Weddingbee Blog

I feel I may have not told you some vital information about me, so I’m going to share now. While I have calmed down significantly in recent years, I am a planner at heart. I mean type-A, control-freak kind of planner. And if you know anything about control freaks, you know it’s not exactly something that you outgrow. So I still label myself as a full-on control freak who has somewhat mellowed (a bit) so she can function out here in the real unpredictable world. But my type-A self would like you to know that the world is not so very unpredictable because I do, in fact, have it under control.

Right. I’m sure you’re wondering where this is going. I swear I have a point. I have actually assembled a centerpiece mockup. It lived on my dining-room table for a few days the other week. I even whipped it out to show the venue coordinator when we were talking about area setup and everything. (Don’t look at me like that. I *told* you I’m type A, dammit.) But I am getting ahead of myself. Because before I can show you a centerpiece mockup, we have a few DIY projects to discuss.

When I first started considering DIY elements for our wedding, I had an idea. It’s not something I’ve seen done before, but I thought it might be cool. I didn’t tell many people because I’m a DIY virgin, and I also thought it wouldn’t work out in my fumble fingers. But I forged ahead and made one of these things, and Mr. E and I kind of like them. So it is that I present to you my very first DIY adventure. Of my own invention!

It started with some ribbon, a four-inch styrofoam ball, a bunch of little flowers made from card stock with my daisy punch, and a glue gun. (You should be scared. I didn’t own a glue gun until the day before I attempted this.)

Initial components assembled!

I started by knotting the ribbon to make it into a loop. Then I used scissors to make a hole about an inch deep in the styrofoam ball and filled it with hot glue. Then I took the knot end of the ribbon and inserted it into the hole. Note: I used my bare finger for this. See earlier notes regarding glue gun inexperience. You should be smarter than me and use something blunt that you don’t mind getting gluey. In subsequent attempts, I used a piece of floral wire to help me with this. Hey, at least I can be taught.

Then I started in with the little flowers. I took them and one by one dotted glue on the back and put them onto the styrofoam ball. If you can tell by the picture above, I’m using three colors: bright pink, bright orange, and yellow. I tried to keep the colors from touching each other too much, and the little flowers were overlapping to cover up all signs of styrofoam. It started off looking like this:

Just a few flowers on now.

And then I kept going until the ball was covered. Sounds simple, and in reality it is. But just bear in mind that every single one of those little flowers is individually glued onto that ball. The end result looks like this:

Ta-da!

Then I couldn’t figure out if I liked the darn thing. So here’s a true story. I pestered Mr. Lox about whether or not he liked it. I texted pictures to my friends. I took that little ball in to work to see what my coworkers thought. The verdict? It’s a hit! But now what will I do with it?

At first this completely stymied me. That lone little ball sat in my house for a couple of weeks while I pondered it. But together, Mr. Lox and I have the answer. And by that I mean to say, I pestered him with ideas and showed him potential uses until he declared a favorite just to shut me up. So how will they be used? If we have enough rows of chairs, we will alternate these with another DIY project (See how I lead you on? I’m such a tease.) for aisle decor during our ceremony. Then my lovely DOC will scurry around to the reception area with these things, and they’ll be used as a component in our centerpieces! Voila!

So now, dear readers, I ask you this: Do you have DIY in your wedding? If so, what was your first project? And does anyone have any idea what I can call these darn things?

All photos in this post courtesy of me. Next time I do a tutorial, I promise to use a real camera and not my phone. I really can be taught.