Yep. In fact, as stated previously, we just passed the one-year mark. And all year, my bouquet and my bridesmaids' bouquets had been hanging in our upstairs guestroom closet. Just chillin'. And dryin'.
Quite a while ago, I decided I wanted to make these into some type of keepsake for my ladies. However, like many things I'd like to do, I kept putting it off. But I was recently spurred on by two events:
1) One of the bridesmaids was moving to Colorado in about a week, and
2) My brother was about to move into that room, and might not appreciate the lovely closet decorations.
So. It was time to get on that sucka.
My basic original idea was to cut the flower heads off the stems and put them into jars. I had been saving our salsa jars, etc., for just this very purpose, until I realized that mason jars are much cooler looking...and they have them at Dollar Tree. And I just went from there.
I was so excited with how they turned out!
The colors are more vibrant in real life. You can see it a little better in the close-ups.
..
Steps I took for the lids:
1. Traced circles on scrapbook paper and cut them out.
2. Printed a sheet of four wallet-sized photos at Walgreen's (the picture is from the rehearsal dinner), cut them to fit the lids, and glued them.
3. Wrote the message (2101 was our apartment number. My bridesmaids were also my roommates!).
4. Painted over each circle with Mod Podge and glued it to a lid.
The flower part was easy--I just snipped each piece and dropped it in! I tried not to micro-manage how they were falling, but just let them sit naturally. I love how this made each jar look different but beautiful, just like each girl (aw).
For the final touch, I used twine to attach a circle tag with each girl's initial on an embossed sticker.
This was a secondary concern, but I was also pleased with how inexpensive these gifts turned out to be. I printed the photos for approximately a dollar at Walgreen's, bought the jars at Dollar Tree, and got the tags and stickers at Hobby Lobby/Michael's with my handy-dandy 40% coupons. I already had the scrapbook paper, Mod Podge, and twine. And flowers, obviously.
The twine is the funniest part, I think. I was planning on using ribbon until I got our friends' wedding invitation in the mail earlier that week. All the pieces were tied up together with a length of twine and a cute tag, which gave me the idea to use twine instead (thanks, Michelle!).
And actually...I used the twine from the wedding invitation itself. (Gasp!) I know, I know, it was with a WEDDING INVITATION (dun dun dunnnn). But I had to take the packet apart, regardless! And I'm sure Michelle would much rather know the twine was being repurposed than thrown away.
The other piece of each gift was a Disney Princess cup, not pictured. I bought them at Disney World my senior year of high school, and we used them as juice cups throughout our time living together in college. Everyone was assigned their own princess (I was Ariel, of course). I figured there was no better parting gift to remind everyone of our awesome two years as roomies (cue tears).
Thanks for the memories, guys! I love you all. :)
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