Les fleurs de papier

Despite having read that red is the most popular wedding color, it's never been a favorite color of mine and just seemed too predictable or traditional for our wedding. Same with all white flowers--pretty in real life but in pictures I think they blend into the wedding gown. So I knew very soon after we got engaged that I wanted yellow flowers for my bouquet and some type of blue dress for the bridesmaids (oh, who am I kidding? I totally have known this for years ^_^).

However, there was a small hitch in considering the flowers. One of my bridesmaids, M, is very allergic to flowers. She does pretty well in the outdoors but holding flowers near her face? Not so much. In her own wedding she went for all silk flowers to prevent having red streaming eyes all night. I knew I would feel horrible asking her to suffer through our wedding, so I started investigating alternatives.

Enter the wonders of the internet.

1. Shutterlove Modern Photography 2. Dozi Design 3. Martha Stewart 4. Martha Stewart 5. Brides 6. Craftster

ALL of these flowers were made from crepe paper, tissue paper, vellum, construction paper or coffee filters. Some, like the coffee filter roses, look insanely life-like. Others, like the white vellum flowers or the spiral roses, are unique and architectural. Naturally, I was entranced by the idea of making all of our flowers. Unique? Hypoallergenic? Cheaper than real flowers? Check, check, and check again.

These flowers are well suited for a budget bride with a lot of time on her hands (or at least a nice long engagement). Aka, me.

I didn't take pictures of the process of each flower, but here are some images of some of the flowers I made. I bought crepe paper in flat sheets for $0.99 at Hobby Lobby in the party section. If you can't find the colors you want in stores, this website has pretty comparable prices, but you have to pay shipping, too. I bought some in yellow, white and green and was very pleased with the turnaround time and selection of colors.

Why yes, I did get dressed up to take a picture of my paper flowers. Ignore my damp hair, plz. ^_^ I've actually made more flowers since taking this picture and increased the size of the bouquet as it seemed a little chintzy this small.

I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly you can make these flowers once you get the hang of it. Instead of buying the Martha Stewart kits (which they didn't sell in yellow. Pfft.) I looked at the online templates and cut out my own petal guides from a cardstock brochure I got in the mail. Does that count as up-cycling? The first flower has your average petal-shaped petals, the rose petals are heart shaped and the peony petals...sort of look like a flipper. I really have no better description than that. The sweet peas and carnations (which I forgot to take pics of) are folded and smushed round pieces of tissue paper. I attached the petals to the floral wire with floral tape and once I had a bunch of flowers I grouped them together in my hand, starting with one big rose then building around it in a circle, to create the bouquet.

Thoughts?