BRONZE BUDGET BRIDE

When I first saw these flowers, I had no idea that they were made of paper. They look so realistic and for a bride any budget, this could be the ticket to having lots of flowers at her wedding, that looks elegant, but cost less than 30¢ each. Of course there is some labor involved but good things come from hard work and it's not as much as I thought it would be.

What you'll need:

• (5) 3" Coffee Filters
• (5) 3 ¼ Coffee Filters
• Floral Wire
• Floral Tape
• Scissors
• Glue (glue gun works too)

For the instructions on how to make them you will have to go here to Michella Marie but be sure to let me know if you make some of these beautiful Peonies. 

Look at these Chandeliers beautifully dressed with flowers. They make such a statement and even a budget bride can afford to have them as part of their wedding decor because you can find Chandeliers here for as little as $19.99!

Looking for and interviewing vendors is exciting  because it means that this whole wedding thing is actually happening. It's great to watch things begin to come together!

At the same time, it can occasionally be a little stressful or frustrating, especially if you're working on a budget. When I start feeling overwhelmed, a little comic relief tends to bring me back down to earth.  These videos I found on youtube cracked me up, and got me ready for the next round of talks with cupcake bakers and photobooth owners.

Wedding Cake

Wedding Flowers



Wedding Song

Whether you are looking for affordable Roses for your centerpieces or maybe today you are still looking for that fabulous gift for Mother's Day, there may still be time to order 100 Roses for only $74.99 from Costco.com! They do recommend ordering 7-10 days in advance but if you want to save money and give your mom a 100 Roses Bouquet on Mother's Day, call 1-888-620-8895 Monday morning between 8-5 Eastern before you order.

If you are doing your own floral arrangements for your big day and you're interested in ordering these roses please give them a call as well, months in advance, to find out if ordering your flowers online is the route you want to take!

100 Red Roses - $74.99



100 White Roses - $74.99


It's a great deal, there is no denying that and if you want to learn how to make a 100 Rose Bouquet, click play now!

Bouquet prices seem to be skyrocketing and not just fresh flowers anymore! With all the beautiful non floral options out there some businesses are making a mint with fabric flowers, buttons and brooch bouquets... most of which start around $100 dollars for a teensy bouquet.

I decided to take it upon myself to try to find a cheaper way to make a beautiful fabric flower bouquet, and had a lot of fun (and a little fail) trying to do it. So, first things first:

What You Need:

- Chiffon or Organza fabric (I used organza, it was $2 a yard at Joanne's Fabric in the clearance section, and I got 3 yards of each blue and purple, and a yard of silver)

- Tulle (I got Tulle by the Roll at Hobby Lobby, which was on sale for about $2 a roll)

- Basic sewing kit- Thread, needle, scissors. ( I had these, but they should be inexpensive, you can even get a small sewing kit at the Dollar Tree)

- Floral wire (About $2 at Hobby Lobby)

-Floral tape (About $2 at Hobby Lobby)

- A couple types of ribbon

- I also found that a pair of beading pliers was useful but if you have any kind of small pliers, you might use them during the sewing and stem making process.



The first thing I can say about this project is that baggies are your FRIEND with this fabric. It's not nice like the cotton fabric and stays folded all the time. It likes to unfold and be a general pain in the...well, you know.

Moving on!

Okay, first we need to prep the material. If you take it out, it should fold nicely in a horizontal fashion (what we in education like to call "hot dog style"). When it is folded like this, you are going to want to cut it into strips that are roughly the size of the flowers you want (or a little bigger, if you are a spaz like me and plan for error... after making it a few times!)



The strip you see here is roughly 3-4 inches across, about and inch smaller than the tulle one gets by the spool.

Next, as the previous picture alludes to, we are going to make squares out of the fabric. If this task seems like it might be tedious, it is but it is nice to get this out of the way and not have to do it between every flower...it goes more quickly than you might think and do the same with the tulle.



I personally got two kinds of tulle, one of which has glitter in it. BE WARNED: glitter gets EVERYWHERE but I feel it's worth it.

Okay, now that we've gotten through that, if you need a break or at any point before this step, I would use the ziplock bags to contain the different stages of your project as you saw in the photo above. I keep the cut up pieces in sandwich bags and the bulkier fabric in gallon bags. I think you could fit it into quart bags as well.



Next, we need to cut it into circles or if you are more adventurous than myself, you can cut it into a flower pattern ( I think the circles look nice for the way I sew them together).

**A note: while the perfectionist in me wants these all to be uniform, I found that when I vary the size of the circles I cut, or make them not quite circles, the flower looks better.



Next, we layer them- I did 4 pieces of Tulle to 4 pieces of Organza. If you want fuller flowers, you can do more.

Start with the organza, on the bottom. We use this later to create the stem. Put an EXTRA piece of organza there, 5 if you are using the 4 method I did. I usually do about 3 or 4 layers of each. (so 4 times 3 layers, of each fabric plus extra bottom layer of organza= 12 pieces of tulle, and 13 pieces of organza per flower for smaller flowers).

When this is done, Grab the stack, and make sure it is not layered perfectly. you want them askew from one another to give the "petals" a better look.  Then, get ready to sew!

You take your pieces, and making sure that organza bottom is not the correct side and pinch it in the middle, basically folding it in half, like this:



Make a couple of stitches back and forth, I make about 3 so that the stitch stays tight. Then, fold it in half again, like so:



Make a few more stitches here. I make them pretty close to the bottom, so the flower can be "opened up" a bit after it is done.

Sweet, you have flower! :D



Now, we need to add a stem. You will need two pieces of floral wire for this. Bend one in half, and put the pointy ends (the unconnected ends, the... well, ends) and take that one extra piece of organza, and wrap it around the wire (twisting if you need to).



In this picture, you can see what we are going to do next. This is where the pliers come in handy, because you really want to pinch that top part before you start twisting its o that you can get some good tension in the wire you are using to secure the stem to the flower. Keep twisting it tightly until you run out of that wire.



You can see in this photo that one of my stem pieces got loose... not a big deal, since we are going to use floral tape to cover it.

Get the floral tape and start at the top, again getting some tension while you twist it around the stem weve made. Keep going and then I just tear it off at the bottom, making sure to squish it between my fingers so that it is sure to stick to itself.



Tada! You know have one complete flower.

BOUQUET SECTION

Now that you've got ones lovely flower, you need to make about 9 to 11 more for a small bouquet. I made a mini bouquet with 8 flowers that I will be using as the toss bouquet (I am using 10 to 12 for bridesmaids though and cannot decide how many I will be using for myself. I was thinking about 20-25).



Okay, so, now that you've got a few flowers I just put mine in a vase as I was working on them) we need to wrap them into a bouquet.

I got 3 types of ribbon, though two would work if you don't want the ribbon "bow" underneath the flowers.



Both the blue ribbons are 1 1/2 inch ribbon, though the dark one is wire edged, which makes it great for the bow effect, since you can shape it under the bouquet. The purple is 1/4 inch ribbon.

I started with the dark blue, making large loops that are verticle, around the base of the flowers of the bouquet. I made the loops large enough that I could use the floral tape to secure thar ribbon before the next step.



Next, take your other large ribbon,wrap it like you did the floral tape, I tucked in the bottom and sewed it like this:



As you can guess from the previous picture, I then took the purple ribbon and crisscorssed it tightly down the stem, tying it at the bottom (on the other side of the above photo. I left some extra ribbon on there after tying, because I thought it looked nice. If you wanted, you could reverse, and start the criss crossing at the botton so that you could tie a bow at the top.

Oh My GOODNESS! We're DONE! Here is a picture of my finished product.





I hope these instructions are easy to follow, please feel free to comment with any questions you might have.

This bouquet of beautiful flowers is only $25.00 and can be locally delivered to you if you live in MD,DC,VA,PA,DE! If you love the flowers and want to arrange it yourself then it's not a problem either because Simply Elegant/Affordable Events will ship them loose flowers to you!

So go here to their new online store to purchase as many arrangements as you need for your wedding and if you'd love to contact them the email address is wultimateaffair@aol.com!

Here's another amazing prize that one lucky bride will win at the October Wed Hunt from our sponsor Jen Clark of Head Full Of Flowers! Jen designs feather fascinators, bird cage veils and bridal head pieces that she then makes by hand so this Pearls and Peacock Hair Fascinator is truly one-of-a-kind. It is made of bleached Peacock Feathers and 3 Fresh Water Pearls sit at the center with a cluster of gold Swarovski Crystals surrounding them. If you are the winner, you can request to have the Hair Fascinator made in a different when you go to claim your prize.



Jen does amazing work, her pieces are so beautiful and if you would like to place a custom order send just her an email at Jen@headfulloffeathers.com and make sure to follow her at all the links below:

Website: http://headfulloffeathers.com
Blog: http://headfulloffeathers.com/blog.html
Twitter: http://twitter.com/headoffeathers
Facebook: http://facebook.com/headfulloffeathers



Oh, don't forget to go and RSVP  for the October Wed Hunt today!

These vases are fantastic even though they are not glass because they will look amazing with any floral arrangement and they're only $1.00. Do a Google search for similar vases and you will find them at least 10 times as much and I doubt guests will notice the difference. That is why I'm not hesitating to buy a few when I see them at the dollar store since I may need a few more for my reception decor. If you don't see them at your dollar store, as usual, you can find them online for $1.00 at DollarTree.com!