DIY Flowers by Carly

Ladies and Gentlemen, she has done it again.  Carly is back with another incredible way to save money without sacrificing fabulousness! 

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As I mentioned in a previous post, we are going to DIY the flowers for my wedding. Bouquets, boutonnieres, centerpieces, you name it. Why? Because flowers are expensive and not very high on my priority list. So when I was back home in PA for my best friend’s wedding a few weeks ago I extended my trip a few extra days to do some things for our wedding with my mom. The most important (and daunting) thing on our to-do list was a flower trial run. We knew we wanted hydrangeas to be the main flower in all our arrangements. Not only are they big (big flowers= fewer flowers needed=less money) but you can get a great price buying them in bulk from a place like Sam’s Club. We also want to use roses (preferably big, peony-like garden roses), ranunculus, lavender or other purple buds, and probably some green hypericum berries and dusty miller for fillers. These are my main inspiration pictures:

both via

For the trial my mom bought hydrangeas from a florist and two different types of roses, plus purple wax flowers, dusty millers, and some eucalyptus from the grocery store. I watched a few YouTube videos on flower arranging, and took some advice from those who did their own flowers. Other supplies needed: nice sharp gardening sheers, vases, floral tape, ribbon to wrap the bouquet, and a glue gun or pins to keep the ribbon in place. Oh yeah, and the sticks.

Manzanita branches and other curly sticks are really “in” right now in the world of weddings. Case in point:

left / both on right

I love the look of that bottom right picture, and it’s actually serving as the inspiration for my centerpieces. But branches are expensive! Like, ridiculously expensive. Sorry, but I am not paying $15 for one bunch of branches. And those aren’t even the Manzanita branches, which retail for at least $10 per branch. So my ever resourceful mom had been eying a tree with very pretty, curly, perfect-for-centerpieces, branches on her daily walks with the dog. Problem was, these branches were not in our own yard, they were in the yard of a neighbor she didn’t know. So she did what every great mother of the bride would do- she walked up to their house, knocked on their door, and asked the woman if she could cut the branches off her tree. And the woman said yes. So my mom went back the next day in her SUV, armed with a saw, and cut those babies down. Unfortunately I deleted the picture she sent me of a trunk full of curly branches. But you can imagine my surprise getting that text!  {hooray, we finally get to hear THE story that Carly eluded to so many months ago!}

Awesome. So those were part of our supplies too. A tip for anyone else going this route: cut the branches in the winter before they start to bloom again in spring, and then store them in a dark, dry place. We had most of them in the garage, and also some under our back deck. The ones in the garage stayed dried, but the ones under the deck start to bud. We are planning on spray painting them a dark brown to really make them “pop.”

So after a little prep work and an hour or two of assembling, we ended up with these:

bouquet - close up - all together - boutonnieres

Overall I am really happy with how they all turned out. {Ignore the brown spots on some of the hydrangeas. We asked the florist a few days later why that happened and she apologized profusely, saying we must have gotten a bad batch.}

A few changes: I want to add more color to the bouquet, mainly purples and greens. The bridesmaids bouquet especially are a little too white for me. Plus once we get all the flowers we’re actually using (garden roses, ranunculus, etc.) it will give the bouquets added detail and variety. I also want to add more sticks to the centerpieces. I’m glad we did a trial run, because not only do I now know the changes I want to make, but it also helped us determine exactly how many flowers we need to order. We stored everything down in our finished basement since it was nice and cool, and all the arrangement lasted several days and looked great. Doing the trial run made me more confident that we can do this.

You can also do this. Some yourself some moolah and be really proud of yourself when you carry that beautiful bouquet down the aisle. Some suggestions:

1. Make sure you think over all the logistics. We are going to order the majority of our flowers from Samsclub.com and fiftyflowers.com. They recommend Thursday delivery for a Saturday wedding, to all the flowers to rehydrate and open up in time. This means we need to be home when they’re delivered, unpack them, and put them all in water. This requires manpower and lots of buckets.
2. Think about where you will do all your assembling. Fortunately, our venue told us that as long as there is no event there on Friday (which so far there isn’t), that we can assemble there on Friday. The process does get messy (lots of clippings, petals, glue gun gunk, etc.) so be prepared for that.
3. Know what flowers are in season during the time of year your wedding will take place. I love peonies (who doesn’t?) but for an August wedding they are just not happening, unless I want to pay an arm and a leg. Which I don’t. Knowing what’s in season will keep your costs down and also mentally prepare you for what is realistic and what is not.
4. Do a trial run, do a trial run, do a trial run. How else would we have learned that the eucalyptus we used in the centerpieces would turn the water bright green by morning? Yikes.

Any other brides out there having any DIY flower tips and tricks?

Free Wedding Clip Art

Happy Friday Lovelies!  A treat for you today.  Just Something I Made had free wedding printables!  What could be better?  Enjoy these, and the glorious weekend ahead.

Chair Signs DIY by Carly

The lovely Carly is sharing a few more of her wedding details with us today. 

Enjoy!

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The topic for today is DIY decor! Some brides love it, some dread it- I probably fall somewhere in between. I’m not overly crafty, but there are a lot of times when I see something I like and think “I could make that for way cheaper!” Case in point: chair signs. Lots of couples are putting something on their reception chairs to distinguish their chairs (and get a cute picture). Here are some examples:

source

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After deciding I wanted to do something like this, I did a little Googling, and came across this very helpful blog: Happily After All. 

You’ll notice that her inspiration sells for $30 plus shipping. I can definitely do better than that! So I set out on one of my first DIY projects. Fortunately I had already purchased two signs at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, since they were marked down from $2.99 each to $0.99 each, post- Valentines days. (I knew they’d come in handy for something!) My signs are a thin tin/metal material, and looked like this:

They actually came with pink ribbon threaded through predrilled holes, but I forgot to take a picture before I took out the ribbon. I’m just glad the holes are already there and I don’t need to do anything involving power tools.

I pretty much followed Happily After All’s painting directions exactly, using two coats of black acrylic as the base, followed by one coat of crackle medium, and then one coat of off-white acrylic. You don’t need much paint- small bottles will definitely suffice. I let each coat dry completely before moving on, including the backs of the signs which I painted plain black. As soon as I started to paint on the white the crackling started happening! It was way more exciting than watching paint dry (sorry, had to do it).

Unlike Happily After All, I did not free hand my words. I blew up the words Mrs. And Mr. in Microsoft Word, using Edwardian Script ITC font and 375 point text. (Note- all you really need to do is print Mrs. Just do that sign first, and then when you make the Mr. just cut off the “s” first!). The trickiest part of this whole project was cutting out the thin stencils. Printing them on cardstock would have helped make the words less flimsy. After the word was cut out, I traced it on the sign in pencil, then went over it and filled it all in with Sharpie. It looks like paint unless you really look closely. Now all I need to do is put in the ribbon and hang them from our chairs!

The finished product:

Costs 2 signs: $1.98 (Clearance at HL)

White paint: $1 (Sale at Michaels)

Black Paint: $1 (Sale at Michaels)

Crackle Medium: $3.59 (Using Michaels 40% coupon)

Paintbrushes & Sharpie: Already owned

TOTAL= $7.57 plus tax! (Take that, $30 + shipping!)

Anyone have any easy DIY projects you’d like to share? You provide the materials, I’ll provide the wine!

Wanna know more?  Follow Carly on Twitter.

DIY Moss Monogram

Remember our past DIY floral monograms here and here?  Well, another blogger has lister her own how to, so I decided to share this simple craft that can add so much class to your wedding.

Life. Love. Larson. shared this fabulously simple diy moss monogram.

Found via Money Saving Mom

Chalkboards

Have you considered the ways in which you will communicate with your wedding guests?  Directions, menus, where to sign the guest book even?

Chalkboards are an incredible medium for this.  Two great options (pictured below) can be found in The Inspired Room Shop.  

MFB: Curbside Chairs: PART I

At my day job, my boss keeps a delightful set of 2 vintage folding chairs. They have an adorable organic hand-carved look (sorry, no picture) and bright orange vinyl cushions. Anyway, I've deco-crushed on them for a while.

So, when my fiance and I were walking to his car after dinner one night on the Hill, and I saw four of these beauties on the curb....

...my heart skipped a beat and I knew they would have to be mine despite his two door car.

Needless to say, we made it work, and I put rehabbing these chairs to the top of my DIY project list.

First, I got my supplies together:
- Plastic baggie
- "Screwdriver" (aka an old knife because I couldn't find ours)
- Sandpaper
- 3 cans white primer spraypaint
- 4 cans semi-gloss white spraypaint

For the first step of the rehab, I removed the seat covers with my "screwdriver."

Then I placed all the parts into my plastic baggie for safekeeping.

Next, I sanded the heck out of the chairs to get their old finish off.

After that, I primed...

...and primed.

Then, you guessed it, I painted, painted...

...painted

and then went back to spray paint some more!

Part II in two weeks when I recover the old vinyl with some hip, but "vintage-y" new fabric from eBay. What do you think? Fabric Suggestions? Leave your comments below!

New Friday Feature: Make It, Fake It, or Buy It!

Lina (like Linda without the "d") hails from O-H-I-O originally, where she grew up helping her mom re-arrange furniture and paint rooms for fun. Her favorite day of the month was when the glossy home magazines like Martha Stewart Living slid through the mail slot. Ever since, she has fostered a (mostly healthy) love of design, decor, and DIY. She believes that good design can and should be affordable.

Lina will be writing a feature on the blog called Make It, Fake It, or Buy It every other Friday, where she will select a bauble or craft that caught her eye and discuss how best to add it to your collection. She will catalog ways you can have great looking pieces for your wedding or home by making it yourself from scratch, faking it with inexpensive materials, or, in the rare instance, buying it at a retail store. She will also highlight some of the best crafting, DIY, and wedding sites she finds in her adventures.

Keep an eye out next week for the first installment of our new friday feature! 

Embossing at Home

It is incredible how a simple invitation can be enhanced and embellished to obtain an expensive professional look.

See the invitation on the left. I printed plain black text on a plain purple note card. A few minutes of rubber stamping, embossing powder and the power of heat: An entirely new invitation that actually looks exciting!

All items are available at Paper-Source

Crepe Paper

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A while back I posted instructions for making a custom "floral" monogram out of crepe paper. Well, How About Orange has outdone me. The recent post: 5 things to make with crepe paper will inspire you to make these adorable pomemanders as well as other great crepe paper crafts including leis and pom-poms! Be sure to check it out!

How to Make a Floral Monogram

Without the flowers? Yes! Tissue paper or crepe paper can work magic affordable solutions to costly buds. All you need is the desired styrofoam shape, beautiful tissue or crepe paper, craft glue and a few golf tees! The look is fantastic, and more important, integrating a monogram into your wedding is a simple and cost-effective way to personalize your wedding!

Preparations:

1. Prep your styrofoam. Trim it to your desired shape and size. We chose circles since it was easy! Outline your desired letter.
2. Cut your paper into 2 inch squares. This is where crepe paper is fantastic - it is quick and easy to cut!
3. Pour your glue. Paper plate or bowls make accessing the glue a breeze!

Now you are ready to get started!

1. Use a golf tee to punch a hole in the styrofoam
2. Remove and wrap the tee with paper
3. Dip the wrapped tee in glue (so the glue only gets on the paper)
4. Insert into previously punched hole
5. Remove tee (paper stays in place)
6. Repeat - 1,000s of times!

Here is an example of Christine and Brendan's monogram half-way through:

Tips:

• Be sure to punch holes close together to create a full look - you don't want to see any styrofoam.
• Don't forget the edge! Either wrap with ribbon to keep on punching holes.
• Work the boarder of the letter to ensure straight lines and a clean look.
• Have fun!

To see the finished product and our inspirations, see our previous post: DIY Floral Monograms

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DIY Floral Monograms

Floral Monograms add a decidedly personal touch to any affair, particularly weddings. As a couple created a monogram together, what better to put on display? There are some beautiful inspirations from everyone from Martha Stewart to our friends at Wedding Bee and Style Me Pretty. We even found a new wedding blog, Manolo Bride, while looking for examples of monograms. Here is what we found:

Top: Style Me Pretty, Manolo Bride, Martha Stewart, Wedding Bee

Bottom: Martha Stewart, Manolo Bride, Martha Stewart, Wedding Bee

These beautiful monograms can often come at a hefty price, but are a project that can be done yourself. Looking for DIY inspiration led us to none other than Lindsay Smith of Smith Photo Studios! Here is the wedding monogram she created for her own wedding:

In addition to being a fabulous photographer, Lindsay is pretty crafty. Well, after Lindsay's approval and guidance one of my brides, Christine and I decided to get crafty as well! Here is what we came up with:

It is a pretty crafty DIY Monogram if I do say so myself!

Next post: How to create this monogram!

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