DIY** Brides - Come see!

I've decided to make A LOT of stuff for the wedding, partially to save money and partially to make stuff that's exactly what I want.  Because you see...While it's possible to get the "perfect wedding" with no more effort than dialing some numbers on your phone, you will have to pay out the ass for such a luxury.  Sure, lots of companies customize stuff to your tastes, but a non-mass produced item will take more time and supplies (no fault of the craftsmen and women, I'm sure they do great work it's just..) Well, my time isn't worth that much, so being a DIY bride is a great answer. Plus, I can choose how I get my supplies and I can do so at the very lowest cost possible.

(**For those  who are not blog-a-holics like me, DIY means "Do It Yourself")

The finished headpieces. Unfortunately, the purple doesn't show up so well
on the black background.  The flower girl headband is there too.

Over the weekend Mom and I started on our Mega Wedding Crafts.  (It's "mega" because we need 9 BrMs' headpieces, 9 BrMs' necklaces, 9 BrMs' sashes, my veil, ring pillow, flower basket, head thing for the flower girl, decorations, signs, maps, invites.....and the list goes on).  However, if we can have a few weekends like this last one, we will get it all done in no time!

The first thing we worked on were the BrM's headpieces.  It probably cost around $20 for all the materials and we didn't even use up everything.  I did burn myself a couple of times with hot glue melted at the "nuclear" setting, but as they say:  "No pain, no wedding." Do people say that? Well, if they don't, they should!

The Burn. I had a worse on on the corner tip of my right index finger
that hurt a lot more but didn't photograph well.

What you'll need per headpiece:

1 Barette
Colored feathers
Small "Silk" Leaves & Roses
Any Color Felt
Hot Glue Gun




1). Cut an oval out of the felt that roughly matches your barette.  I used the shape of a Goody "ouchless" barette from the super market ( $3.99 for 2).  However, for most of the others I ended up using another kind  that was more rectangular, b/c they were cheaper and worked just as well.

2. Glue gun all over the felt (sounds dirty ,doesn't it?) and place the feathers in a circle trying to cover the whole felt.  Don't worry if you can't get it all b/c the rest of the stuff you add will ensure the felt is covered.  Do this with all colors desired, adding glue as needed (but careful!  It gets hot! Remember my pain).  Make sure to have the "curve" of the feather all pointing the same way otherwise it doesn't seem to lie flat.

My mom got the feathers from a fly-fishing store for ~$3/pkg (x3 colors for me: purple, green, gray), but you can get them at a craft store as well.

3). For leaves and flowers, you can find them at your local Craft Store (wedding section) for $4-$10/pkg  which gives you a lot. Also, look for coupons because I know places like Michael's and JoAnn fabrics have them frequently.  Use a wire cutter to cut the stems off the leaves and flowers. Sometimes they're sold in bunches with paper holding the stems together, so you have to rip them apart first.  I glued two different colors of leaves together for added depth, but 1 color is good too.  Add leaves in a triangle in the center of your feather circle.

4). At this point I kind of cheated because Mom knows how to tie flies so she took some pheasant feather strings and tied them together with the other feathers to give it an added layer of color and texture.  However, you could probably add more small feathers for the same effect.

5). Glue roses in the center of the leaves.  Make sure to use some glue to stick the flowers to each other for stability.

6). Wait for them to be pretty dry then glue onto the barrette. Once they are all the way dry, bend the leaves up a bit for a more 3D look that makes your flowers look not so "out there".

The finished green one

These can be worn off to the side or in the back, I may let the girls decide. I'm probably also going to put a little bit of colored birdcage netting on a hair comb to turn it into a '50s-style "hat", though I don't really know how that will work yet.