Weddingbee Blog

Yay! I have more or less (there are still some things to finish) done with the things that are going on our tables at the reception. I have to say, I am so fricking excited for everything to be pulled together. With only 30 days to go, things are starting to finally look like a big picture instead of a bunch of inspirations and ideas. In case you don’t remember about our inspiration for the tablescapes, it consists of vintagey touches, milk glass, and some lacy goodness!

We raided Mr. D’s mom’s antique shop and came up with 13 milk glass vases in differing shapes and sizes. We also came up with a crap-ton of vintage books which we will stack and make pretty. Then we just had to figure out what to fill those said vases with. First I was thinking baby’s breath. It’s so soft and romantic when it’s all bunched together. I mean, how can you not love this look:

Image via Elizabeth Anne Designs / Venue, design, styling + florals - Cedarwood Weddings / Photography – Kristyn Hogan

It’s amazing! However, I am severely allergic to pollen.

Real flowers simply were not going to be a choice for our wedding. There is no way I am going to spend my wedding day with red eyes, running nose, and doped up on Benedryl. So I had to look elsewhere. I also found these and fell in love:

Image via Martha Stewart

Turns out, when you put a bunch of carnations together, it makes an awesome texture. One that I just had to have. So I began a long and interesting quest of paper flower making to figure out how to copy this texture. There are plenty of DIY instructions on how to make tissue paper carnations, but I found they were all just taking way, way too long. Finally I came across this while looking for poms for the ceremony site:

Image via the Thrifty Crafter

I knew that this was the texture I was searching high and low for. It’s not exact, but it is very ruffly and pretty! And it was very, very easy to make. So I went to Walmart, bought a thousand or so coffee filters, got out my trusty glue gun, some card stock and went to work. They are actually very, very easy to make. You just do these steps:

1. Fold your coffee filter in half.

2. Dab a little glue and fold in half again.

3. Dab a little more glue and fold in half a final time.

4. Toss in box and do some more.

Eventually you will have a box that looks like this:

Once you have that done, cut out a circle out of card stock. I did mine about 6 inches in diameter. It seems to work really well with any of the milk glass vases that we had. Once you have that little circle, then start taking the folded coffee filters and gluing them on the outer part of the circle, slightly overlapping each other. It gives the look a more full and textured look if you do.

Just do that around the circle and keep repeating and repeating until it starts to get circular in shape. The middle is the hardest part, and in my trying to figure it out, I forgot to take pictures of what I finally made work. So I will try to describe it the best I can. What you do is take two or three unfolded coffee filters. Then you add a drop of glue in the center and essentially glue them together unfolded. Then you commence with the regular folding. It makes it much much fuller. Then, when you ready to put it in the center (and it takes about 3 or 4 sets of these uber folded together filters), you fold up the pointed tip and glue it so it can’t go back down. Then you have kind of flatish surface to put a line of glue on. Then you can lower it into the center hole, and hold it for a few seconds for the glue to take hold. Once you fill up the center, it should look like this:

See how pretty? If you are type-A about getting an even surface (because no matter how hard you try you will glue them unevenly), just take a pair of scissors and trim the parts that stick out. Then repeat on the other side of the paper. Wanna see what it looks like all done?

They are a little lopsided, but I figured out a better way since then to do it. More or less, on the bottom half, I don’t fill in the center, and the pom becomes more like a cap instead of a free-floating ball. I love them because they are so easy to make, they are cheap to boot, and they give me my look of carnations piled together without all of the allergies! Wooo hoo! I made 13 of these bad boys. These will sit in the middle our round tables on our beautiful navy linens with candles scattered to give a romantic glow. Doily place mats will  give it a touch of whimsy. I’m so excited to see the big picture in a month!

So, what do you think? Did you have a creative idea brought to life for your centerpieces? Did you do anything non-floral for your centerpieces?