Flowers, without the Florist

DIYTGUBE - Do It Yourself, Then Give Up and Buy Everything

I read a comic the other day that said all brides who got married before Pinterest should get a free do-over.  Now, I am a pretty creative person, but there is no way that I could have come up with the quantity and scope of ideas created by the Internet Hive Mind.

Take our flowers, for instance:

Many of them look just like this.  Many do not.

Doing flowers DIY-style is excellent on many levels: they're cheaper than going to a florist, you can arrange them well in advance, they're guaranteed not to wilt or fail to bloom in time, and they last forever.  Plus, you can be somewhat irreverent like us and choose the best choppable book material of all:

Dirty Dirty Smut Novels - Coming to a Florist Near You!

Yes, we chose to craft our bouquets and centerpieces out of romance novels; I worked in a library since I was 15, so I knew there would be an abundance of leftovers that no one would miss. Plus, they're pretty low on the hierarchy of Novels That Make Me Cringe to Destroy (technically, the Twilight series is at the bottom, but that love story is TOTAL crap, and thus has no business at a wedding).

I have eight bridesmaids of respectable artistic ability, so this task did not seem too daunting.  We set aside a weekend and planned to craft all the flowers needed for bouquets and centerpieces.

Unfortunately, my very creative friends also have limited patience (and limited layers of skin to be scorched by hot glue).  Forty flowers completed in total, and the group burned out.  Thankfully, Etsy exists, and they were able to purchase the bouquet flowers pre-made perfectly.  Win.  

Other bits we've decided to DIY (pictures to come):

-Bridesmaids' necklaces (chunky, sparkly, inexpensive, and coordinated)

-Bouquets (from purchased pieces and crafted smut flowers)

-Ring bearer's box and flower girl "basket" of book paper petals (shhh! don't tell anyone what they're from!)

-Guestbook

-Invitations (bought the main design, then printed them ourselves on heavy parchment paper)

-Programs

-Ballroom decor and features - seating tags, table numbers, airships, lanterns, fabric swags, centerpieces, candy buffet, menu...

Now, we're twenty days out from the wedding and I'm in the midst of putting all the pieces together.  Between the things we've bought, purchased supplies for, or planned to craft from scratch, my living room looks like a Joann Fabrics at 5pm on Black Friday.  

DIY certainly has its perks, but I will say this with absolutely no shame:

Be prepared to give up and buy things, for your home to be a disaster, to purchase more supplies than you need (and often duplicates), to return and re-buy things more than you care to admit, to clip craft store coupons like mad, and to ignore the growing pile of receipts from Michaels, Joanns, Hobby Lobby, AC Moore...

I'm pretty sure it'll be worth it in the end!