Origami Centerpieces from our Wedding

The wedding is finally over and done -- and what a wonderful day it was! We had a holiday themed wedding in December. Here are the centerpieces that I made for the reception dinner tables. My sister and two friends helped make the origami flowers. We also made boutonnieres and corsages for family members, and bouquets for my sister and myself. It was all very down to the wire -- my sister and I worked until 4am every morning in the days leading up to the wedding. We assembled the bouquets the morning of the wedding! Scary!

Anyway, here are the results...sometimes lopsided, but made with love. The flowers are made from gift wrap paper and scrapbooking paper. The leaves and "berry" picks are from a craft shop. The bowls are milkglass - found cheap at an antiques market. (Click the photos to see enlargements at Flickr.)

Origami Flower Arrangement in Progress

Lots of wedding preparations going on this month. I've been folding flowers for awhile, and finally got to the point where I could start on some centerpiece arrangements. It was hard to find red paper that works for this (especially in the right shade of red)! After a lot of trial and error, I settled on the three different papers shown above.

The top flower is made from a red-on-red toned gift wrap paper purchased at The Container Store. (They put out their holiday wrap nice and early!) Their gift wrap is generally very sturdy and can hold up to folding and handling. But even this paper wore down quickly around the folded edges, and the result was rough-looking white spots along the edges. I decided to color the outside folded edges with gold to camouflage the wear and tear. It turned out to be a nice effect, I think! I'm using a metallic gold ink pad -- I just run the edges of the paper across the pad before the final folding stage. (It does require a little drying time.) I also decided not to worry about the white side of the paper showing along the fold in the petals. I figure it compliments the red and gold.

The red flower on the left is made from a sturdy scrapbooking paper purchased at Michael's. It has a subtle texture of starburst shapes. The paper is a dull red-orange color, so I thought I wouldn't be able to use it. But my fiance suggested I try coating these particular flowers with a gloss finishing spray -- low and behold, the result is dark red flowers with a subtle shine to them! Perfect! The texture shows up better with the gloss finish, too. This paper is red on both sides, another great quality for origami.

The third, small flower is made from ivory wedding gift wrap paper from The Container Store -- it has a nice subtle decorative pattern. This paper has been the most successful for this origami project because 1) it's quite sturdy and holds up to folding, 2) it holds it shape really well when curled (such as the petal areas), and 3) the light color camouflages any wear along the edges (and there isn't much!).

That's only the start of the arrangement in the photo. Still some work to do on it! The leaves are artificial, but NOT made of paper. I purchased a package of individual fake leaves at Michael's. I'm also using some artificial berry picks and other holiday picks to fill out the arrangement.

Hopefully I'll have photos of the actual finished arrangements after the wedding!

Online Bridal Store Recommendation

I must post a rave about eBridalSuperstore.com. I ordered my wedding dress from there and it just arrived. Here's the lowdown:

In March I visited two local bridal shops in the Baltimore area to try on an Alfred Angelo dress that I had my heart set on. One shop quoted $700 for the dress and the other quoted $850. They both said that once I ordered it, it would take four to six months for the dress to arrive.

I started shopping for the same dress online and found it at a much lower price on eBay and some online bridal shops. I settled on eBridalSuperstore.com which had the lowest price and shipping rate, and the best reviews from what I could find on the web. I ordered the dress on April 3rd. I paid $419 for the dress plus $12 shipping. The website has a shipping status feature, and it estimated that the dress would arrive in July.

Exactly three weeks later, the dress arrived via UPS! I was amazed! It looks great, in perfect condition. It is the correct color and size, with the Alfred Angelo tags and optional straps. Now I just need to take it for a fitting and get alterations done if needed.

So I was very happy with the low price and quick service that I got from eBridalSuperstore.com. They are like a bridal shop in that they order the dress for you straight from the manufacturer. But since they don't have the overhead costs of a physical store, they can offer the dress at a lower price.

I must admit that I picked a popular color and style for this dress, so Alfred Angelo probably has a lot of them made already, and that's why I got it so quick. It might usually take three or four months for a dress that needs to be made per order. But anyway I just wanted to pass on the recommendation. I took a leap of faith, buying the dress online. It paid off!