My DIY Tissue Paper Flower Wedding Centerpieces

I'm trying to keep my wedding as low budget and DIY friendly as I can. So, when I saw this post over at the Intimate Weddings Blog, I thought I would give tissue paper flowers a go!

Here's the finished product:

I decided to make these early because I plan on doing a lot more DIY projects for the wedding (invitations, ceremony decor, jewelry for all, etc) so this was something that I knew would last until the wedding, so I decided to knock them out this summer!!

Here's how I made them:

First, I collected a whole lotta sticks. This was not that much fun because A: sticks are found in nature, and I don't really like getting nature on me. Too much dirt and bugs. Bleck. B. I sliced my hand open with garden shears in the process of cutting a stick off a dead branch. Not fun. C. I needed 144 sticks. That's a whole lotta sticks.

That was like the 60 sticks I collected on my first attempt. I collected them without counting and for some reason thought it would be enough...silly me!!

Then I cut the sticks down to size, and laid them out to spray paint.

I sprayed them using Krylon Metallic, which worked really well. It dried really fast and was only about $3.30 at Walmart.

Next, I set to work on my flowers. I bought packets of tissue paper from Walmart and Target for $1 each in each of my wedding colors: pink, purple, and silver.

I cut the tissue paper into 5 inch by 10 inch rectangles. Each flower takes four pieces. 

Fold it up accordion style

And then tie it secure around the middle with a piece of wire.

I trimmed the edges into a point,

And then pulled the layers apart on each side 

And kept fluffing until I had a flower!

One down, 143 to go. Yeah this was a very long process. I had my faithful bridesmaid Morgan help me two nights, brought them to gatherings with friends and made six more friends help me create, and watched a whole lot of episodes of Gilmore Girls finishing the rest myself.

After all the flowers were made I attached them to the sticks. I didn't get a picture of this part, but basically all I did was wrap the wire around the top of the stick and them hot glue the stick into the flower. 

I plopped them in vases I got from the Dollar Tree, put some ribbon around the middle, and voila! Pretty flowers.

I made 16 vases, and they are all sitting in a spare bedroom in my house just waiting for the big day....202 days from now :)

Break down on costs:

Vases: $1 each from the dollar tree - $16

Tissue Paper: $1 each from Walmart and Target - $15

Spray Paint: $3.30 each from Walmart - $10

Ribbon: Two spools from Walmart - $5

TOTAL= $46. 

Oh yeah. Under $50 for all my centerpieces.  I think I'll want to put some small candles or something else on the tables as well, but the big part is done, and much cheaper than having floral centerpieces made up!

Now....onto the next wedding project. What to tackle next!!!

I'll be sharing this with all the link parties in my header including Today's Creative Blog and Christina's Adventures