Category: DIY Wedding Blog

What You’ll Need:

Paper Doilies (4" – 5")
Embroidery floss   (you can also use plain, old string, bakers twine or waxed string)
Decorative paper
Gold foil seals ( 1/2" diameter)

Pencil
Heart shaped craft punch
Tiny whole punch
Scissors

Resources:  Doilies, floss, and paper are available at most craft stores.  Gold seals can be found at office supply stores.

Instructions:

For this garland, you’ll be creating three separate strands.    When
it’s time to hang them, they’ll be joined together to create the
garland.

Gold Seal Strand:

1.Cut a piece of embroidery floss to the desired length and tie a knot at each end.

2.  Start at one end of the floss, and stick two of the foil seals back
to back with the floss running between.   Repeat every three or four
inches until you reach the end.    (see figure 1)

Heart Strand:

1.  Take a sheet of decorative paper and punch out your  hearts using
your craft punch.  (for a 6 ft garland, I punched out 25 – 30 hearts). 
Punch a hole using a tiny paper punch in the top right or left side of
each heart. (see figure 2)

2. Cut a piece of embroidery floss to the desired length and tie a knot on one end.

3.  Take one of your paper hearts and thread the floss through the
punched hole.  Slide the heart to the knot at the end.  (see figure 3)

4.  Tie another knot three inches down the line, slide another heart
down the floss until you reach  the knot.  Repeat the knots and hearts
until you reach the end of the floss  and knot once more.

Doily Flower Strand:

1.  Put your pencil erasure  in the center of one of your paper
doilies.  Fold the doily towards the pencil point.  (see figure 4)

2.  Remove the doily from the end of the pencil, keeping it pinched
between your fingers.   Fold the petals outward. (see figure 5)

3.  Repeat steps one and two and create enough flowers for your garland.  (I made 12 flowers for a six foot garland).

5.  Cut a piece of embroidery floss to the desired length and tie a knot on each end.

6.  About 4 inches from one end of your floss, tie a loose knot, leaving an opening about 1/2′ wide.   (see figure 6)

7.  Slip the open knot over the point of one of your flowers, then pull
the knot tightly closed.   Tie a second knot to secure the flower.
 (see figure 7)

8.   Continue down the floss, attaching a flower every five inches until you reach the end.

Joining the Strands:

The strands can easily get tangled, so it’s best to  wait to
join them until you’re ready to hang them.  I suggest until then, keep
them wrapped  around a paper towel tube or cardboard scrap.

To join them, just gather one (or two) of each strand and knot this grouping at both ends.

You can use these garlands to trim a table, mantle, window, or any architectural element.

What it cost:

Embroidery floss: $.33 (which was enough to make 3 strands)
Paper $.79 – $1.79 per sheet
Doilies $2.39 (for a pack of 50)
Gold Seals $1.99 for 100

Thanks so much, Laurie, for another great project!

Even though I can’t cook to save my life, Cannelle et Vanille is still one of my favorite weekly reads. I always look forward to her beautiful posts popping up in my reader. Not only do her recipes look absolutely delicious, but she is an amazing food stylist and photographer. These vanilla bean macaroons filled with strawberry pate de frui caught my eye this morning as a wonderful treat to pass out to your wedding guests…

The lovely Jessica Johnston recently sent in the beautiful wedding of Kenan & Ro and I am so excited to share it with everyone here today. Kenan and Ro are both artists based in Brookyln, but were married at the Max M Fisher Orchestra Hall in Detroit. Jessica did such an amazing job capturing the love between Renan and Ko. The couples photos below are some of my favorite in recent memory and Renan’s Melissa Sweet dress is absolutely stunning. Thanks, Jessica!

[Images c/o Jessica Johnston]

Lynn sent me images from her recent wedding and I had to share this
idea with everyone because I thought it was a brilliant and a great way to keeps guest entertained until the bride and groom arrive for the recpetion or before the ceremony. Here is more from Lynn…

I got the idea from Wonderful Graffiti.
 I wanted to create something fun for the guest to do while the setup
for the reception.  We had our wedding and reception at the same
location. I thought a word search of words that are special to my husband
and I would be neat and also a great way for us to tell some funny stories. :)
I was on a tight budget so I created one myself.  Fortunately Robin
Macy who owns the Bartlett Arboretum (that’s where I got married) is
a geometry teacher and loves chalk boards.  She had lots of them to
choose from.  I used Armored Penguin to create the word search for the chalkboard. I used liquid chalk, stencils, and a little sponge to sponge the on
the letters and the design on the top.  It was a little time consuming
but fun and well worth it.

Oh, and how sweet are Lynn and her husband? If you are interested in her Monique Lhuillier Scarlet, she listed it on the site last week for a great price…

[Image c/o Carl Zoch]

Jen Curtis emailed me a couple weeks back offering an AMAZING giveaway to Once Wed readers and I am so excited the day has finally come to announce it on the site. I really don’t think I could say enough nice things about Jen and how talented she is behind the camera. Jen shoots 100% film and not to say digital images aren’t absolutely beautiful, but there is just something about film that makes my heart happy. I could really go on and on about how wonderful its been getting to know Jen, but you are probably wondering at this point what this amazing giveaway is. Jen has generously offered to give away a photography package for FREE to one lucky Once Wed reader. Here is what her amazing package will include at no cost to you…