Wedding Crafts

Going into the wedding I had a lot of grandiose ideas about all of the crafting I would get done and all of the things I would make myself for our big day.  Pinterest inspired me to take on about a billion different projects and tasks, and thanks to a lot of help from family and friends we were able to complete quite a few of them.  (ps- it doesn't hurt that, like me, all of my closest friends have a college degree in art!)

Then our wedding date did this really nasty thing- it totally crept up on me! Between moving into our house, the wedding, and the holidays my plate was totally full. I had to decide which projects were most important to me, and focus my time and energy on those.

The centerpieces and flowers topped the list. Not only was I most excited about this project, but the amount of money it saved us was awesome!!

The tricky thing about taking on the responsibility of flowers is that while it may sound like a relatively small job, flower are EVERYWHERE in a wedding.  Everywhere.   

I went up to Pennsylvania two days before the wedding along with my Mom, Mare, and two bridesmaids and we assembled all of the centerpieces, bouquets, and boutonnieres.  We brought all of the greenery from home in 4 huge trash bags and we had pre-made all of the flowers in small batches in the months leading up to the wedding.  All we had to do in the hotel meeting room was arrange the mercury glass vases (also made ahead of time), bouquets and boutonnieres. 

It wasn't until 9 pm on our wedding eve that I realized that we hadn't made the cake topper yet- something I wanted to make using the same greenery and flowers as the centerpieces. Thankfully, we had a hotel room full of our wedding party and my girls helped me bust them out with little stress. 

In the end, I LOVE how everything turned out. Not only did I get to spend a lot of creative time with friends and family, but I also saved us tons of money! In total I think I spent about $200 on all of the supplies I needed for ALL centerpiece/flower decor. We had 20 table centerpieces, 5 bouquets, 7 boutonnieres. I can't even do the math on that- I just know it's AMAZING. 

I should also mention that we made the table numbers, frames, and favors that you will see in the images below. Enjoy!

 Three boutonniere. Made with tissue paper flowers and live greenery.

 bouquets, made with silver christmas bulbs, handmade flowers and greenery. 

 A "thank you" card greeted each guest at their seat, along with their favor box.  I used silver pipe cleaners to create a monogram that embellished each card. 

 Great view of the mercury glass vases!

 My friend Annie has beautiful handwriting, so she helped me address all the seating cards.