DIY Floral Wedding Cake Topper

The Wedding Cake can be one of the larger expenses of a wedding.  Years ago I made the cake for my own wedding (not something I recommend). To help my daughter save money on her wedding I made her cake as well. We decided to go very simple - a two tier cake with basketweave icing and a floral topper. The basketweave is a pretty simple technique that only requires one tip. You can find the instructions online or in a cake book. To make this cake extra special Blackberry preserves were used between the layers of each tier.

While wandering in a thrift store I came across this unique cake stand (can you tell what it really is?) It was a hanging light fixture. But I thought the design looked like hearts and that it would add weight and balance to the cake. After removing the light part, it was painted with white spray paint to cover the piece the light was attached to, an ivy garland was wrapped around the fixture.
Originally the topper was going to be fresh flowers, but we had extra flowers left from other decorations. It was a good thing because fresh flowers for the bride's bouquet and the mothers corsages were one of our bigger expenses--Lesson: the less time you have to shop around the more you will probably pay.

To Make the Topper:
Wires - three 10-12"
Chipboard Letters
decorative paper
Cardboard
Silk flowers/leaves
tape
hot glue

Cut a circle from cardboard to fit your top tier.  Cover fronts of chipboard letters with decorative paper. (cutting around the letters was the most tedious part of this project. Finish the edges of the letters with ink pen or glitter. Tape the wire to the backs of the letters and cover the backs with paper (to hide tape and give a finished back).

Poke holes in cardboard circle and push wires through.  Choose a good height for your letters, then bend the wires under and tape to circle. I made the center "&" taller than the initial letters. I also tilted the initials away from the center.

Hot glue leaves around the edge of the circle. Then arrange the silk flowers till you get a pleasing shape. Place the larger flowers first, then the smaller. Then fill in with extra leaf stems. You could also fill any open spots with ribbon loops. When you like the arrangement--hot glue it all together.

All of these flowers came from an extra premade bouquet from HL bought 1/2 price of course. And the letters will be recycled onto a scrapbook page in the couple's wedding album.

DIY-Wedding Vignettes

There seems to be a lot of DIY brides using vignettes for their guest tables, etc. I found these on the web:

They inspired the one we used:

Almost everything here was in my garage--projects awaiting their turn to be remade into wonderful things. The guest table sits in a small porch on my mother's house and the screen made a great background and hid the door. This looked a little bare so I added potted plants under the easels...much better (but no pics). The screen came from a favorite thrift shop $15. We removed the tapestry fabric and trim, painted it with leftover white and blue spray paint. Since we lacked time i used lace and sheer panels from thrift shops $7. for all strung on twine and tied to screen frame. Almost all the items on the table came from good will $.45-3.00, except the lace scarf which came from the Bride's Grandmother's piano. The Table was a thrift shop find $10. 
We already had the 2 easels from 4-H competitions. The frames were new from Hobby Lobby on sale 2 for $30. The scrollwork was hand cut from self adhesive vinyl (time consuming). I wanted to cut these with my cricut but didn't have time to play with the design. Here is where it came from:

You may have recognized this famous Bride...Chelsea (nee) Clinton.
We used two one for engagement photo and one for ketubah (wedding contract).
Other items we made for this were the banner-from burlap, fabric and vinyl letters cut with cricut and twine, Fan programs-created from instructions found on web, Manilla tags printed with Photo Scavenger Hunt lists. The silver frame contains the instructions.

This was one of my top favorites of things we created and I think it set a tone for the rest of the wedding.

Linking up to: Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays

DIY Wedding for under $2,000

My eldest daughter recently got married. With only one month and very little money, this was a major DIY project. We knew it had to be a small wedding. She already knew her colors-Purple and Green.  As we searched for local places to have the ceremony, it became clear that the couple wanted an outdoor wedding. Grandma to the rescue-invited us to use her front yard which faces a very pretty lake and had a huge covered carport (in case of rain). The date was set for the beginning of September. Our concerns and prayers about the weather (100 degrees recently) were answered with a cool front that made it a perfect day.  We decided on a BBQ reception, and the work began.
Step 1: (How did we do anything before the internet?) We scoured the internet for ideas. We googled DIY weddings, BBQ weddings, Purple and Green Weddings. I created a file for photos of ideas we might be able to use and a favorites file for sites to come back too.

We found this photo:



found on asoftplace.net/.../for-the-love-of-mason-jars/

What a fantastic idea! I loved that the silverware and napkin and glass are all there-perfect for a buffet.
We also decided to use mason jars for the centerpieces.  Much of the wedding theme came from the mason jars-Something Simple Made Elegant.

We later decided to rent tables and here's our end result:

The wedding was at Sunset and when the candles were lit everything looked so beautiful and guests said they really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. We didn't have arranged seating, if we had and had another month, we would have added tags with twine to the jars.
Other ways we saved money- by renting a wedding gown rather than owning one. A relative took over the BBQing duties. We did the food ourselves. We set up a photo download table and had a wedding photo scavenger hunt. (We really did get some great photos)

Here's the Happy Couple:

I hope you found this interesting and helpful enough to check out future blog postings on what we created for the wedding.

I'm linking up:

Treasure's Found

Ever since my first flea market purchase, a set of cobalt blue pressed glass dishes $10.00, at age 16, I have loved treasure hunting.  Our old house was too far out in the country for me to indulge in this passion, so I settled for biweekly flea market trips. Recently a new F.M opened and I was pleasantly surprised. Prices varied-some too much and others more reasonable. Some really great booths. Three booths that i especially liked were one with only antiques, one-shabby chic, and one with primitives. I'll have to get some photos because these booth owners really knew something about display.
I purchased the candy machine to paint black and add Halloween candy-$7.00
The dog will be part of a new collection of dog figurines-$3.00
The shells are for use in some decorating projects for my new living room-$4.90
Crown-Someone in blogland redid one of these and I loved it, so I will redo this one-$1.25
Gold Frame-I can't decide if I want to paint this black for a fall vignette or White for my shabby chic bedroom-$5.00
Bowl-last month I bought a set of plate, cups & saucers in this pattern in another town. AMAZING that I found this.-$4.95.
(If anyone knows the maker or name of this pattern PLEASE let me know.  There are no marks on the bottom)
**This patter is Blue Twig  by Taylor Smith & Taylor