paper flowers

With the help of slaves (volunteer fiance, sister, mom, and friends), over 200 hundred beautiful paper flowers came to life!

this was when we started...

but it started out as just plain tissue paper. purchased from paper mart.

my fab coordinator customized martha stewart's directions to fit our needs. the tissue paper was cut down to size, folded, wired, and then made to bloom!

Step 1: Cut out 8 sheets of tissue paper 6 inches by 10 inches. Stack the tissue paper on top of each other and turn it so that the 6 inch side is parallel with your stomach. Accordion fold the paper into 3/4 inch wide folds, creasing at each fold.

Step 2: Fold a piece of 5 inch floral wire in half, and slip over the center of folded tissue; twist. Trip the ends of tissue with sharp scissors into a half circle shape.

Step 3: Separate the layers, pulling away from the center, one at a time. Your goal is only to make a half sphere, not a full sphere. This step is crucial, the more you fluff and pull away the layers, the better the flowers look. Your end result should be a dome.

The initial use was decor for the napkins, but a last minute change made these a great accessory to our favor. Not to mention that it really complimented the centerpiece!


The flowers definitely had multiple purposes! My girls wore them as corsages later on. I also heard that at one table, there was a 10-15 minute conversation on how our guests were trying to figure out if the paper flowers were real or not.


It was a lot of work...but worth it...just like Heather, of "we met in a bar," said in her post on these lovely paper beauties! Heather posts her own tutorial. Or, you can check out Martha Stewart's tutorial here.

centerpiece mock-up

Met with my uber cute prego coordinator, and she did a mock-up of what our centerpieces could look like!

Oh, and she left us with 4 checklists...1 about our flowers, 1 on invitations, 1 on our preliminary timeline, and another for Dee to discuss with the hotel coordinator.

Back to the centerpieces...so we're (I'm) hoping for long banquet tables. The design my coordinator came up with was made for long banquet tables. I've voiced out our concerns about making the most of a small budget, and she was definitely ready to oblige us.

So a large part of the cost in the wedding is wedding decor. And one thing that can start to add up quick is flowers. I thought I knew what I wanted.

source: Martha Stewart

My coordinator would not have it though. And I'm glad I'm starting to listen to her. Yea, it's cute, and simple, but that's all. And remember how my colors used to be aqua and orange? Remember the table schemes she came up with? Well, I was super excited to see what she came up with for our now nude and plum theme. I told her that I really wanted to emphasize the nude...I thought it'd be cheaper. So she showed me this:

under natural light

We used the coffee table in my parents' house, so please excuse everything else. The linen will not have wrinkles, and there will be a little bit more flowers. This was just a mock-up!

with flash

Not bad right? She wanted it to look romantic and intimate while still fulfilling our need to keep within our budget.

She also showed me samples with a softer fabric:

in nude.

in blush.

The fabric would lay over some tulle for some volume, and there would be more fabric.

Then she showed me the tulle in pink, and I loved the way the color popped in photos!

under natural light.

with flash.

See how the color just pops. Now, these flowers aren't the ones we'll be using...these were only for visual purposes. We'll be using flowers in the purply-pink range. And hopefully, we'll be able to get long banquet tables, as the design will be continuous down the length of the table. If not, our coordinator has something in mind for round tables too.

What do you guys have in mind for your centerpieces?

.idea.

Decals to decorate my aisle in lieu of an aisle runner. I especially love these circle decals.

Get them here.

photo credit: pretty.pretty.paper

Table Settings

How awesome does that look? Figure out what it is yet?

It's our sweetheart table. I must share my coordinator's wonderful ideas for our table settings. I was truly blown away, and I bow my head in shame because I had thought my ideas were good. Hers are AhhhhhhhMAZING!

Her vision of our sweetheart table: a white paillette linen (sort of a sequined table cloth), LED aqua light illuminating underneath the table amidst an orange room, vases filled with water and one floating candle lining half of the table, and orange flowers to sit in front of the vases. Can ya see it?

And then for the rest of the tables: She did two sets of ideas for me...one showing full use of our budget and another showing a more cost-effective use of decor. Each set features a table with a low centerpiece and a high centerpiece.

Version 1: High centerpiece


Aqua table cloths. Silver chargers on top of folded orange napkins, which would hang over the table. A menu to sit on top of the charger in the shape of a circle, in color aqua. The white circles are small bread/butter plates. In the center, a large cylindrical vase. This schematic featured the vase filled with aqua tinted water and a floating flower. We're considering the vase to be filled up with fruit: oranges, kumquats, etc. Smaller vases to surround the larger vase. Then flowers strategically placed in between the vases. And tea lights spread over the table. And how awesome would this look with chiavari chairs?

Here is the low centerpiece:


This table will have 4 smaller cylindrical vases filled with various fruits.

And here is the cost-effective version, Version 2:



The only difference is that instead of the aqua table linens, we'll use the white table linens that come with our venue. We still have to double check and make sure they're full length linens.

But how wonderful does this look? God, it sounds expensive though. I might forego the silver chargers as that would be an added expense..and the chiavari chairs as well.

Check back again...I'll be doing a post on my fab coordinator! Her ideas are grand!!

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.idea.

Well, my friend's (aka coordinator's) idea for centerpieces: To save money on floral arrangements, oranges and kumquats to fill cylindrical vases of water. Very simple, minimal, modern looking and chic. Did I mention that we would save money?

Flower Power

Fi and I are minimalists...we love a simple idea that goes a long way. So in thinking about centerpieces, we want something that is simple and chic, but still stands out...oh, and not super expensive. So of course, I look to Queen DIY, Martha Stewart. She has some great ideas. Some of the pictures show more than what we require, but it's still fun to look at!

We'll be using round tables that have seating for 10 people each. Mirrors and 4 votives are complimentary. To maximize this look, I was thinking something like this:

Simple and easy enough so that I can have family and friends help out.

For flowers, I was thinking of Gerbera Daisies in oranges, peaches, and yellows. But I love love the look of poppies.

So I'm going to try for poppies first, and if it doesn't work out, I'd be perfectly happy with Gerbera Daisies. I think both flowers exhibit lots of power!

I also love the look of cylindrical vases of all sizes:

Photo courtesy of www.brides.com.

Maybe I could stick 3 different sized cylindrical vases in the center of my tables.

What was/is your flower power strategy?

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