Another Wedding Keepsake

Wedding Bouquet Ornaments

You've been asked to stand by your friend's side on her special day, what greater honor?  You've been there for the ceremony and vows, and you've partied at the reception.  You've had the time of your life.  The next day, what do you have to remember the special occasion (besides the pictures and memories)?  Perhaps a hangover, a wrinkled dress, a disheveled hair style, and your beautiful flowers.  The bouquet will not look great forever, so why not try to preserve it... somewhat... and use the use some parts to make an ornament?!  Both of my daughters were in their friend's wedding and I decided to try and save their bouquets.

First I hung the bouquets upside down to dry them out as much as possible.  Then I took it apart and added some of the elements, petals and buds to a glass Christmas ornament.  For the roses, I removed several of the outer petals until I was able to *squish* the remaining rose into the opening of the ornament.

As I did in the Wedding Invitation Ornament, I included the beads on the filament to add interest and another dimension to the ornament.  Again, I used the eraser end of a pencil to move the elements around to my liking.   Once the ornament was full, to complete the project, I added a coordinating bow that was similar to their dress color.  

I don't know how this will hold up, the flower may dry out even more and crumble and fall to the bottom of the ornament, but I'm hoping for the best!!  Stay tuned...

So, my hope is, when the dress no longer fits and is out of style and when other weddings, babies and other life events put time and distance between this wedding they will always have this ornament and every Christmas will be reminded of this special occasion and their friend!

btw... the pictures honestly don't these justice.  They are really very pretty!

Wedding Invitation Ornament

A wedding, a marriage, a lifetime of happiness and a keepsake!

When I had seen this gift idea here I knew that I wanted to try recreating it!  Once I had received the invitation in the mail I took care to make sure that it stayed pristine and even took my daughters invitation as well so I would have a back-up, you know... just in case!!  I then cut the invitation into strips making sure the lines of text were centered on the strips.  I didn't bother to measure and in fact used varying widths.  Other necessities would include a glass Christmas ball, I used a 4" diameter ornament for mine, and any other items desired to embellish the ornament.

I found these in the floral section at Michaels.  I'm not sure what you call them, but I loved the glass beads on the filament and thought that would add some interest as well as pick up the lights from the tree.  I also felt that these would be better than loose beads which would fall to the bottom of the ornament.

Coordinating ribbon was all that was left to finish off this project. 

I then used a pencil to curl the strips of the invitation.

The strips were then dropped into the ornament along with segments of the beads.  I used the eraser end of a pencil to gently move items around until I liked the way it looked... which could have been a moot point as I'm sure the items will shift and change position whenever the ornament is moved :).

This close up allows you to see that the beads as well as get 

a glimpse of the text on the strips of the invitation.

All that's left is to box it up and present the bride with her keepsake ornament!