Weddingbee Blog

Now that I have finished the wish tags, it is time that I construct myself a tree. I went on a search to try and find manzanita branches. I came across the website Blooms and Branches who had all kinds of different manzanita branch options. Although I really like the look of the natural manzanita branch, I was worried they might shed and make a mess. I decided to place an order for 2 of their 24″ sandblasted manzanita branches. The sandblasting basically removes the outer layer of the branch to create a clean ivory branch.

The only downside that I found was that shipping costs nearly as much as the branches. I understand though, I mean…they are shipping a fragile object that could easily break.

{Who else when seeing a FRAGILE label quotes the leg lamp scene from A Christmas Story? FRA-GEE-LEE. I’m not the only one, am I?}

I then took what might be my 1 millionth trip to Michaels and bought some extra supplies. I, of course, brought a 40% off coupon from their weekly ad to use towards my purchase. I ended up buying a tall vase, ribbon and colorfill beads. If you have never heard of colorfill, that’s okay, as I hadn’t either. They are small beads that resemble  crystals. Although when you put them in a vase, they hide everything in it. That way you won’t see the bottom part of the branches. If you were to put a light at the bottom of the vase though, it would shine through as if the beads are clear…pretty snazzy stuff.

It was pretty easy to put together after I had all of my supplies. Assemble the branches in the vase, fill vase with colorfill, tie a bow around the vase, and voila, tree is complete! This is how the tree will look when our  guests arrive at the wedding.

Once everyone starts filling out the tags and hanging them on the tree…it should look something like this.

I have to say that I am pretty happy with how this project turned out. It was also very affordable compared to some of the guest books I had been looking at. I am still toying with the idea of placing a LED battery operated light at the bottom of the vase. It might add some jazz to have the vase light up.

What does everyone think? Should I add a light to the vase? If you constructed a wishing tree, how did yours turn out?