Entertaining Inspirations
I love entertaining inspirations! A few years ago, I planned decorations for a wedding for a friend of mine. There was a limited budget. Limited budgets seem to inspire more creativity, don't they?
My friend wanted the Chinese lanterns to decorate the space over the head table. We first checked with the venue to be sure exactly what we were allowed to do and what not. We were told we could use tacks and, or, tie the strings on the metal grids supporting the ceiling tiles.
Knowing that different sizes in combination would make things more interesting, we ordered a variety of sizes. We tried to find the Chinese lanterns in her colors, navy and fuschia.
Then I had an idea. I had seen an Asian reception where flower petals were strung on a line and hung from a pergola. It was gorgeous. I thought the combination of the different sized lanterns in white with contrasting flower petals in fuschia would be very striking. My thought was to string the petals and hang them down around the lanterns.
These silk flower petals can be found at Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby has wedding supplies on sale 50% off frequently. A box of these are normally ten dollars, so we bought them for five bucks! Matching 1/8" ribbon was purchased at the same time.
Calculating the height of the ceiling in the ballroom and how far we wanted them to hang down from the ceiling, I measured and cut the ribbons. Then on one end of the ribbon, an overhand knot was made. The other end was threaded onto a large- eyed blunt needle. The needle was pushed through the petals and the ribbon was easily threaded through them. Using the ribbon, kept the petals in place and there was no need for glue.
The spacing for these was about every 3". Each of the boxes of petals had a variety of sheer and opaque silk petals in it. Each of the stringers contained a variety of petals strung at different positions.
After stringing all the petals on the ribbons, to make sure they didn't get tangled on the way to the venue, the petals were all shoved to the end of the ribbon with the know.
Then the ribbons were gathered together and braided, keeping them untangled and orderly, until we were at the venue ready to hang them.
For your information, the regular thumb tacks, which I had bought to hang these ribbons would not hold. A friend of mine and her husband helped put the decorations up and her husband saved me!
He installs heating and air conditioning and happened to have some 'Zip tacks', which are made in Germany. They are stainless steel and have tiny threads on them. They held perfectly!
These pictures really do not do the display justice. It was quite striking when you first entered the room. Uplights bounced light on them and created quite a focus.
This summer we are planning an Alice in Wonderland birthday party for little Memphis. Considering how to decorate the arbor, I was thinking of using these petals on ribbons again. Everyone would have to glide through the petals to the backyard. I'm thinking of a big arch of multi-colored balloons, too. Wouldn't that be a grand entrance? Entertaining inspirations, don't you love them?
