Center Pieces and Favors

Today my kitchen table looked like this:

It was the day to put together the center pieces and the favors. Josh and I decided to make our own so that we could express our own style and save some money. IKEA was a big help as all of the vases and candle holders were purchased from there. All the ribbon, flowers, and candles were purchased at Hobby Lobby and a few other craft stores.

About a month prior Tracy, my MOH, came over and help me cut all of the flowers so that they wouldn't be too long. Unfortunately she was ill and wasn't able to make it today. She really helped cut the day by 3 hours by helping cut the flowers previously.

This was definitely not a one-man-job. We all started by putting the bouquets together and wrapping them with ribbon. I couldn't have done it all without the help of several people!

Joshua was wonderful and made several trips to Hobby Lobby for supplies. We first didn't have enough ribbon. Then we didn't have enough flowers! Twice he ran out without complaint to pick up items for us.

Josh's mom came over and made a run to wal-mart and helped cut flowers, ribbons, and stickers. We started by putting flowers together and binding them with ribbon. We put large stickers at the bottom of the vases, with the backing still on them so that people would be able to pull them out after the wedding.

Initially they were going to go on the outside, but ended up being too big to place on the vase so my mom and sister thought of the idea of putting them in the bottom of the vase that way when people finish the chocolate kisses that they would see our label and realize who in fact gave them the tummy ache from all the dark chocolate!

After much hot gluing of ribbon around flowers and around the vases we filled them with dark chocolate kisses. Above Amy (bridesmaid) is arranging kisses into the vase to properly hold the flowers up.

Michi (wife of Nai, an usher, not to mention fabulous friend) came to the rescue and not only helped hot glue ribbon around flowers and vases, but added purple accents to all of our black wedding accessories.

My mom and my sister came up with the idea of wrapping ribbon around the favors and adding the stickers I had printed up at Zazzle.com.

My mom is wrapping ribbon around the candle holders to make a lovely design.

My sister carefully applied stickers to the front of the favors. And then applied tiny black bows, which I tied, with hot glue.

My sister refused to be photographed further than this picture. She was mortified that I posted the pictures of her in the bridesmaid dress back in June.

When the favors are placed on the tables they will have tea light candles in them. Unfortunately the reception hall won't allow them to be lit, but that's o.k. The still make a nice visual!

The army of center pieces! Each table will have one vase and my mom has a fun idea for how to send them home with people at the end of the party! We were only short 4 vases' worth of flowers and kisses. We also ran out of ribbon again and have 40 more favors to make.

A final picture of what we did today. We started at 1 pm and my mom and sister left around 10:30 pm. Over all it was a great day and we got a lot accomplished!

Next weekend, the first fitting for my wedding gown!