Burlap Bird's Nests.

When I saw these burlap bird's nests at The Country Chic Cottage I had to attempt them myself.  First attempt, was terrible - as I didn't use disposable bowls, rather my own cereal bowls!  Needless-to-say that left me with quite a mess.  This weekend, however, after a bit of advice from Angie at The Country Chic Cottage, I came out with ten awesome candy dishes for my guests' dinner tables!  (In the pic is a nest of reese's peanut butter cups - but we'll be using jelly beans and foil covered chocolate eggs that look like bird's eggs.)

Budget Bird's Nests.

In my never ending quest to reduce the budget of our wedding I'm constantly searching DIY blogs and sites to find ways to create looks that I love for less.

Most recently, I've been enamored with bird's nests. I'm not totally sure where it came from. It could be because we have a cute pair of birds on our STDs and RSVPs or it could be because birds live in trees and we have a heavy tree theme going on or it could be because of the freedom a bird implies and I've always been a wandering soul. Whatever the reason, I'd like to have bird's nests as part of our centerpiece decor with little, pretty eggs in them. To do this would cost about $40, not a ton of money, but money none-the-less. I'm not so excited about spending money on "stuff" that I am going to either throw out or try to sell to other brides after the wedding. Enter the DIY.

I found a cute little project this week for DIY bird's nests made out of burlap. Well, we're already going to have a ton of burlap to make our table runners and other miscellany from. It would be completely practical to use the scraps to make bird's nests for our table too! But then there are the eggs. I still didn't want to buy fake eggs that were just going to get tossed so I shared this with the brides on a wedding forum and they suggested I check out the post-Easter sales. Well, duh! Why didn't I think of that? I could buy Easter colored jelly beans, put them in my scrap, burlap bird's nests and they would be tasty little treats and not be wasted!

So, I did just that. I bought some chocolate eggs that are wrapped in tinfoil that looks like robin's eggs and some pastel colored jelly beans today for a grand total of $9! I'm halfway to some fantastic bird's nests for our tables. Here are some photos of the DIY bird's nest project. I think when I make mine, I will use a different shaped mold so they're a little deeper than hers.

A girl's got a right to change her mind...

...many, many times about her centerpieces, right? Well, my goodness! I think I have finally decided on what I want, for sure - for sure, this time. As much as I think the paper flowers on the branch is a totally cute centerpiece, I think the paper flowers sort of make me cringe, too. But, I am very certain (for the last time, let's hope) that what I'd like to do now is wildflowers. Nothing fancy, just a small bunch of wildflowers (hopefully from my Mom's garden, if not from nearby pastures), tied with twine, and placed in the quart and pint canning jars, that we already have at my folk's home (thanks again ladies for getting those for us!). And around this wildflower display would be a couple/few jelly jars with lavender votives and some stones haphazardly placed along the table. Keep in mind the tables are rectangular, so I'm think 2 or 3 of these displays on each table. Simple and budget friendly! Here are some photos that totally inspire me on this wavelength:

Candles.

I opened the lavender votives today (the ones I bought awhile ago online) to see how they looked in a quilted jelly jar. I love it! I've been burning it for about 3 hours now, and it's still going strong, so I'm sure they'll be perfect for the wedding. They're also not just lavender color, but smell of lavender too! I plan on having jars that look like this (with the little twine bow) spread down the tables with the centerpiece.

DIY Weekend!

Dave and I had a super weekend! Saturday we worked on some DIY projects - I made some twine orb prototypes for the wedding and he made some t-shirts for our etsy store. Sunday we went to the horse track for the first time, met an older couple that could totally be us in 20 years, learned a bit about racing and got some sun! It was a wonderful weekend, indeed!

Here are a couple of photos of the twine orbs. I am thinking about using them to hang on the porch at the town hall or on the gazebo. I had thought about hanging them from the ceiling in the town hall, but it has such a lovely ceiling, that I'd really hate to detract from it with some half-assed DIY project. Maybe, though, they'd also look nice hanging in the windows of the town hall. Anyway, here are the ones I made Saturday.









Some things I learned during the project are:

♥I will need to use more glue in the glue/water mix for dipping the twine.
♥I will need to wrap more twine around the balloons, as the one that I had wrapped the most twine on, looks the best.


I think I might also like to get some tiny balloons (water balloon size?) and make some little ones. I think those might look cute on the tables, too. Long story short, they were easy to make, fun to make, quick to make, and very inexpensive. I definitely think they're something we will incorporate into the wedding.

Centerpieces.

Pretty much throughout this entire planning process I had envisioned our centerpieces to be bouquets of dried lavender with sprigs of brown twiggy things in clear glass vases tied in twine. Now I'm having second thoughts.

First, I think I should stick with the more rustic theme I have going. Instead of vases I should use the quart canning jars that I already have. The height of the lavender I was considering is only 11"-13" tall, so they would look fine in the canning jars.

But, browsing the interwebs this morning, looking for origami/asian themed centerpieces for another bride, I stumbled upon this one:




I adore this! I can envision it with purple and white flowers, and the tiny little pom pom buds in chartreuse! I've been wanting to add a bit of chartreuse, anyway, as I think it's a great little accent color to the lavender and brown combo, but never really saw any place to stick it. I think I would also use river stones in the bottom, instead of moss.

So what do you think of these?? I think they would be easy enough to make. I think it would definitely be pretty and simple, which I like. And perhaps, low budget enough that there could be two on each table (rectangle tables) with the other varying sized mason jars spread between with lavender votives and stones??

Centerpieces & Table Decor.

I couldn't sleep this morning. I was up at 430am! So I sat in the dark living room, with a kitty by my side, looking at craft websites for inspiration. I stumbled upon the most amazing website - ever!

www.save-on-crafts.com

This website has just about everything I think i will need for inspiration and supplies for a beautiful, rustic, crafty table decor.

Here are some ideas that I am enamoured with:

♥punched-tin cans and mason jars with lavender votives (I just bought 112 votives online for 25 cents a piece, with shipping!)
♥tallish, cylindrical vases or milk jugs (all from thrift stores?) as the "center" filled with this branch with bird's nest (see below), lavender sprigs, and some other twiggy things (also see below)
♥lavender buds in the bottoms of the vases and mason jars (maybe some sprinkled on the tables, too?)
♥river stones scattered about (that i plan on snagging from/returning to the Fowler River, near my parents' home)
♥burlap table runner screenprinted with some variation of the block letters photo that Dave and I took in the redwoods (runners sewn by me, screenprinting by dave) I think the ink should be dark lavender, to keep tying the purple in.

Entrance & Table Center Pieces.

I like the monogram entrance idea... I think if we made a big "S" from some salvaged wood and made it look weathered and hung it with a big ribbon on the door into the grange that would be really awesome.








On the tables I'd like a narrow burlap runner (if the tables are wood, which I think they are) (or maybe a brown paper runner, as seen in the last photo) with candles in mason jars and the same punched tin cans from the wedding aisle. Also some jars or plain glass vases with cotton branches and other twigs. (Maybe flowers if that is in the budget, but I don't think they will be.) We would screen print an image of our names on the burlap that is made from blocks and we would make it look worn, old and/or shabby chic!