Once I had my colors and location selected, I started thinking about décor for the ceremony and reception.  Chris and I have decided that we want a pretty short ceremony, 20 to 30 minutes at most.  With that said, I didn’t want to spend a ton of our budget on decorations for the ceremony, so I decided to come up with something that I could do on my own.  Enter Weddingbee, a wedding blog where there is a ton of inspiration and DIY ideas.  A lot of the girls were using tissue paper pompoms, which I liked, but we live about 18 hours by car from our wedding location, and even my mom’s house is a 2 hour drive, so I was nervous they would be crushed if we used tissue paper.  Finally I came upon this post, where another bride used tulle to do them.  I was intrigued and decided to do a test run.  I basically used this tutorial, but I will walk you step-by-step through what I did.

First, I purchased my supplies.  I bought a 5-inch white Styrofoam ball, a few yards of navy ribbon, 7 yards of pink tulle, some silver beads (more on these later), 22 gauge floral wire, and then I also used a hot glue gun, a measuring tape and a pair of scissors that I already owned.

To start, I made a hole through the center of the ball.  I did this using an unsharpened pencil, but I’m sure anything of that sort would work.  After I made the hole to my liking, I used the pencil to push the ribbon through.  Then I tied a knot with the 2 ends, making a loop from the ribbon so that it can hang from the Chivari chairs at the ceremony.  It looked like this:

After I had that, it was time to make the flowers.  I had done a test run without the beads, and I didn’t like the way I could see the green wire, so I decided to make “centers” for the tulle flowers.  This turned out to be one of the more time consuming parts, so I am planning to use a large pearl-looking bead rather than a ton of seed-beads when I make all of these to save time.

To make the flowers, I laid out the tulle in the floor, and then folded in half “hotdog style” and then I put some straight pins around the edges just to keep it in place.  Then it was time to start cutting.  I cut it in 5-inch strips, like this:

I would cut anywhere from 5 to 10 at a time, depending on which task was looking more appealing, cutting or flower-making J.  Once you have the strips, it’s time to start making flowers.  I first did the “center” by putting some of the silver beads onto the center of a piece of wire (I’m not really sure how long of a piece of wire I used, but I tended to go long and then you can trim them at the end) and then twisting it into a circle and then I attempted to cover the twist by putting more beads on:

Next I accordion-folded the strips and twisted the wire around the center:

Then I “fluffed” it into a flower by pulling the layers of tulle apart from each other.  Make sure that the wire is twisted for a few inches and then using your scissors or wire cutters cut it off near the end of the twist.

After I had enough flowers made (again, not sure on the count and it depends on how you want it to look, also you can always make more flowers if you run out), get the glue gun ready to go.  I started by making a hole with the flower by sticking it into the ball and removing it, then I put some hot glue into the hole as well as right around the hole on the surface of the ball, then put the flower back in.   Then I just did this for each flower, until the ball is full of flowers, and I was done!

Here’s a picture of my finished product:

And one with my little helper Maggie:

Elizabeth

One of my best friends attended a wedding recently in Maui. The bride and groom decided to keep the guest list short and have a destination wedding. Instead of spending a lot of money entertaining 100+ guests at a mediocre venue in their hometown, Carson City Nevada, they chose to pay for the airfare and accommodations of their most important 30 guests. She had an all-expenses trip paid for five days and four nights. Needless to say I was thoroughly jealous.

With the lagging economy, many airlines and hotels are offering package deals that when combined can make for an affordable destination wedding. For those of you who want to make your wedding celebration extra special, the savings of having a small guest list can easily offset the added costs of transportation and lodgings.

Wherever you choose to go, try incorporating the location into a theme for your wedding celebration. Bridesmaid’s dresses can reflect the distinct style, colors or designs of any location without to much added stress (other than trying to pick  a style that everyone likes!). Likewise, floral decorations could represent the specific venue or geographic location. However, possibly the easiest way to integrate your unique destination or location would be through your wedding invitations.

Whether you are planning a destination wedding or simply live in a exceptionally beautiful area, designing a letterpress wedding invitation set that matches your wedding’s location is a breeze. This Cape Cod invitation design illustrates this idea beautifully:

By using an image of a lighthouses, which symbolizes both light, safety and direction, this couple integrated that theme into both portions of their invitation set. Serving as a motif for their wedding celebration, they visually recreated the trust and security they find in each other through their beautiful letterpress invitation. They even had little lanterns as favors for their guests.

Remember, you can carry the theme or motif further than just the invitation sets. Include your symbols on wedding programs, seating place cards or dinner menus.

Written by Nick

Invitations by Ajalon
View our letterpress wedding invitation gallery.