DIY Floral Birdhouse Wedding Centerpieces for our Love Bird Theme

Cut flowers are actually pretty bad for the environment. Which seems weird considering they're such a natural thing. Of course there's a couple ways to minimize your impact, i.e. buying local, buying in season but I just wanted to avoid them altogether. Another reason for doing so was since we were doing everything ourselves, it was just another thing to transport and take care of. Keeping them well hydrated in the heat of August (08-18-18) was going to be a bother. So while I love flowers, I was okay with not using any in our wedding.

I opted for sola wood flowers from fellow Etsy shop ZONsGarden, SolaWoodFlowers.com, and Save-on-Crafts.com. Accompanied with faux greenery from Joann.com (mixed fern garlands to be exact) and feathers I got on Ebay. The birdhouses were half from Joann and half from Michaels, 20 needed total but I got a couple extras just in case.  I picked houses with heart cut outs because they were the obvious choice for such occasion lol. The first flowers I ordered were these roses from Save on Crafts. I expected them to be brown but they turned out to be this burgundy red. So I painted them a coppery color to match our color scheme.

My husband helped paint the birdhouses but we quickly realized it was much more effective to hand paint them instead (to get all nooks and crannies of the houses) so I went over them with FolkArt acrylic paint.

I set the houses atop various candle holders I found a thrift store a couple years back for my parents silver wedding and added on to those with others I collected later on. They're mostly metal but a couple were plastic and even ceramic. They were all painted with primer then Rust-Oleum white textured paint.

Well the bird houses were hot glued onto thin wood slices I got from Amazon, then atop the candle holders. They needed to have some sort of base to hold both the birdhouse and flowers. My mom and I sorted out all the flowers evenly as possible, making a small arrangement with all the components for each centerpiece. We used floral wire and tape to give each flower a stem. Each piece was similar to each other but none were exactly the same.

I really liked how they turned out. It would've been nice to have added even more flowers but I had to stay within a budget. They looked good nonetheless, not too busy I think. We also did a small nest with sola wood flowers and a tea light candle. I made table numbers with cardstock and number stickers. They were held by these small bird place card holders from Oriental Trading. For each chair there was a mini nest with Jordan almond "eggs" as a favor. In the end, I think they looked unique and complemented our overall theme quite well. A cute idea for the love bird themed wedding that isn't crazy about bird cages lol.

❤

DIY Guest Book Wedding Quilt

A wedding quilt "guest book" was the perfect idea for this bride who sews. At first, I considered having guests sign big wooden letters of our initials but I grew fond of this quilt idea. I sew but I am not really a quilter. I had never made a quilt before until now.

We had family help us set up and decorate. I actually intended for the floral table runner to go vertically on the table, not across but it seems someone didn't follow my exact instructions lol. I made the runner with two yards of Timeless Treasures Metallic Sakura Chrysanthemums & Peonies Navy Cotton Fabric and finished the edge with Save the Date 2.5'' Satin Navy Ribbon from Joann.com

The instructions were in both English and Spanish and I tried my best to make it easy to understand. I found this pretty picture frame at a thrift store a couple years ago and used it in my parents anniversary wedding party. I had spray painted it silver for that so I painted it copper for mine.

I used this wooden photo display I bought off Amazon to hang the signed fabric squares. It worked really well, all I had to do was add a supporting beam across the bottom to make it stand up on its own. It was, of course, a hot day in August so we had wooden fans available for guests to take with them as well.

In retrospect, didn't need this many clothespins but yeah lol. I also bought mini clipboards to help support the fabric and writing. They worked out really well.

• #1 Winged - Aves Chatter Shine by Bonnie Christine from Art Gallery Fabrics
• #2 Keepsake Calico Christmas Cotton Fabric - Love Birds In Hearts
• #3-6 Out of Stock but purchased at Joann.com
• #7 A Marsala Moment - Flower Burst Metallic Copper from Camelot Cottons

These are some of the cotton fabrics I chose for the quilt. Chose them in colors I thought would match our color scheme. Coppery/rose gold cotton fabrics are tricky to find. I was also able to use leftover fabric from the groomsmen bow ties I made. The colors of the bow tie fabric (Timeless Treasures Revive Charleston Asian Cherry Blossom on Navy Blue 100% cotton) were a lot closer to those I was using in the wedding but not as close as the table runner fabric but I found that one after I had already made the bowties.

These are the tips I followed on Making a Guest Book Quilt by the Strategic Homemaker.

I laid out my squares to get a pattern going. I did however end up changing it a little bit in the end.

I was so tempted to do a heart shape but decided against. Too cliché haha.

It's so important to press open all the seams. It really does help a quilt or anything lay flat.

I used this burgundy and hot pink fleece as my batting because I had these remnants on hand and I had read that it would work just as well and it did. I sewed it to the front side with the signatures so the back is a bit loose. 

It’s supposed to be a standard throw size so it’s not very big but that’s okay. There’s a couple blank squares I want to fill in with quotes or something, not sure yet. 

I’m regretting the backside (and my fabric choices) a bit. I hastily put it together with remaining pieces of cotton and I wanted to incorporate the banner I had custom ordered. I really wish I would’ve just cut off the white part under the blue, of the banner...I didn’t need to keep the whole thing. I want to be done with it though. It was annoying to sew such a big piece. I might go back and fix it later on if it bothers me too much. 

The things the Strategic Homemaker mentions in her post (I linked above) are totally true. It doesn't really matter how clear you think you made the instructions, they will be overlooked. Yes some people will sign wrong sides of fabric and you will probably overestimate how many squares you need and think people will sign. In this case it's better to have more than less though so that's okay. My husband and I are both so thankful for everyone’s sweet messages and it’s definitely such a lovely keepsake for us. If you're looking for a different wedding guest book idea, and you can sew or know someone who can for you, do this, it's worth the effort.

❤

Upcycled Candle Lid Wedding Cake Topper Base

Since our wedding had kind of a bird theme going on, bird cake toppers were an obvious choice. I bought these (in white) from Etsy seller, Angel Heart Designs. They came very nicely packaged, it was like a little present. Always appreciate pretty packaging.

My mom actually had this candle that came with a hammered copper lid. Found here on Ebay..I can't find it on the Bath and Body Works site. Anyway the size was perfect. All I needed to do was make holes for the wired leaf arch and voilà.

For the arch, I bought these vintage millinery leaves from Etsy seller, Paper Tales. I couldn't find any already copper so I just spray painted these to match.

I know I could've used a wooden base for the bird platform but it definitely wouldn't have looked as coppery and rose-golden. 

This photo was taken before the cake arrived. It has the base I wanted to use for the cake. I think it's a plant stand, I found it at Ross and spray painted it white. My sister in law, who made the cake, ended up deciding it wouldn't hold up the weight so it wasn't used how I wanted, sadly.