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A Wedding Bouquet That Lasts


Our wedding budget was $1000. That would include rings, dress, invites, flowers...everything. - Spoiler alert - it was the perfect wedding! And that sparkling review is mostly because a shoe-string budget forced the focus onto two people becoming one by God's grace rather than the glitz and glamour of a ceremony.


We wanted God to be the bling of the wedding and He was and forever will be. His power and grace have knit our hearts together so that we are empowered to forgive each other, think the best of one another and dream big for each other far beyond the party favors of the wedding.

The budget constraint also unleashed creativity. Garden posts and paper flowers became an altar for our vows and crisp white mulberry paper with splashes of colorful ribbon became a bouquet. For flowers made of lifeless paper, these keepsakes still fill my heart with life and joy as a winsome memento of a sacred day.



For the roses of my bouquet, I didn't know any better than to take apart a real rose and use the petals for templates. Then I cut similar shapes and sizes from paper, glued them each around a wire, and finished the flower off with floral tape. For anyone who would like to follow in my stumbling footsteps, below is a petal template and pictured directions. I have worked with mulberry paper, tissue paper, and felt with great results.


Paper Flowers Petal Template

 
Petal shape template.

Mulberry Paper Flower

 
White paper flowers in an antique looking jar.

In the example above, I used a more delicate mulberry paper on the outermost layer (d), for an ethereal look.





Flower shape template.

1. Cut:

3 petals - a

4 petals - b

5 petals - c

5 petals - d


2. Glue petals around wire one at a time using a hot glue gun, from smallest to largest.


3. After each full circle of petals, wrap the lower portion of the flower with floral tape for added security. Floral tape sticks to itself as it is stretched.


3. After the last layer, wrap the floral tape as before and then continue wrapping down the entire wire.






Pink felt flowers with white mulberry paper flowers.


Tissue Paper Flower

 
Bright pink and yellow tissue flowers in a glass jar.



Flower cutting template.

1. Cut:

  • 3 petals - d

  • 5 petals - e

  • 4 petals - f

  • 6 petals - g


2. Glue petals around wire one at a time using a hot glue gun, from smallest to largest.


3. After each full circle of petals, wrap the lower portion of the flower with floral tape for added security. Floral tape sticks to itself as it is stretched.


3. After the last layer, wrap the floral tape as before and then continue wrapping down the entire wire.


After I completed the tissue paper flower, I decided to glue a center ball in the middle. I had a styrofoam ball and some extra yellow tissue paper. I glued tiny strips of yellow thread around the ball to look like stamen.




These photos were taken in our homemade lightbox!



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