Miss Pineapple, Pittsburgh
Age and Occupation: 24, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Student Affairs Administration
Engagement Date: August 4, 2007
Wedding Date: October, 2008
Blogging Since: April 14, 2008
Venue: The Rivers Club
About Me: Being a transplant from sunny south Florida I am learning to live with all four seasons while playing with our cat collective, line dancing, and doing a ton of DIY projects for our wedding (seriously, like a thousand)!
Fresh Paper Flowers
May 1st, 2008 @ 11:12 am by Miss Pineapple
I was checking out Style Me Pretty’s Handmade Weddings at Etsy.com and saw these lovely vintage inspired paper roses.
At $5.00 for 3 roses (times 33) they are a bit out of my budget. I love real flowers and growing up I wanted to be a florist, but now with the wedding approaching and my pocketbook emptying I am looking for alternatives such as candles.
I googled “how to make paper roses” and most of the results were not very attractive. The roses looked like paper wrapped around a stick and were not as realistic as the esty roses. Eventually I came upon Martha Stewart’s paper roses via Mommy Makes Roses.
Martha’s version are pretty big and colored with water colors - a bit more gaudy than the etsy ones, but we’re getting closer! Martha’s roses are made out of cone coffee filters.
I am going to give these a shot with the help of my bridesmaid, Katie, with a couple variations to Martha’s instructions. First of all, I am going to make the roses small by leaving off a few of the outer petals. This will make them more dainty and save me money on coffee filters.
I am also going to use “natural” colored filters instead of white. I don’t want the roses to look like real roses made of paper, I want them to look simply like paper roses. Plus the natural filters will give them the vintage look of the etsy roses.
The tables at the venue are rectangular and seat 6 people. I was thinking of making a centerpiece candle arrangement with a small vase on either side containing 3 paper roses.
What do you think, a good alternative to the real thing?
9 Responses to “Fresh Paper Flowers”
I used ALL paper flowers for my wedding. They weren’t as realistic as the ones in your post… more of a kitchy look… but they were fun to make and I used a bunch of tissue paper from my showers. We saved a TON of money and had the advantage of having them made ahead of time!
I’m doing paper flowers for centerpieces too. Mine aren’t as realistic as that, but I love the idea and have found some pretty recycled paper to use!
I think if you have the time and skill to make them, they’ll look great. Quick question– how many filters will you need per rose? And how much do filters cost? It may not be quite as cost-effective as you think, when you factor in extra supplies and time. Then again, I’m a tea drinker, what do I know… 
It’s been awhile since I’ve looked at it, but, try craftster.org. They have a great tutorial for filter flowers. I’ve been making tons of them for my centerpieces (big cylinder vases w/ spraypainted branches coming out of paper roses). They’re super easy and w/ the cost of filters and wire will cost me around $20. Plus, everyone loves them- some have even leaned in to sniff them thinking they’re real!!
I saw a wedding on the knot a few years ago (no clue how to find it now) where the bride had done ALL her flowers with paper and tissue paper and then her bouquet was just one HUGE magnolia (made of paper of course) and I fell in love with the idea 
I’m so glad to see other ppl think this is a great idea too.
@dre: I plan on doing mine more kitchy as well.
I think it could be cool. Ditto to AliCherri - you could actually use the fact that the flowers aren’t real to your advantage. I *heart* composite bouquets, but can’t stomach the price tag - that would be perfect in paper!
@jessica: This tutorial looks great! They seem much less complex than Martha’s. If I hadn’t already begun making mine I would probably have gone with these instead. http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=134959.0;images
@tanya2s: The whole kit n kaboodle will cost about $25 + my time, still cheaper than real flowers but probably crazier
[…] searching around the internet for cheap cone shaped coffee filters for the paper roses project, I found the best deal at Amazon.com. I decided to go with the “natural” […]
