I love bright colors—as you’ve probably learned by now—so I came up with all kinds of creative ideas of ways to incorporate them into our decorations. I know, however, that I have a tendency to want to overdo color, so I tried to incorporate neutral colors (usually white) in each element to balance everything out.

 

One of those ways has been by creating a slew of tissue-paper pomanders, which actually look pretty similar to their floral counterparts. In my case, they are also a subtle nod to my parents’ wedding (more than 40 years ago!), as my mom carried a floral pomander down the aisle instead of a traditional bouquet.

 

I’ve noticed all of these pomanders popping up everywhere lately—not just in countless wedding blogs, but also larger, looser versions in window displays, for décor during bridal showers, and more. Who knew I’d be ahead of the trend?

 

Most importantly, they’re easy, cheap to make, and very similar in appearance to the real-life floral versions!

 

Here’s what you will need:

• Tissue paper in your choice of color
• Styrofoam balls; I would recommend 3” or smaller, unless you want really huge pomanders!
• Pipe cleaners to match tissue paper
• Scissors or wire cutters to cut pipe cleaners and tissue paper
• Glue (I would recommend not using hot glue, as it seems like it would be too easy to burn yourself through the thin tissue paper)
• Ribbon
• Paper clips

 

How do you make these wonders? Follow my step-by-step tutorial!

1.      Cut the tissue paper to the size you’d like. Remember that the size you cut the sheets to will be the width of the individual flowers. Wider flowers will also fluff up higher.

2.      Layer cut sheets of tissue paper on top of each other; I recommend about 4-5 sheets per flower.

3.      Fold the sheets accordion-style.

 

 

4.      Cut your pipe cleaners down short—just slightly longer than you need to hold the paper together. If you make the pipe cleaners any longer than that, they will bend rather than going into the Styrofoam ball.

5.      Fold the pipe cleaners in half at the middle of your accordion and twist them together like a twist tie.

6.      Grab each layer of the flower individually and carefully pull upward to fluff the flower. Once you have done all of the layers, you will have a carnation-like flower!

7.      Jam the pipe cleaners into your Styrofoam ball until you cover the ball completely. I would recommend using glue for this step; I didn’t, and I’m concerned about some of them falling out later on.

 

8.      Cut a length of ribbon from which to hang the ball. Attach the ribbon to a paperclip, and stick the paperclip into the ball.

9.      Voila! You’re done!  Enjoy!

 

Tips:

• The pomanders I created used 4” Styrofoam balls, which ended up being pretty big and required 10-12 flowers each—that means that in the end, I created more than 140 flowers! I would recommend using something a little smaller, especially since the final product ends up being significantly wider than the original ball anyway.
• Glue your flowers and paperclips in for additional strength.
• You can mix and match colors within the same ball as well, although solid-color balls tend to look more like actual flowers.
• There are other variations of this craft project that yield a similar result, as you can see from this example on the Dollar Tree website: http://www.dollartree.com/assets/product_files/pdf/dollar_tree_weddings/tissue_paper_flowers.pdf
• This is a nice project to try if your wedding colors are something that is somewhat unusual or difficult to match, and/or if flowers do not come in the color you want (especially colors along the blue spectrum).
• You could also choose to have your bridesmaids carry these pomanders as “bouquets.” In that scenario, I would recommend going with a larger size.
• Easy as it may be, creating all of the individual flowers you will need for this project takes a LOT of time, so budget plenty of time for yourself to do them! The good news is that you definitely can catch up on your favorite shows while you’re working on them.
• You can also use these to hook on chairs along the aisle or to sit atop a small vase (without the ribbon) for decoration.

 

This project is easy and fun, and anyone can do it with minimal materials. Happy crafting!

 

Planning a DIY wedding can be alot of work if you’re planning to tackle alot of projects yourself. Luckily there are ways to make your DIY efforts simpler with the help of products from Michaels. Michaels craft stores have tons of great products you can use to personalize your special day, with tons of great DIY ideas on their website at Michaels.com!

The folks at Michaels asked me to create one of the projects on their site and share a tutorial with our readers to show you just how easy their products are to use! I chose to create their Chalkboard Flower Pot Table Numbers for this tutorial- a great way to label your tables for your guests and so cute that they could be reused for many different occasions!

 

 

 

 

 

1. I purchased larger blocks of foam because they were cheaper, so I cut the foam into small chunks and put the pieces into each of the chalkboard pots.
2. Next, cover the foam with moss. I used some adhesive to stick the moss to the foam pieces to make sure it was secure.
3. I attached a felt flower to each wooden dowel using the adhesive sticker that was on the back of each flower.
4. Then, I stuck three finished flowers on sticks into the Styrofoam®. It’s important to vary the heights of each flower for added visual interest.
5. Finally I finished the look by writing a table number on the front of each chalkboard pot using a BRIDES® chalk marker. You could also use regular chalk as an alternative.

Voila! An adorable table number!

 

 

What do you think? These products make it easy to make a quick and cute DIY project! As a thanks for participating in this project, Michaels is offering up an exclusive DISCOUNT for Budget Savvy Bride readers:

Get 20% off your Entire Regular Price Wedding Purchase. Click here to receive your coupon.
Valid: 4/29/2012 – 6/30/2012

*This post was sponsored by Michaels.

I wanted to do something out of the box from your typical seating chart and do something a little more creative. I showed you an inspiration picture in my last post, so I thought I’d give you an update as to where I can going with this idea.

My biggest challenge when figuring out how to make this idea work, was finding something sturdy enough for all of the frames to hang from. I didn’t want it to be very labor intensive because I didn’t know how much setup time would be allowed before guests started arriving in the foyer. I looked at a couple options but didn’t want to compromise the overall look of it. So, I decided to splurge a little (since every other aspect of this project was DIY’d) and rent an extra backdrop. The nice thing about this is that the decorator will be able to setup the whole thing, and I don’t need to worry about assigning this to a family member. I want everyone to be able to enjoy the day without worry about setup and takedown.

I started collecting gold frames from the thrift store over the past 6 months or so, some 8 1/2 x 11″ to fit a regular sheet of paper for the guest seating lists, and some smaller 5 x 7″ frames for a few of our engagement photos. I bought wooden letters and a basic tray from Michael’s Arts and crafts and just painted them black and gold to fit with our theme. I think it will stand out nicely and will grab the guest’s attention. What do you think?

With the wedding date closing in, I’m beginning to realize that instead of just buying supplies and PLANNING my DIY projects, I need to actually start completing them.  One of the first photos I had seen that that kind of set the tone for what I wanted our wedding style to be, were moss-covered monograms (strange, I know).  They’ve since become more popular, and after reading an couple of tutorials for ideas, I bought some supplies to get started.  One thing I’m starting to realize with DIY, is that it’s always smart to price your supplies BEFORE buying/starting anything.  Oddly enough, even though sometimes you can make something yourself, it’s cheaper just to buy one pre-made.  The monograms  on ETSY start anywhere from $25 each, and skyrocket from there.  Obviously, in this case the DIY was a huge savings.

 

Please excuse the crude photography that follows…

 

I had originally planned to sketch & cut my letters out of styrofoam, and then cover them with loose moss.  After reading a couple of tutorials, I decided to use moss mat by SuperMoss at Hobby Lobby (I ended up using about half of a package).  It’s so much easier to work with because it’s already fixed to a sheet that you can cut and work with, as opposed to trying to even out the clumpy moss that comes in bags.  In looking around at Hobby Lobby, I also decided to go with premade letters, as they were $1.99 each, which was less than the styrofoam I would have needed, not to mention much less trouble.

 

First, I took out my moss sheets, and traced around my letters on the moss backing with a Sharpie.  It may seem like common sense, but be sure to consider what side of your letter you’re covering, and trace accordingly, as you could end up with backwards letters.  I then carefully cut my moss on the pilot lines with scissors, making the pretty letters.

Next it was time for some careful hot gluing.  To avoid my glue hardening or becoming messy before I pressed the moss on, I chose to carefully move section-by-section, which seemed to work well.  I found it important to keep the rest of the letter/cut in perspective too, so that all parts of the letter line up, and nothing becomes stretched or “lumpy” looking.

Lastly, I tied a nice ribbon to hang the monograms by (it looks burgundy in the terrible photos, but is actually chocolate brown).  I ended up making both an “E” and “C” to hang on the front doors of the Barn.  Eric & I will have the same initials after we’re married, so I thought this looked better than a three letter monogram with two E’s.  I also liked the fact that I can find a place for these to hang after our wedding.  For once, this project actually WAS as easy as it sounds!  My cost for the two letters and moss was about $7.

I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out. What do you think?

 

 

Matt and I have decided to go with cupcakes instead of a traditional wedding cake. This way we don’t have to pay a ton of extra money on a professionally decorated cake and we don’t even need to rent extra cake plates or forks for all the guests (that stuff adds up!). We’re just going to have napkins and the cupcakes will be grab and go. After looking around for some pretty cupcake stands, I realized that these can cost a pretty penny, so I decided to make mine. It was so easy! I found a set of dishes at goodwill for $10 that matched my wedding theme. I also bought some clear candlestick holders at the dollar store for a buck each. Using white dry Gorilla Glue to hold it all together, I used the plates as tiers separated by the clear candlesticks. Here’s how they turned out:

I did some two tiered and some three tiered. There are so many possibilities with these. I used plates all from the same set, but you could totally mix and match plates and/or use tall and short candlesticks. It was so easy, so affordable and definitely reflects the whimsical, vintage theme of our wedding!