Fun With Paper

When I got engaged I knew I wanted my wedding day to be colorful, special and unique. I also knew I wanted to make everything to save money. I am pretty thrifty when it comes to spending money and I knew I could stretch our budget out. In the beginning I wanted to go as far as make all the food and even our wedding cake, but my family quickly set me straight and said I was but one woman and I could only do so much in one day.

So I picked a handful of things that I knew I wanted to make and focused on that. The first thing I made was our cake topper. Since our theme was Route 66, I knew I wanted to incorporate maps, but I couldn't figure out how. So as many brides before me, I set out to discover awesome ideas on Pinterest. I found one woman on Etsy who made paper cake toppers and I thought to myself, I can do that.

I still don't know how I did it without a tutorial, but it was trial and error and luckily I was able to get a next to perfect product on the second try.  I personalized the bride and groom to represent where we both grew up and spent our childhood. The groom was made out of Big Bear Lake as well as Glendale, Burbank and the greater Los Angeles area and the Bride was constructed of where I grew up; Turlock, Modesto and smaller towns located in the Central Valley here in California.  And I must say that once I finished this big project, I knew I could do anything.

Sources: 
ruffledblog.com/paper-rose-tutorial
&
elli.com/blog/paper-rose-bouquet

Once our cake topper was completed, I practiced making large roses out of maps that I had gotten from AAA…boy did this take a while!! It took almost six months for me and a couple of my bridesmaids and other friends to complete making over seventy five map roses and over  five hundred smaller roses in various shades of green, blue, yellow and white.  My husband and I had twelve friends in our wedding party and I also made corsages for our immediate family and special guests: seventeen in all and six bridesmaid’s bouquets. It was totally worth it though.

These paper flowers turned out so beautiful and vibrant, it was amazing! I even had extra smaller flowers as well as larger map roses to put on our sweetheart cake. My baker even made edible map flowers to put on top of our cupcakes.  It was gorgeous! I think the best thing about making these flower is once you get used to making them, they are quick and easy to do, and they can be used for any holiday or event!!

If you have questions on how I made anything, please let me know! I'd love to help any other crafty couples!

xo
Jacquelin