DIY – Do It Yourself is becoming a very popular mantra in the wedding industry, particularly in our current economic situation.  Although we are a wedding planning company, we do encourage couples to DIY to save money if they have time to plan their own weddings.  Although professional vendors will be able to provide you with better quality work and more experience, if an aspect of your wedding isn’t as vital, try to cut some corners to save money.  Planning Elegance’s blog will provide you with a new tip each month to help you save some cash for your wedding.  June’s topic is DIY Wedding Pomanders.

Pomanders are usually used for aisle decor at a wedding.  They are generally round and soften up the look of the boring, straight aisle with a nice, inviting look.  They are usually hung on a stand every 2-3 rows of chairs that are set-up for the wedding ceremony.  This DIY decoration technique will help you make cost-effective aisle decor out of any color tissue paper you’d like.  The great thing about not using flowers is that you can make the pomanders as early before you’re wedding as you’d like!  That’s one thing to get out of your way before you walk down your beautiful aisle.

Supplies for DIY Pomander

Feel free to look around and get the best pricing for your DIY pomander supplies.  All of these supplies can be found at chain craft stores like Michael’s or Tall Mouse.  Feel free to check out your smaller, more local craft stores or 99 cent stores to see if they offer better pricing.  Another idea to to search online for these supplies, the online stores often waive a shipping and handling fee if you order a large amount of products.

• Colored tissue paper
• Styrofoam balls of your desired size
• Floral wire of your desired thickness
• Ribbon to match or contrast your tissue paper color
• Glitter or sparkle paint (optional)

Supplies that you probably already have around the house:

• Scissors
• Wire Cutters
• Hot Glue Gun

How to Make Your DIY Pomanders

1. GROUP: Separate all the tissue paper layers.  Group 4 tissues each, fold them in half, and paper clip them together.
2. TRACE: Use a template circle with a 3 inch diameter to trace circles onto the folded tissue paper.
3. CUT: Carefully cut the circles, have someone else help you hold them together as you’re cutting.  Then, use the wire cutter to cut the wire into 4 inch piece.
4. WIRE: Fold the pieces of wire in half and twist the bottom to leave the top like a sharp needle.  Keep extra pieces of wire aside.
5. “CARNATIONS”: One by one, carefully crinkle and place 4 tissue paper circles on each wire.  You will need about 30 of these for each pomander.
6. RIBBON: Cut a long piece a ribbon, twist a small piece of extra wire around the center of the ribbon.  Stick this wire end of the ribbon into a Styrofoam ball and enforce it with the hot glue gun.
7. TIE: Tie the ends of the long ribbon into a bow to create a hanging handle.
8. CREATE: Stick the “Carnations” into the Styrofoam ball one by one and enforce them with the hot glue gun.  Spread out the “Carnations” in the ball to give the pomander a nice, round and full look.

Now you have some beautiful DIY pomanders to hang in the aisle on your wedding day.  You can by any type of stands with hooks on the ends to hang the pomanders in the aisle way from any craft store as well.  Make sure that the hooks can stick into the grass to steadily hold the pomanders up straight.  Depending on what types of chairs you have, you may be able to hang the pomanders on the chairs like Mrs. Spring Roll did in the wedding picture below.

Compliments of Mrs. Spring Roll from Wedding Bee