I've been doing some experimenting with creating paper flowers for our wedding decor. After looking at many different methods and tutorials, it seems that a surprising material creates the most delicate, natural looking blooms. Coffee filters. After some searching I found two different tutorials with directions that seemed simple enough. This one from Two Shades of Pink and this one from Emmalee Design.Here is what I came up with:[gallery link="file" columns="2" ids="373,375"]The rose shaped flowers are made from natural colored cone shaped coffee filters and the carnation looking ones were made with bleached regular coffee filters. I dipped them both in a tea mixture (passion fruit and acai flavored varieties) and hung them upside down to dry. The natural coffee filters definitely didn't take the color as well, but I still like the light brown color they ended up with.I'm not sure how these flowers will be worked into the decorations and I still want to experiment with different methods and colors. I love the final product of this project, though!
Wedding
Lavender, Succulents & Plant Fun
Brad and I are well into the process of planning for our September 20th wedding. √ Venue. √ Caterer. √ Cake. Flowers? I knew I didn't want to allocate a huge part of our budget to flowers and also that I want the flowers to look different, special, unique. Of course, everyone wants that for their wedding. One of Brad's many passions is indoor gardening, specifically cultivating jade plants. I'm not sure how he started this hobby, but we've collected about 40 or so varied house plants, most of them jades.
The point of all that is that I've decided (with the help of Pinterest) to start propagating our jades and use them as wedding favors. Here are a few inspiration photos:
So, with that in mind, I'm starting to take some cuttings from our jades and getting them ready to root. I've been trimming them just before the second set of leaves. From what I've read, you're supposed to let the cuttings "scab over" for about three days before you put them in soil (to prevent water rot?) Along with the succulent favors, I will be incorporating them into my bouquet, centerpieces, etc. We've decided to order our flowers through a place called The Flowerman in Columbus. My mom will pick them up a day or two before the big day and we'll have a few people over to the house for a flower arranging frenzy.Another plant I want to incorporate is lavender. Ever since an awesome babysitter helped me stitch and embroider a lavender sachet for my grandma I've loved the sent and look of lavender. It makes me think of memories, summertime and learning how to sew. More inspiration:
And now on to some of my in progress photos:[gallery link="file" ids="348,347,346,345,344,343,342,341,338"]Those yellow flowers aren't a part of this project, I just like them. The big tray with the fiber cells is full of seeding soil and lavender seeds. They're supposed to start sprouting in about 2 to 3 weeks. I've never tried starting a plant from seeds. There are so many factors to it... I just hope something comes out of those little shiny seeds. Also, notice the paint chips. Brad and I were trying to decide on a paint color for the studio (something in the navy blue family). Photos of that coming soon!
So, with that in mind, I'm starting to take some cuttings from our jades and getting them ready to root. I've been trimming them just before the second set of leaves. From what I've read, you're supposed to let the cuttings "scab over" for about three days before you put them in soil (to prevent water rot?) Along with the succulent favors, I will be incorporating them into my bouquet, centerpieces, etc. We've decided to order our flowers through a place called The Flowerman in Columbus. My mom will pick them up a day or two before the big day and we'll have a few people over to the house for a flower arranging frenzy.Another plant I want to incorporate is lavender. Ever since an awesome babysitter helped me stitch and embroider a lavender sachet for my grandma I've loved the sent and look of lavender. It makes me think of memories, summertime and learning how to sew. More inspiration: And now on to some of my in progress photos:[gallery link="file" ids="348,347,346,345,344,343,342,341,338"]Those yellow flowers aren't a part of this project, I just like them. The big tray with the fiber cells is full of seeding soil and lavender seeds. They're supposed to start sprouting in about 2 to 3 weeks. I've never tried starting a plant from seeds. There are so many factors to it... I just hope something comes out of those little shiny seeds. Also, notice the paint chips. Brad and I were trying to decide on a paint color for the studio (something in the navy blue family). Photos of that coming soon!On the Bourbon Trail
in Wedding
After a few minor mishaps Brad, Q and I set off on an adventure on the Bourbon Trail. We've been slowly trying to sort things out as far as what we want to do for our wedding. Since we visited Woodford Reserve in winter of 2010 that's where I've wanted to do the wedding. Unfortunately I got a big fat "no" when I asked about having the event there. Good news is there are several other bourbon distilleries in the area. Brad and I went to check them out.
We'll see what happens!