Florist: Booked!

When we started planning for our wedding, one of our least priorities was our wedding flowers. While others were looking for florists that could arrange the most beautiful bouquets, I would research on those who would offer the cheapest packages. I just don’t find it practical to spend thousands of pesos for flowers that would wilt in a few days, sometimes even in a few hours. 

Deep down, I guess I didn’t want to use real flowers for our wedding. I wanted something nontraditional, something that I could keep as a souvenir of our wedding. In short, I wanted a non-floral bouquet, more specifically one that is made of felt flowers. 

At first, I was so confident in my so-called DIY skills (feelingera lang ang peg) that I decided to make my own bridal felt bouquet. After all, with all the tutorials available in the Internet, how hard could it be diba? I even planned to make all our entourage’s bouquets. I thought they could be cute souvenirs for our entourage as well. Ganun ako kabilib sa sarili ko. Haha! But after a few failed trials (and burns from the glue gun), I gave up because I thought my creations were atrocious. Plus, with all the felt cloth that I kept on buying because of my numerous reworks, I could end up spending more money than what is necessary.

So, I went back to the original plan of sourcing the cheapest vendors of fresh flowers. I inquired with some of the popular florists like Amante Fleurs, but their cheapest package was still too expensive for us. I already thought of going to Dangwa to book any florist there who would fit our budget. Ganun na ako kadesperada. Haha.

Then sis Czy of GirlTalk sent me a private message advertising her new business, Do It Myself by Xheng. She is also a bride, but she makes felt and brooch bouquets as her sideline. I have seen her works before, but I didn't take note of them because, as I said earlier, I thought I could DIY my own bouquet.

But now, I'm so happy to have found her again. I really love her creations! They are so colorful and so cute! The flowers look so real; you can't even tell that they are made from felt from afar. Her rates are very affordable too. She even gave me a discount just so that her package would fit our budget. Ang bait niya sobra! And so after exchanging a few FB messages with her to customize my package, I deposited our downpayment and signed the contract. Yey! I finally found my non-floral "florist"! Haha. Ang labo.

Here are some of her wonderful felt creations, as shown in her Facebook page! The last two bouquets are my favorites. :)

Aren't they lovely? :) I'm so excited to see how she would do my bridal bouquet and my entourage's flowers. :)

Do It Myself by Xheng
0947-1800757 / 0905-8877099

DIY: Felt Pomanders

Finally, after more than a week of cutting, rolling and gluing felt flowers into a 7" styro ball, I finally finished one pomander ball for my maid of honor. Believe me, this really is a labor of love because I sustained a lot of burns while doing this project, including a serious one when I dropped a felt flower filled with hot glue on my inner thigh. Major OUCH Moment!

Anyway, for starters, here are the materials that I used:

• Styro Ball (I used the 7" kind)
• Felt Cloth (1 yard of orange felt and 1 yard of yellow felt)
• Scissors
• Glue Gun (and lots and lots of glue sticks!)

First, I cut both felt cloths into strips that are about a 12" long and 2" wide.

Then I folded each strip into half and glued them together.

Then I cut little slits into the folder part of the felt. You can be creative with how you cut your felt as this will give you variations to your flower. For example, you can do a straight cut but with narrower slits to make it look fluffier, or you can even do diagonal cuts. I did wide, straight slits because I was too lazy to cut tiny slits on the felt. Plus, my hand hurt too much because of all that cutting. Haha.

I rolled the felt cloth up while securing it with glue along the way. I then fluffed it in place so that it would resemble a mum.

Afterwards, I glued the felt flowers in a straight line around the styro ball.

I then glued more felt flowers on the opposite direction, creating four equal sections on the ball.

I filled up the sections with the remaining felt flowers, glued a white satin ribbon on the top and VIOLA! I now have an orange and yellow felt pomander.

A word of warning though: be cautious when choosing the size of your styro ball. Adding flowers to the ball makes it larger than it really is, so I think a 4" to 5" ball would be enough for handheld pomanders. I didn't know this at first, so I bought the largest styro ball in National, which is the 7". My pomander soon became the size of a volleyball. Oh well, it looked okay naman so I guess I'd stick to this size. Besides, I already bought four of these balls so I have no choice but to use them all. Haha.

DIY Sneak Peek: Felt Mums

Hello friends, I'm sorry for not writing for about a week now. I was able to buy some materials for my DIY flowers, so right now, I've been busy unleashing what little creativity that I have to put all these DIY creations together. First on my list: pomander balls for my bridesmaids/secondary sponsors and maid of honor.

Here is a sneak peek of the felt mums that I will use for the balls. :) It took me hours, and a few burnt and sore fingers, just to create that bunch.

Anyway, I'll post the finished product once I'm done. Wish me luck on this project! :)

My First DIY Attempt

I am not an artsy person. I couldn't draw to save a life and I couldn't make some crafts out of recycled materials. But I still plan to do some DIYs for our wedding to save a few thousand bucks on our wedding expenses. Ambisyosang frog diba? Haha! I  already made a list for our DIYs, which includes my entourage's flowers and even the reception decor. Hay, good luck na lang sa akin. I've been researching nonstop for tutorials, but I'm still not confident that I could pull off my DIY dreams for our wedding. I definitely need all the help I could get, so as early as now, I am already practicing on my DIY skills.

For starters, I  tried to make a simple fabric flower, which will be used for the entourage's bouquets. Since this is my first attempt, I used an old piece of curtain for the flower, but I will use felt fabric for the real bouquets.

After a few burns from the glue gun, I finally finished my fabric flower:

Don't mind the band-aid. :P

There are different ways on how to make a fabric flower, but this is probably the easiest way to do it. I'll post some tutorials once I begin making my entourage's bouquets for real. Practice run lang ito. Hehe.

I thought of attaching the flower to a headband, which could be used as an accessory for the flower girl. I got my old headband and covered it with a strip of cloth so it would be the same color as the flower. The edges were a bit frayed because I used crappy scissors, but at least it added character to the headband. Hehe.

 
Here's my cousin, who will be my flower girl for the wedding, wearing my DIY headband.

I think my first DIY attempt is a success, but I still need to practice more, especially since I plan to make more complicated accessories (but that is a secret for now). Oh well, at least I still have two years to improve on my skills. Malay mo pagkatapos nito, magiging DIY queen na ako. Haha! Asa.