Decorating With Crafty Things, Pt. 1

One of my absolute favorite parts of planning the wedding: the decorations.  Also known as crafty play time....  I love making crafty things - whether it was painting tshirts, or stenciling animals on my bedroom walls, or moving overseas to learn a language so I could write the beautiful script, it was all lots of fun for me!  So after deciding that I'd make most of the decorations myself, things really got interesting.  I spent way too much time trolling on pinterest for ideas instead of listening to lectures, read a lot of wedding blogs and DIY blogs and craft blogs... I felt completely justified in it though, because in the long run, making my own decorations would save money and give me artistic control.  It also gave me a chance to involve some friends in the process.

So the first major decoration choice was the guest book.  I'm not really a fan of a traditional guest book, I don't feel like it's something I'd look at again.  But then I found this super cool idea of a tree trunk, and guests would use a stamp pad to put their thumbprints on the tree to make leaves and sign beneath that.  And that's exactly what I did.  I bought some heavy duty paper and a few different green ink pads, and then Maya and I painted the tree trunk.  I bought a picture frame, painted it white and sanded off the edges to give it an older, more distressed look.  I painted Jeff's and my name on the bottom, along with the date.  Viola!  Wall art/guestbook = done.

our guestbook

The next major decision was about the flowers.  After looking at fresh flower prices, I had decided not to go that way.  So I began to look for DIY flower options.  My sister actually sent me a link to this blog (www.greenweddingshoes.com), so I thought I'd check to see if there were paper flower options there.  That's where I found my flowers (you can see them pictured above).  The flowers are made out of coffee filters, wooden dowel rods, and brown tissue paper.  Several friends from church here (thank you Mary, Kristina, and Pam!) volunteered their time to help make them, and we had them all done the week before the wedding.  Unfortunately, a bunch of them  didn't take kindly to being transported cross-country in a box in the back of a car, so my sister and my cousin from Argentina were kind enough to help me fix and remake the broken ones in Texas.  The flowers were put into mason jars, which were filled with Spanish moss and wrapped with sage-colored burlap and cream ribbon.  They were used as centerpieces (placed on top of slices of tree trunks - thank you Aaron for cutting and sanding them!), and used to decorate the other main tables as well.

my cousin Fiona 

working on the flowers.  except Helena... she was doing homework.

The other major flower decisions were about the bouquets.  I knew that I wanted fresh flowers for mine, and that I wanted calla lilies and baby's breath.  But the bridesmaids bouquets were different.  I decided on silk flowers for the bridesmaids, partly because then there wouldn't be any allergy issues and partly because we could make them ahead of time.  So we got some cream colored flowers from Hobby Lobby, and each bouquet had a peony, a hydrangea, and a ranunculus.  Totally my new favorite flower ;]  We wrapped them in a sheer white ribbon, and then added a thinner teal ribbon as an accent.  I thought they looked pretty awesome!  Karen (more about her later) made them, and did an incredible job.

the bridesmaids - from left to right: Bethany, Anna Lisa, Helena, and Aisling