Wedding Updates + Flower Garlands 🌱

There are so many components to planning and making a wedding! So much has changed already since my original thought process.

We’ve decided we want to do a split wedding. One micro-wedding weekend with family + one house party reception with friends.

This is just what felt the most right for us, and it’s reduced a lot of the pressure to make one day contain everything. And we get to spend some more quality time with folks in smaller groups which we love.

Making Things! ✦

My mom came to town this week to help start with the DIY production + more ideation. The main things we’ve done are: a cards basket, a flower girl basket, half a sign for cocktail hour, and turned hundreds of little ribbons into leaves for our flower garlands!

Other things on our DIY list include:

• Invitations
• Centerpieces
• Welcome Mirror
• Guest book
• Arch decor
• Tons of signage

Finding a Floral Solution ✦

The ceremony is hopefully going to be outdoors (if it’s not too hot). We can’t poke anything into the ground since we’re getting married on historical grounds. Plus, fresh florals are outside the scope of what we’ve budgeted for the ceremony. So my solution is an alternative approach— draped flower garlands for the aisle.

There’s this lovely, talented artist who teaches in-depth tutorials on ribbon lei-making. She goes by Momslittlethings on Youtube. Her ability to use simple materials (almost exclusively ribbons) to create these handcrafted celebratory objects is so inspiring. [See: March Favorites 🫘]

I’ve decided not to go the full ribbon flower route because I know that will be way too laborious given our timeframe. But I am incorporating her version of ribbon leaves. Plus, dried straw flowers.

We figured out the math and laid out a list of objectives for the week my mom was here. We were a little ribbon leaf factory all week and managed to make hundreds of these little guys for our garlands.

I made a few test garlands and sent the rest off with my mom to create while I move on to work with other wedding tasks.

It was a bunch of work, but the kind that feels purposeful and special. There’s something that happens when I decide to take on a large project like this and pour my soul into it, beyond a flow state.

Craft as an Operating System ✦

Spending hours working with my hands towards the goal of creating beautiful things for a beautiful purpose allows me to work + incubate at the same time.

The repetitive nature gives me the opportunity to process emotions, build anticipation, problem-solve other aspects of the wedding, and reflect on what’s important to me during this time. This type of quality time with my brain is really valuable to me & part of why I enjoy taking on slower, larger craft projects in general.

Like my brain is organizing and regulating in the background. And it’s a really gratifying feeling.

Preparation as a Ritual ✦

The process of preparing the ribbon leaves and stringing everything together has felt like a necessary pre-wedding ritual. Like sourcing the centerpiece items, choosing the menu, and designing the wedding dress. It’s all a literal labor of love. Micro-acts of devotion. To work with what we have, to make it as personalized as we can, to gather and celebrate around all these little things. It’s part of what makes life feel so special!

I’m so excited to see these draped down the aisle this July, and later used for future fun.

Follow along our wedding journey: Junk Journaling Our Engagement Chapter 🫘 | Taking the Initial Leap into Wedding Planning 🫘 | Linocut Love Bird Envelopes 🌱

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