DIY: Pomanders

I've got a lot of work ahead of me in the next 7 1/2 months... Here is my list of DIY:

• Pomanders (about 40 to be exact.)
• Boutonnieres 
• Personalized water bottles
• Out of town bags/boxes
• Centerpieces (30 of them, 3 different styles)
• Bathroom baskets
• Petals for the flower girls
• Guestbook
• Signage
• Programs/invitations assembly
• Aisle runner
• Table numbers/escort cards (we are still up in the air as to wether or not we are going to do these.)
• Unity candle (almost done... and just realized I forgot to get more crystals at Michael's today...)
• Photobooth
• Flower girl baskets

Yea, time to get started.

Last weekend, I worked on the unity candle (ran out of crystals at the very end!) I will hopefully be able to check that one off the list by the end of next weekend. I also did a mock up of our pomanders. You read correctly above, we will need approx. 40 pomanders! Here is the breakdown:

• 20 - 5" pomanders with cream colored roses for the church
• 8 - 5" pomanders in blue, aqua and teal mums for the entry doors and head-table
• 10 - 8" pomanders with purple mums for 1/3 of the centerpieces

I started my first attempt with cream, opened roses I picked up at the Dollar Tree and a 6" styrofoam ball.  (I originally thought I wanted 6" pomanders, but quickly figured out that the finished product would be too big...) I also started with 2" ribbon, a hot glue gun and floral wire. 

I first started out by making a small loop with the floral wire and by twisting together the ends of a small piece... My original loop was way too big, you honestly only need the loop to be about 1" in diameter.

You do this part at the end, but you will eventually stick your little loop in the mess of flowers and this is what you will loop your ribbon through.

(Before I stuck the floral-wire loop in, I put a dab of hot glue on the spot I stuck it in at and then added a little more hot glue after it was in to secure.)

Next, I used some kind of weird tool in Bryan's tool box to cut the buds off of the stems... PSA: Don't use scissors to cut anything on the fake flowers - it will ruin them. 

I then stuck the flowers in each "pole" of the pomander... Kind of like the north, south, east and west pole. I have seen in other posts on DIY pomanders, people say that they secured with hot glue. I am here to say, this is unnecessary. Just make sure when you cut your  buds off, you make your stems about 1" - 2" long. The longer the stem, the more secure it will be. 

I then started filling in the rest.

One of our Fur-Babies wanted in on the action too...

Then I cut some ribbon... This will need some tweaking - I cut off waaaaayyy too much. I think about 18" will suffice in the future.

I then used a lighter to singe the edge to prevent it from fraying

Then looped it through the floral-wire loop I had installed by this time and tied it in a tight knot. I then secured the knot to the floral wire with a little more hot glue. 

Ta-da! Finished product:

This pomander was done on a 6" ball and took about 55 open rose buds from Dollar Tree. As you can see, it turned out HUGE. I am going to downgrade 5" balls in for the real-deal pomanders and hope they take up less flowers.

I have on order and am not so patiently waiting on about 500 buds from silkflowerfactory.com. I'll be sure to post on the quality of these little babies once they get in.