhered front and back with iron on glue)... and they were the perfect compliment to the ladies!
