A couple days ago I posted a sneak peak of our boutonnieres. I originally found the idea through Martha Stewart’s wedding inspiration section on her website. Personally I thought it would have been helpful to have just a little bit more detail, so I’m providing that to you.
We made the boutonnieres because it seems like every wedding that Peter and I have attended, the boutonnieres end up getting crushed from all the hugs that the groom and attendants receive. We felt it was silly to spend a lot of money on something that so often gets destroyed. After looking for inexpensive alternatives, Peter and I felt that these particular boutonnieres would hold up through a ton of hugs, could be made well in advance, and still had an element of sophistication. Peter’s family bought most of the materials to make them this summer but after piecing together all of the receipts it it seems like they spent about $15 on 12 boutonnieres–rather than the $180 or more that it would have cost through a florist.
All in all the project was really easy! The first boutonniere that I made looked great and there was very little tweaking to be done from there on. Nonetheless there were some little bits of information that I wish I had when I started, so here’s a walk through of how to make them.
Martha’s directions called for covered button, but didn’t specify a size. Peter’s mom did a great job guessing. I think the sizes turned out really nicely. We used three different sized button covers 5/8 (pictured), 7/8, and 1 1/8. The directions provided on the box of button covers are really clear. Each size comes with a separate pattern. You cut out the pattern and trace it onto the wrong side of your fabric.
Then you cut out a circle in the necessary size. (The edges won’t show, so you don’t need to cut it perfectly.)
Below is a bad picture of what to do, but basically you hold the fabric tightly and push the button and into the mold. I tried to capture this action but you really need two hands to do it so taking a picture impeded the process.
Repeat over and over and over again until your fingers feel like they’re developing blisters from using the button press.
Create stems using floral wire.
Then wrap the ends in floral tape. The leaf is made in a similar way. You create a pattern (Peter used his art skills to do this for me.), cut them out, put a piece of floral wire in between each side, iron them together with the no sew bonding tape, and then wrap the end in floral wire.
After you’ve assembled all of the pieces then you can arrange you bouquet in any way you like. Finally, secure it with floral tape and then cover the floral tape with a pretty ribbon. I’m paranoid about things coming undone so I coated the back of the ribbon in fabric glue that make sure that my knot wouldn’t unravel during the ceremony. Can you imagine, a knot coming undone while you’re tying the knot? OK, bad joke, but it still seems like a bad omen.
So there you have it. That’s how we made the boutonnieres. It took a few hours of solid crafting, but I’m sure it would have gone much faster if I had enlisted a friend. Good luck and happy crafting!
I spent most of Saturday night making these. My fingers are sore from hours of manipulating floral wire, but I’m pleased with the end result.
I’ll be back soon with a DIY breakdown. Hope everyone had a great weekend!
Peter and I were looking for a little something to save ourselves from hand addressing every single reply card, when I thought of this. I’ve been in love with custom stamps ever since I saw them on the Paper Cafe, but for our wedding I wanted something a bit more elegant. After searching through all of our options I fell in love with Bryn’s work from Paper Finger. Here’s a little reminder to refresh your memory.
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Interestingly enough, she was the only vendor who replied to my inquiry and she is based in Brooklyn, so I was able to cut out the hassle of shipping and walk over to her studio and pick the stamp up myself. Everything worked out really well. Within a week Peter and I had our very own custom stamp.
My only complaint is that because of the thinness of the lines, it can be a bit difficult to get an even print of the image. But overall, I think it adds to the handmade elegance that Peter and I were going for with the invitations.
What do you think?
Well, sort of–okay not really. A couple weeks ago I did something that I’ve been wanting to do for a really long time. I attended a class at the Little Flower School. Coincidently, a reporter and photographer from the New York Times happened to be covering the class. So, last Thursday I was quoted and pictured in the home and garden section of the paper. It looked a little something like this.
See this awkward looking girl right here?
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That would be me. Surprisingly enough a couple of people actually found the article on their own and contacted me about it. I think the weirdest connection was a guy who I studied abroad with read the article while he was on a train in Tokyo and then facebook messaged me about it. Crazy! Anyway, you can read the article here. Below are my feelings about the class.
I’ve been longing to take one of these classes since they started popping up everywhere in the blogosphere, so you can imagine how excited I was when there was an opening in a class during the time that I was in Brooklyn. I was a bit terrified when I arrived because I really don’t have much experience when it comes to arranging flowers. In fact, usually when Peter buys me flowers I let him put them in the vase for me—wait, does that make me a terrible woman?
Anyway, I was immediately entranced by all of the beautiful flowers.
And despite my fear of doing horribly in the class, things turned out really well. I got a lot of hands on instruction and the teachers weren’t afraid to jump in and make suggestions. Everyone’s arrangements turned out beautifully and they were all very different. We each got lost in our own little worlds for a few hours and when we looked up the room was covered in discarded stems and wild looking little bits of art. It was amazing and worth every penny.
I can’t imagine having that many flowers at my disposal any time ever again. Two fabulous things came out of the class. First, I remembered how wonderfully satisfying it is to spend time away from the computer and create something tangible. Second, I realized that as fun as it is to make flower arrangements, doing one and getting it right takes quite a bit of time. Peter and I had originally thought about doing our own flowers for the wedding, but after having a little bit of hands on experience, I’m happy to outsource this task. Plus, Sarah recommended a florist who is just starting a business in Austin! How amazing is that?! Maybe I will recommend some of the really great flowers that we got to use like this scabiosa pod:
and this one:
and this black basil:
Okay, here’s one last picture of my arrangement from the Little Flower School website. I will venture to say that its a bit more advanced than my last stint with flower arranging.
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Gush! I’m envious of this beautiful world that Nicolette and Sarah get to work in.
Calligraphy doesn’t exactly fit into our wedding budget, but as the idea of addressing invitations and thank you notes becomes closer and closer to reality, I’ve started looking into buying a custom calligraphy stamp. It all started with a slight obsession with these custom stamps. I would think about how exciting it would be when Peter and I bought a house and how fun it would be to get a custom stamp.
Then a few days ago I came across a stamp by an Etsy seller called Emililies on the Martha Stewart website.
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Then I got nervous and started worrying that the stamp wouldn’t arrive in time for us to send out our invitations, so I started looking for other sellers.
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Now I’m stuck wondering when anyone will get back to me and trying to figure out which one I like best. Which one would you choose? If you want to complicate the decision, go to their websites and look at all the other styles. Excuse me while I go check my mail–again.
