I've loved peacock feathers for a couple of years now but I have to admit that part of the reason I chose to include them in my wedding was because I knew they would be a great place to save money. By using feathers in lieu of flowers we were able to cut out a substantial amount of money. I used peacock feathers to make my bridesmaid bouquets and my groom's and groomsmen's boutonnieres. To make the bouquets I started with a peacock feather pad purchased from Hobby Lobby for about $2.50 each. Then I hot glued longer feathers to the back of the pad. I then hot glued the feather topper to a wooden pencil I had wrapped in brown satin ribbon. I glued a few amber colored rhinestones onto the feathers in the center of the bouquet and tied the base with an aqua ribbon and hot glued an antique-looking gold charm (purchased from JoAnn's). The bouquets cost less than $10 each!
For the boutonnieres I took single peacock feathers ($1.49 for a 2 pack at Hobby Lobby) and wrapped them with the same brown satin ribbon I used on the bouquets. They were super easy to make and cost less than $2.00 each.
In another attempt to save money, I made the pew bows. Hobby Lobby has some amazing brown lace ribbon that is about 5 or 6 inches wide. I used this as the base of my bows. Then I used some sparkly green tulle (also from Hobby Lobby) for the middle bow and made a little bow for the center out of turquoise ribbon that I bought after Christmas at Wal-Mart for $.70 a roll. I slid a peacock feather into the center of the bow and voila. A good girlfriend of mine came over and helped me make them one Sunday afternoon and we had a lot of fun making them (although we were covered in glitter from the sparkly tulle by the end of the day)!
To decorate the outside of the church I made some tissue paper poms in different shades of blues and greens. I used the tutorial from Mather Stewart. They were a breeze to make and cost only a few dollars a piece. I loved they way they added a little color to the front of the church.
I also used fresh flowers in my bouquet. I love flowers so much and since I couldn't afford to have an abundance of them in the wedding it was very important to me to have a bouquet with flowers that I loved. My aunt and I went to Tipton Hurst the day before the wedding and found white snap dragons, blue hydrangeas, and some tinted blue Queen Anne's Lace. I also included a few of the white roses that I had purchased from Kroger. We spent a total of $35 on the flowers. My aunt arranged the flowers for my bouquet and I think she did such an amazing job on it!
The last DIY project I'm going to share in this post is the bird cage I used on the Guest Book Table for guests to put cards in. I had seen a few weddings where they did something similar and I thought it was such a great idea. I found the perfect bird cage at Hobby Lobby with slots large enough for any card to fit through. I used some amazing green ribbon I had found on clearance after Christmas and tied it around the top of the cage. I printed a sign that read "Cards" on my scrapbook paper that I had in my stash of pretty paper that I've bought and had no use for. Finally, I topped the cage with a peacock that my aunt had gotten me. It turned out exactly how I had envisioned and I was so proud of it!
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