DIY Bride

Flowers, schmowers. Who needs ‘em when you can create a stunning Fall bouquet out of leaves?

I’m always on the lookout for things to make non-traditional bouquets out of. A while ago, I was heavily into crystal bouquets. This season, I’m all about foliage. Beautiful, rustic, cheap, fake foliage.

Taking a cheapy silk leafed garland from Michael’s, I used a few tools, some wire, and my DIY magique to turn it into an inexpensive and easy bouquet.

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• Silk leaf garland
• Floral wire
• Wire cutters
• Floral tape
• Ribbon (1″ wide)
• Scissors
• Pearl headpin

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Begin by pulling the leaves off of the garland. I used about 40 leaves for this bouquet.
2. Cut pieces of floral wire, about 12″ - 14″ long.
3. Now, take the wire piece and wrap one end around the stem of one of the leaves, spiraling down from the leaf to the bottom of the stem. I did about 3 - 5 wraps around the stem on each leaf. (Don’t do anything to the remaining wire that’s hanging from the leaf. That’ll become part of the handle.)
4. Continue to cut wire and wrap leaf stems until all of your leaves are finished
5. The next step is to bind the leaves together in groups of 3. I found this helped make handling them easier. To do so, hold 3 wired leaves together and wrap floral tape around the stems a few times, until the binding feels tight and secure. Do this for all of your leaves.
6. Once your bundles have been created, the next step is to bind all of the groups of 3 together to make a bouquet. I gathered the whole bunch in my hand and did some arranging to get a nicely shaped bouquet. Once I was satisfied, I held the bouquet in one hand and used the floral tape to secure them together in one big bunch. [Note: I also threw in some crystal stems as an afterthought. That's why you'll see some crystals and wire sticking out.]
7. After all of the stems are bound together, I then wrapped all of the wires with floral tape from top to bottom. This helps protect your hands from pokey wires.
8. Now that the stems are covered with floral tape, I then covered that with a wrap of satin ribbon (secured with a pearl pin).

NOTES:

• This cost about $15 to make (I already had the tools) and took just over 1.5 hours to complete.
• The big box craft stores often have 50% coupons and sales - use those to your advantage!
• When wrapping the wire around the leaf stems, I recommend using a glove on our wrapping hand. My fingers were pretty sore from being poked with the wire. Not a big deal but if you’re doing lots of leaves or more than 1 bouquet, you’ll thank me.
• You can use any kind of garland with this project. Flowers, pine cones, or whatever’s in season.
• If you’d like to use real leaves, go for it! However, I highly recommend dipping then in wax first to help protect them and make them less fragile (directions from eHow). Also, use a thinner gauge wire (the higher the number, the thinner the wire) like a 22 - 26 gauge, found in the jewelry section of craft stores. Regular floral wire might be too stiff to wrap around a real leaf.

The fun and fabulous folks at 365Halloween have posted this cool tutorial for making pumpkin picture holders out of Fimo clay. While I think they’re great for pictures, they’d be even cooler used as place card holders. And, even if you’re not into the pumpkin thing, the techniques you learn can be translated into other shapes and motifs.

Happy October!

Beginning today, I’ve opened up a new section on the site called DIY Halloween where (big surprise) I’ll be publishing all sorts of creepy crafty goodness all month.

The direct URL is: http://halloween.diybride.com. Those of you who subscribe via an RSS feed will need to subscribe to the new URL to get the Halloween posts (it’s running on a separate blog from this one.)

  Hey there, my eco-friendly readers ~

Ultra fabulous photographer, Beth Beljon, is donating 6 hours of coverage to one lucky couple (in the US  or abroad) who are dedicated to having a green wedding in 2008.

The Details:

Couples considered should be environmentally mindful in all aspects and details of their wedding from invitations, attire, location and food.  “We are looking for the most creative, authentic  green and organic wedding.  It’s simply  beautiful to see more couples not only making a commitment of love to each but to the earth.”  says Beljon.

The deadline for entries is Dec. 15, 2007. The couple chosen will be announced  through her website Jan. 1, 2008.

Beth Beljon is an established and published photographer covering weddings around the globe for nearly a decade. She provides stunning photography  for modern and mindful couples.  Her photojournalistic style is elegant, modern and graceful that captures each event in a visually organic documentary . Her packages start at $4800 and range to $8200.

To apply, please visit Beth’s Website: http://www.bethbeljon.com

It’s officially Fall! Yay!

I’m on a short blog break this week. I’ll be back on October 01.

For those of you lucky enough to be able to bring your own alcohol to your reception venue, BevMo is having their 5 cent sale. Buy one bottle and get the 2nd one for 5 cents (on selected items). Prices start at $6.99 and there are over 150 wines to choose from. You can buy in-store or via the web, if your state allows it.

… or “You Go Ghoul!” (I couldn’t decide on a subject line.)

Today feels like Fall. It’s gloriously delicious and cozy and wonderful. There’s a teeny, tiny bit of rain this morning, just enough to clean the air and give the neighborhood that crisp, fresh Autumn scent.
Looking at the calendar (and the latest round of magazines to arrive in the mail) Halloween is nearly upon us. Only 10 days to go! (I don’t care what you say. Halloween begins on October 1st and lasts all month.) I’m so excited, I can’t stand it.

Halloween is a major holiday at the Casa de DIY Bride. I’ve already been planning this year’s Halloween crafts for a few weeks now. I’m seriously counting the seconds until I can bust out the decorations.

Last year I kinda missed out on the whole Halloween experience. The first shoot for the DIY book was in mid-October so I was busy frantically prepping for that, plus an extended trip to Albany, plus actually writing the book which was far more work than I ever could’ve imagined. So, yeah, last October kinda blew by without much of a celebration here. It was a sad, sad moment in my Halloween history. <sniff> I’ve vowed for this year to be different.

The reason I’m telling you this is that DIY Bride is going Halloween-ish for the entire month of October. There will be a mix of crafty wedding and Halloween stuff to celebrate the season (and to justify my spending on new craft stuff…). I’m really keen on sharing my love of the ‘ween with you and seeing what ideas and inspiration we can all come up with.

Until then, I’ll be on a short blog break. I’m feeling kinda burnt out and need to step back, recharge, and regroup. See ya in a week!

As an ongoing expression of gratitude, I’ve been sending out some linky love to all of the awesome peeps who’ve either given DIY Bride a mention or a direct link. If you’ve missed my previous linky posts, do check out the fine sites I’ve mentioned here and here.

I’m truly blown away by the fascinating, creative, funny, and all-around-awesome sites that are coming in. Thank you all for being online and sharing your talents!

This month, I’d like to give a shout out to:

• Ron & Courtni’s Wedding Journal
• New Mexico Wedding Planner
• Manolo for the Brides
• Travel Betty
• The Wedding Vendor Guide
• Indecision 2008 - Cindy’s Wedding Blog
• Budget Wedding Guide
• Love is in the details
• Simply Me
• Classic Bride
• Gabe & Kate
• Always Fabulous Events
• An Excited Bride
• Marry? Me?
• Darling Make Do
• Promised Hearts

Hey everyone,

As I’m certain you’re aware, Martha Stewart has teamed up with the Today Show to throw an ultra-fab wedding for one lucky couple. Viewers (that’s you) get to vote on nifty things like the bridal attire and vendor selections. Neat, right?

Well, one of the nominated vendors for the cake selection is Baked NYC who just so happened to have made the cakes and cupcakes for the upcoming DIY Bride book. They were OUTSTANDING - and I’m a cake snob, not at all easily impressed. I’d love it if you, my fabulous readers, would place a vote for them. They rock the cake arts with their gorgeous and tasty frosted wonders.

For the Jessica and Cody, Baked NYC made a beautiful, modern cupcake arrangement with a sleek customized cake tower.

If you have a chance, please click on the Today Show link below to place your vote for Baked NYC.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/19915231/

Last month I blogged about the launch of the online television show Bride-O-Rama. Well, they’ve released a new episode this week and it’s just as cool as the first. This episode is from Melanie and Saul, a fun New York couple.

What I love about this episode are the personal touches, especially those incorporating their families into the celebration. Melanie and Saul used heirloom rings and drinking cup and Melanie wore a gown chosen by her recently-passed grandma. I was really touched by that.

You can watch the episode below or go directly to Bride-O-Rama.