Mrs. Bubblegum, Exeter, NH
Age and Occupation: 24, Actuarial Analyst
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Ressearch & Development
Engagement Date: February 9, 2007
Wedding Date: May 2008
Blogging Since: November 2, 2007
Venue: Dunegrass Golf Club
About Me: I can be summed up by the four things I love most: kitties, cheese, math, and Mr. Bubblegum. I am knee-deep in DIY projects to keep wedding costs low but quality high for the special day when I get to marry my bestest friend.
1000 Cranes, 100 Lilies, and 1 Tired Girl
November 8th, 2007 @ 8:29 am by Mrs. Bubblegum
A little while back, one of my coworkers got me into a one-week-long origami phase. It was during this time that I decided that origami something would have to make an appearance at my wedding.
I first considered the idea of 1000 cranes. However, as you may imagine, the idea of making 1000 origami cranes was not horribly appealing to me. I even did the math.. “if i make 3 cranes per day..”
My next idea was to include it in the invitation. Since the invitations were going to be home-made anyway, how about a home-made touch? But after (literally) a few weeks of looking for an origami pattern that was a) doable b) pretty and c) flat-ish, I decided that mailing my origami was probably not the best idea.
I finally settled on the idea that I would affix my origami creations to the escort cards. It was not until yesterday, however, that that idea took flight.
When I set out to Michael’s yesterday, I wanted a decorative paper that was red and white. Since red is my accent color and these were going to accent the escort cards, it would need to be red. However, when I arrived, I was extremely disappointed with my selection. Nothing that was red and white was pretty. I skulked around the store for a while and eventually found this:
Not exactly what I wanted, and for a couple reasons:
a) Obviously, no red. But at this point, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not find pretty red paper and should instead focus on finding pretty green paper.
b) There’s purple and there’s blue paper.. neither of which I would use. But the green made up half the pack, so I decided it was worth it.
BUT:
Each piece is reversible, so although I was buying 4 unique patterns of green paper, I was actually getting 8 different inside/outside combinations. w00t.
This got me thinking that rather than affixing the origami to the escort cart, why not the other way around? And so my project began. Although it’s still underway, I thought I’d share some results..
Tada! Origami lilies! I took step-by-step pictures, so more to come on that.
The last one is my attempt at attaching “Jane Smith’s” escort card. I had bought some floral wire which I used to stick through the bottom of the flower and then through the escort card. I feel very meh about it, so I’ve been trying to brainstorm other stem ideas. At one point, I thought pipe cleaners might work, but FI said exactly what I was thinking: “it might look too arts-and-crafty.” So right.
SO there are still two things up in the air: 1) What do use for stems and 2) How to lay them out. Input needed!
21 Responses to “1000 Cranes, 100 Lilies, and 1 Tired Girl”
Hi, I love origami. That’s great that you are incorporating lilies. I may be folding birds or full lotus blossom for mine. Anyhow, check out Thyrn’s picks on flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zzilch/
She used origami lilies in her centerpiece. I may also do the same but with other origami flowers! When I make the leaves and stems for lilies, I just used thinly rolled paper and roll the paper leaves in them. I don’t think floral wire will look too crafty, just use green floral tape along with it. If I get some time today, I’ll try and make a mock of of mine.
very pretty! would there be a way to stick a tiny bit of floral wire through then glue a bead or something pretty to the end? that way you don’t have to tie it off.
Very nice!!! Your are really talented!!! To tie them I would buy floral wires and floral tape. And to hand them out, you can buy styrofoam (which you can paint ) and pick the flowers in there 
Good luck
Here’s what I’m thinking… it’s very labor-intensive though, so bear with me.
Keep the floral wire and make the tags leaves. Attach the leaf tags to the floral wire using florist tape. Arrange them in vases (labeled with last name initial ranges, ie A-F).
ooh. I hope that made sense!
BTW, love the lilies, nice work!
No ideas on how to attach/display, etc (although the ones above are good). Just wanted to say the flowers are beautiful! Very cool.
You could get skewers, stick them through the bottom, and wrap them in floral tape with the tag attached as a leaf. Stiffer than floral wire, maybe that’s a good thing. You could definitely arrange them in vases that way.
I would write the guests names and table assignments on one of the flower petals and just set them all on the table in rows… forget trying to attach something!
I like the idea of writing a guest’s name on one leaf and table number on another…some floral wire from the bottom stuck into some floral foam (maybe floral foam covered in moss, or ’squished marbles’, or another substance to pretty it up a bit). Each guest can pick their own flower as they walk past.
But no matter what you do, it’ll be so cute! 
The lilies are very pretty and creative. If you really want it on the escort card, perhaps try gluing one side to it and then cutting out a green leaf and gluing that to the end of the lily so that it looks more finished?
I also like the idea of trying to add stems and sticking it in a vase so that guests can look for their lily and pick it out.
i was going to mention using skewers and covering it with floral tape but tanya2s beat me to it so i’m just going to second her.
great job on the flowers. i haven’t done origami since the second grade. i kind of miss it now.
Beautiful job on the origami lilies!
A takeoff on tanya2s’s skewer idea — use really heavy wire/a skewer and cover it w/ floral tape to make a stem and “thread” the stem through the tag (made to look like a leaf, or not, as suggested before) — basically, like a floral hairpick. Some examples here: http://www.craftsway.com/_tps-14/marticle.php?id=99470
If your wire/skewer is sturdy enough, you can stick them into foam or sand or whatever and have them in cute flower pots.
Or, you could do a pretty, thin ribbon hanging off the tag and attach the lily to the end. Maybe jazz it up w/ some add’l ribbons or pretty streamer type stuff. To add to the Asian feel, you could make the tags in the shape of fans instead, and have the ribbons and lily hang off the bottom of the fan. Example: http://www.weddingthings.com/paper_fans.htm (scroll down to the 3rd row, extreme right — see the one w/ the ribbon hanging off the bottom? Think more ribbons and one w/ the lily dangling at the end.)
I would also suggest just writting the names and table numbers on the actual petals of the flowers instead of attaching stuff to them. That they they are the focal point and then you can just sit them out in rows or even put them on a bed of grass etc to make it look more natural.
Grr the website ate my post :(. Anyway I was saying just write the names on the the actual origomi petals of the flowers instead of trying to attach something to them. That way the flowers act as the escort card and are more of a focal point and also you could then arrange them in rows or put them on a bed of grass or moss to look natural.
Just from experience, if you use make stems you’ll need to secure it from both sides. If you only secure the part you poke through the flower then the flower could fall through.
So, you may combine two ideas already said
1) secure the top with something pretty
then
2) take flower tape to make the stem pretty and secure the bottom of the flower so it doesn’t sink down.
Hope that helps.
I think it might actually be prettier to loop a ribbon to the tag and you can just have the flower hang off a “tree” or some other prop.
Haha, I thought I was being totally creative, but apparently the origami lily/wedding combination has been done! That wedding was beaaautiful.
Thank you all for your good ideas! I hadn’t even thought of floral tape, but that’s great! And I love the idea of putting them in a vase. At one point, I was thinking I might get bud vases, fill them with candy or something, put the flower in, and it’d double as a favor.. but I also love the idea of putting them all in fewer alphabetically-grouped vases! I’m so excited!!
Sorry, I didn’t read all the previous comments, so my apologies if this has already been suggested: Use a thick-gauge wire for the stem, and wrap it with floral tape (it can be tricky; stretch it as you wrap it around the wire). Start by sticking one end of the wire through the end of the lily, then wrapping the short wire end to the longer end (to create a loop that goes through the flower). Then start with the floral tape at the top of the loop, wrapping down to the tip. Email me if you want a photo for a better idea of what I’m trying to describe!
[…] 4bar place cards from Paper Source that I would no longer be using because I also *had* to have origami escort cards. So to continue to reap the benefits of DIY, I had to make some adjustments – mayhaps to the […]
you can also try green pipe cleaners?
[…] WORKS! So as some of that winds down, I suppose it’s time to share! Here’s the status on the escort cards I had started oh-so-long […]
