Wedding Weekend!

Hello lovelies! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!! I know I sure did! A great deal of wedding planning took place today between myself and some of my favorite girls. The planning started with plenty of lively discussion on Thursday and Friday, followed by bridesmaids dress shopping with my MOH on Saturday afternoon. We were determined to find at least a couple of dresses that were decent, as well as narrow down color options. We were successful! I definitely have decided that I'm firm on having shorter dresses, preferably something in a Satin/Cotton blend. I think it's soft, but doesn't look pretentious or too wedding-ish. I'm leaning towards bridesmaids dresses in a champagne hue with orange accents, which I think would look nice standing next to groomsmen in black tuxes with orange vests. Am I crazy or would this be gorgeous? Maybe I'm just thinking it's gorgeous because it's MY wedding, but my non-bride brain is also telling me that it would look good.

I had made plans earlier this week for H (bridesmaid) and Q (coordinator) to come over, drink some wine, eat some appetizers and make flower balls that we're hanging off of shepherds hooks to line the aisle at the ceremony. I bought orange and yellow fake sunflowers a couple of weeks ago, as well as some other supplies, and I couldn't wait to get them put together and see the finished products! In preparation, I made homemade artichoke dip, as well as a new favorite appetizer of mine, Jalapeno Pinwheels!! They turned out beautiful, not to mention delicious!!

After munching on some yummy snacks and drinking some wine, we got started. With Bridesmaids playing in the background, I brought out the ingredients for this project: hot glue guns and hot glue sticks, the fabric flowers, wire clippers, 2 Styrofoam and ribbon. Using the wire cutters, we cut the blooms of the flowers off of the stems about 1/2 an inch from the base of the flower. We hot-glued the ribbon in a loop to the ball. Then, using the tip of the hot glue gun, we poked a hole in the ball and filled it with hot glue, then pushing the remaining 1/2 inch of stem still attached to a flower into the hole and pressing down while it dried for a few seconds. We repeated this process over and over, placing the flowers relatively close together until the entire ball was covered in blooms. They are gorgeous! I can't believe how simple they are!! I love the look of them, but they took more flowers tan I was expecting to complete (we made 2, these were our "practice" balls), so tomorrow I'll be going back to the craft store for more hot glue sticks, more Styrofoam balls, more ribbon and more fabric flowers. Here's the finished product:

Gorgeous, agreed? I'm totally loving them... Can't wait to make more!! :)