Seems now that Valentine’s Day has come and gone, ’tis the season to start planning all the weddings. There are so many directions you can go from simple and small to over-the-top extravagant. I wanted the magical wedding but on a budget. I also wanted an Autumn color scheme in December. So, I ended up making almost everything with the exception of the food and my dress.
Today I want to share with you a few of the things that I made for my own wedding using the same simple supplies for a variety of things. I started with my colors and applies that to flowers I wanted to use. Rather than go with fresh flowers, I chose to use silk and other fabric flowers. I wanted my bouquet to be something I could keep and I applied that same thought to the rest of the floral pieces throughout the wedding theme. I even made a special bouquet just to throw so I could truly keep the one I carried. I wasn’t just crafting, I was creating keepsakes for my big day.
After making my bouquet, I created all the floral accents for the wedding party. From boutineers and corsages to the the flower girl’s basket I created them all using the same flower choices accents with standard tan raffia. I also used the flowers I had chosen to create a pretty floral wedding topper. I then combined the flowers with empty wine bottles in wicker baskets for the table center pieces for our sit-down dinner reception.
I decorated the venue by tieing pretty little bows of raffia and tuelle to end chairs. We also drapped tuelle and twinkle lights above. We purchased an arbor and wrapped more of the flowers and tuelle, and this is where we stood for our ceremony. I had watched sales at Michaels and purchased literally dozens of floral strings, cleaning out two stores at one point. Wedding floral arrangements can end up being one of your biggest wedding expenses. For me, having more people attend was more important than having beautiful fresh flowers. So, by creating all these floral pieces for my wedding myself, I was able to save a ton of cash.
I made a variety of other things, odds and ends here and there along with my maid-of-honor and flower girl’s dresses.. I wouldn’t recommend going over board unless you love creating things or your budget requires it. In some cases I could have saved by just buying something… but I wanted my wedding to be unique and I wanted to give back to those involved.
When you’re planning your own wedding, make sure choose your favorites. If you can’t find what you are looking for, figure out how to make it and you’ll be able to look back, proud of what you created. Whatever you do, enjoy the crafting of it… it’s a memory well worth creating.
Materials I used: a variety of faux flowers, floral wire, floral tape, raffia, variety satin ribbon, tulle, a ton of hot glue.
Read more about my crafty DIY wedding at Lesruba Weddings.
This post is a part of the Designer Craft Connection blog hop, so please do take a moment to check out what the other designers are up to… get inspired by the wedding craft happiness.
