Wednesday Wedding: Guest Blogger- Kendall

They say every little girl dreams about her wedding day. Call me weird, but I didn't start dreaming about my wedding day until I learned about the crafting community and saw how creative and personalized weddings could become. Since my eyes were opened to that fantastic world of hot glue, sewing machines, and paint, I've wanted nothing more than to craft as much for my wedding as possible. (Minus the whole making-your-own-wedding-dress thing... I'm not THAT good.)

Now that I am engaged to be married in May, I've throw myself headfirst into craft blogs, tutorials, and pouring over websites filled with creative and unique ideas.

First and foremost I wanted my wedding to reflect my and Adam's personality and tastes, and I wanted (and needed) to do it on a tight just-gratuated-from-college budget. I also wanted the decorations to be something that wouldn't just be used that day, but something we could bring into our first home together and use as decor and as a reminder of that special day.

I graduated college with a degree in Graphic Design, so it was already pretty much a given that I would be designing my own invitations and save-the-dates. They honestly were the easy part. In fact, I think the save-the-dates were done before the proposal even happened...

Despite my typical knack for crafts and ingenuity, getting started from scratch on a crafted wedding was more difficult than I thought it would be. I spent the first month seeing so many awesome ideas that I wanted to do them all and had a hard time focusing my efforts on any one project. Once I got my craft ADD period out of the way and settled on a theme and a color palette, I buckled down on my first big project. For this I made the decision not to use any flowers in the wedding or reception.  In part because I thought I could save some money this way, but also because my mom has always had her wedding bouquet sitting on her dresser (fake flowers, of course) and I loved the idea that it was always out and visible. I don't typically like the look of fake flowers so I looked for all sorts of alternatives, but in the end I decided I still wanted it to resemble flowers, so I settled on buying 2 large spools of ribbon from B. B. Crafts and using this tutorial to make ribbon roses. This would be easy enough, right??? I'm good with a needle and thread, how hard could it be? Many painstaking hours, a misdiagnosed pinched nerve in my neck, and a few color changes later, I finally had enough ribbon roses to make up my bouquet and some bridesmaid bouquets.

Tadaaa! 

Let's review the process, shall we?

I used: 2 colors of ribbon, matching thread, needles, ruler, floral wire, floral tape, scissors, pinking shears, a lighter, wire cutters, elastic, tulle, and a whole lot of patience. Eventually I used watered down paint and dip-dyed half the roses to give them varying shades of purple and red as well, but that's entirely optional.

And here is what I got!

I love how it turned out, but more than that, I love the fact that it's something I made with my own two hands and that I can have sitting out for many years to come. It was definitely a labor, but it was a labor of love, and I had a lot of fun creating it.

166 Days til the wedding... Yeah, I still have time for more crafting.

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Thank you, Kendall! I don't typically like how fake flowers look either, but yours are so pretty! I am impressed and I'm excited to see what else you're crafting for your wedding!

- From the desk of Mrs. M