Berry Wedding Flowers

Photo by Simplicity Photos

I had another great opportunity to make bouquets and boutonnieres for another wedding. It was my first time working with fresh flowers and I was so nervous about the outcome. Thankfully the bride, bridesmaids, and groomsmen were happy with them and so was I!! See also Berry Wedding Fabric Flowers

Ironically, the fresh flowers were cheaper than silk flowers this time. For brides on a budget I think it is important to shop around before deciding what to use in your wedding. In the teal wedding (click Bridesmaids Bouquets to see post) the silk flowers were cheaper than fresh flowers because of the sales and coupons I was able to use at Michaels. 

See the cost of these silk flowers without a coupon....

So back to the Berry Wedding...I purchased the fresh flowers from a wholesaler so that is something you brides-to-be out there should look into. A bouquet of 25 carnation stems cost the same as 1-2 silk flower stems. What a DEAL!!! 

The bridesmaids had gorgeous berry dresses so I wanted flowers that would pop against the berry. My original idea was to use green, white, and yellow flowers but the white carnations called my name when I saw them. 

Work Station

And here is the final product. You can see I was still stuck on the green and incorporated it by using green ribbon. Sorry my pics are not as clear as the professional ones. One day I will get a good camera :)

Photo by Simplicity Photos

Photo by NXTLVLIMAGERY

Berry Wedding Fabric Flowers

For the Berry Wedding the bridesmaids asked me to make fabric flowers for their dresses and hair using left over fabric from one of their dresses. Here is what I came up with.

Hair Regimen

Many of you have seen my post on Facebook on the people I stalk. As much as I love these women and children, what I have come to learn is that my hair is my own. Yes... I would like it to have defined curls, shoulder length hair, and have my hair behave all the time, but it is the hair that I was born and blessed with. So please take this into consideration as you read my regimen and those of others out there. What works for my hair may not necessarily work for yours. Take your time in learning about your hair, what works, and what doesn't work.

My regimen changes depending on what is going on in my schedule and also on the weather. 

Things I do not change:
1. Use pH balanced products (my hair loves pH of 5.0)
2. Use organic products (see why in Natural/Organic Fever post)
3. Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize

Summer/Spring

• Every day - moisturize by spritzing water and sealing with oil mix
• Every week or every 2 weeks - wash, deep condition, use kimmaytube's leave in conditioner recipe (see below)
• Monthly - henna (see how to below)
• Styles - bantu knots, twist/braid out, wash & go (most of the time)

Fall/Winter

• Every day - moisturize by spritzing water & aloe vera juice mix and sealing with oil mix
• Every week or every 2 weeks - wash, deep condition, use kimmaytube's leave in conditioner recipe 
• Monthly - henna
• Styles - protective styles (twists, plaits, braids, flat twists)

Kimmaytube's leave in conditioner
2 TB Aloe Vera Juice
2 TB your favorite leave-in conditioner
2 TSP Jojoba Oil
2 TSP Castor Oil

Henna

• I mix Jamila henna powder with conditioner, honey, and green tea.
• Using gloves, I place the henna into sections of hair and massage it into the section to make sure each strand is coated.
• Pile all the hair on top of my head then cover with plastic cap or bag for at least 4 hours. Most of the time I sleep with it on.
• In the shower, I rinse most of it out with water then use a cheap shampoo to wash out whatever is left. The conditioner that is already in the henna mix makes this rinsing process easy.
• Deep condition (very important) for at least an hour
• Use kimmaytube's leave in conditioner and style.

Teal Wedding Decor

Image courtesy of Nxt Lvl Imagery

I had another great opportunity to decorate for a wedding. This time the main color was teal and the bride chose to accent it with orange, yellow, and green. 

Church altar

Below is a pic of the bride's inspiration for her centerpieces. I tweaked it to work with the budget and the rest of the reception decor centered around this idea.

Hydrangeas and apples

 
Believe or not, sometimes DIY can cost more money than purchasing the original item or hiring a professional to do it. For this wedding, I was curious to see whether DIY wedding decor actually would save money or was just a myth. 

So I break the costs down for you and also show you how to make your own:- 

Felt boutonnières

Yarn spheres

Glitter cake topper

Flower girl baskets 

Bridesmaids bouquets

Bridesmaids Bouquets

Fresh flowers are so expensive!!!! Jeez!!! So for the teal wedding I had the task of fulfilling the brides vision for the bridesmaids bouquet without breaking the bank.

Bride's vision for bridesmaids bouquets.

The bridesmaids dresses were teal so the orange & yellow bouquets stood out beautifully.

I purchased silk flowers from Michaels at sale price of course. It's Fall so it is the perfect season to get flowers in yellows, oranges, and reds.

Final bouquets:-

Costs
Flowers - $72.50
Ribbon - $7.00

So for about $80.00 I was able to make 7 bridesmaids bouquets. That's about $11.00 for one bouquet. You can't beat that!!

Felt Boutonnierres

STOP!!!!

Slowly move your hand away from that credit card. Don't spend $30-50 on each boutonniere. 

Let me show you a quick and easy way to make boutonnieres for less than $3.00 each. Yes you heard that right!!! Less than $3.00

Step 1: Purchase felt from your craft store. I purchased orange felt from Michaels for 69 cents for each sheet.

While you are at it, go ahead and buy some accent pieces you would like to add to the boutonnieres.  In this case, the accent pieces were silk flowers that I also used in the bridesmaids bouquets, killing 2 birds with 1 stone and saving money. Woot!! Woot!! 


Step 2:  Draw 2 circles on 1 felt sheet. Each circle will make 2 boutonnieres. I used a cereal bowl to draw my circles.

Step 3: Next, draw a spiral form within the circle. It doesn't need to be perfect, just something to guide you.

Cut along the spiral form. Don't throw away the felt scraps. You will need them later.

 

Step 4: Begin rolling the spiral piece starting from the outer edge towards the center. You can see the flower begin to form. It looks different depending on which end you look at it. 

The petals of the loose flower are more defined and the ones in the tight flower and close together. I preferred the loose flower so proceeded with that.

Loose flower

Tight flower

Step 5: Using your glue gun, glue the end of the felt to the bottom of the flower.

And that's it!!! You have your felt flower.

You can use the flower for other things too - brooches, hair accessories etc. 

Step 6: Remember the scraps left after cutting the circles? Cut out a small piece and play around with the placement of your accents until you are satisfied.

Placement of accents

Step 7: Glue your accents to the small piece of felt then glue your felt flower on top of them.

Glue a safety pin to the back

And you have your boutonniere. 

Here is a different variation I made for the bride's father

Step 8: Count your savings. 

Below is the breakdown for each bountonniere:

Each yellow flower stalk was $2.49 and had 3 flowers on it - cost 83 cents/flower. The orange bulbs were cut from a small section of the bigger branch ($11.00 and w/ 50% coupon - $5.50) - cost 61 cents/branch. Each branch made 2-3 boutonnieres so ~30 cents per boutonniere.

 Felt - 35 cents (69 cents per sheet, makes 2)
Yellow flower and leaf - 83 cents
Orange bulb - 30 cents
Glue gun and sticks - had on hand (~ 50cents per stick)

TOTAL - $1.98

SAVINGS - $28-48 per boutonniere

Now if that isn't saving money, I don't know what is :D

Yarn Spheres

I love Pinterest!!! So when I came across these yarn spheres, I just had to incorporate them into the teal wedding decor somehow .

Yarn Spheres

To make your own yarn spheres, here is what you need:-
* Balloons
* Yarn (in color of your choice)
* Glue or paper mache
 
Step 1: Blow up your balloons and tie the ends securely. It's very important to make sure the tie is tight.

Step 2: In a container, make a thick paste of water and glue with more glue than water.

 
 Step 3: Soak your yarn in the paste

Step 4: Squeeze excess paste from the yarn as you wrap it around the balloon. Start wrapping vertically then around the balloon making sure to fill in as much empty space as possible.

Step 5: Hang the balloons in a well ventilated area to dry. Give them about 24 hours to dry completely. Make sure you place something on the floor (plastic trash bag, turp) to prevent the dripping paste from ruining your floors.

Pic below shows why it is important to tie the ends of the balloons securely. The balloon deflated and the yarn sphere was ruined.

 
If this happens, wet the yarn again in the glue/water paste and wrap it around another balloon.

Step 6: Once the spheres dry, gently push the balloon away from the yarn. Some people coat the balloon with vaseline before wrapping the yarn to make this step easier.

Step 7: Pop a hole in the balloon to deflate it.

Step 8: Enjoy your yarn spheres :)

Below is the final centerpiece setup the bride approved of. I placed yellow and orange silk flowers into the yarn spheres to go along with the teal/orange color scheme.

I liked the way the yarn sphere looks through the colored water in the vase.

Centerpiece - vase with tissue paper hydrangeas, yarn pompoms, 

tealight candles, yarn sphere with silk flowers  

At the reception some of the centerpieces had the tissue paper hydrangeas and others just had a floating candle.
 

Centerpiece with floating candle. Image courtesy of Nxt Lvl Imagery

Yellow pompom. Image courtesy of Nxt Lvl Imagery

Image courtesy of Nxt Lvl Imagery 

Costs:
Yarn - $3.00
Glue - 3 bottles @ 2.00 each - $6.00 total

Total - $9.00 for 20 yarn spheres (45 cents per sphere).

It beats buying them at a store. Here is proof...