tutorial | paper flowers

As promised, here is my paper flower tutorial! I really wanted to make paper flowers for the wedding instead of using real flowers. I fell in L-O-V-E with the way that they look, as you can see in this post, but just didn't have the time to make them all. I did attempt to make the flowers, and have about fifteen completed flowers, but I was defeated by these beauties. I did put together a little picture tutorial using the "PicLab" app that I downloaded onto my phone.

Here is a step-by-step on how to create a Kusudama Paper Flower:

Tada! I did clip notches on the tips of the petals for some of the flowers, but not on all. I used scrapbook paper for the tutorial, but origami paper for the flowers that I was going to use for the wedding. If I had a year to plan and prepare for this wedding, I would have used the paper flowers. But, six months was not enough time to get all of this done. Oh well. I am going to use the flowers that I made for something else around this place, I will show you all when I know what it is!

Give the paper flowers a try, and let me know how they turn out!

desert botanical garden

This weekend was a fun and busy one. Saturday was my bridal shower thrown by my mega best friend, and my family.

 It. Was. Wonderful. 

But more on that later. I was also lucky enough to have one of my aunts visiting, so of course we needed to do something fun, and take advantage of the beautiful weather. Today we went to the Desert Botanical Garden. I never get sick of that place. I have been maybe a dozen times in my life. A few times for school, and countless times with my family. Such a pretty way to spend a day, and the breeze that was sweeping through the valley today was just the right thing that we needed.

Here is a little peek at what we got to see today...

 Closest I have ever been to a roadrunner. He really put on a show for us, posing for pictures and everything.

Then there was a very interesting art installation; the four seasons were represented by these sculptures.

 Winter

 Spring

 Summer

 Autumn

They sure were interesting, and let me tell you... EVERYONE was taking pictures for these guys. 

Diane, I had so much fun while you were here. So happy that I got to spend the day with you and my mom!

wedding planning weekend

I had Friday and Sunday off this past weekend, which was wonderful for wedding planning. Friday started with a meeting with my mom, we went over some ideas for setting up for the reception and how we are going to set up the ceremony. We also went over ideas for decor, and may have even finalized some plans. We wrote down a list of places that we were going to go that day which included Costco, A.J.'s and The Home Depot... yes that is right, HOME DEPOT!

I have heard great things about Costco's flowers, but didn't really know anything about them. I started researching online where they have pre-made collections where you can chose the colors, and pieces that you need, and they are shipped to you. 

I deciede to stop in at Costco and get some more information from the store {I always prefer speaking with someone face-to-face, a lot of the time they tell you things that you may not have even thought of.}. My mom and I stopped in, and were very happy to find an actual person at the flowers! Janice was super helpful, and incredibly nice. She had so much information and ideas, I think that this could be the best option for our budget, but we can still get great looking flowers. Here is a little "insta dump" of some of what I saw at Costco.
 

purple, green and white

gerbera dasies

spider mums

hydrangeas

After Costco we headed to A.J.'s the cake decorator was so nice, and energetic! It was obvious that she loved her job and was more than happy to help and make whatever we want. I still need to schedule a tasting, but I am really excited to get our cake from A.J.'s.

Lastly, on Sunday Mike and I met with officiant, who we both loved, and made it official. It's almost like we actually have a wedding in the works. Getting some of these things accomplished is really taking a load off my mind. I am no longer a little ball of stress, woohoo!