The ladies and I will be doing either felt or cloth flowers for my bouquet and their corsages. The guys will also create their own boutonnieres, which will have felt/cloth leaves and guitar pick flowers. Although I've seen plenty of fabric flowers made into broaches or hair clips, I haven't seen them as bouquets. I wonder if that's because the fabric tends to flop around or lay down, and if that can be remedied using starch or by dipping them in some kind of glue. I'll experiment with that later. In the meantime, I wanted to give the felt flowers a try. Below is my first attempt. I wasn't looking at any online instructions when I did this and the flower initially started out as flat, stiff petals. I wanted more of a natural look (although flat layered flowers would be neat for an all-lego or 16-bit wedding), so I weaved one thread through each layer, bunching the layer as I went. Next time, I'll try one of the many instructions I found online.

So, I tried making a cloth flower the same way I did the felt one. It's harder to cut he petals with cloth because it constantly moves. I think these come out more delicate and can be made fuller with more petals, but they would definitely have to start out starched.

In these photos, the felt is on the left and the cloth is on the right. I just used what scraps I had (100% cotton), so the colors aren't what we'd end up with.
 
Last weekend Josh had the great idea to hit up a local used bookstore.  I patronized one all the time when I was a kid, but somehow forgot about them as I grew up.  We stopped by Beers Books on S Street in Sacramento to find that they were having a great sidewalk sale - fifty cents for paperbacks and one dollar for hardbacks.  He picked up some casual reading material, I grabbed a couple books for my niece and Vice Bride, and snuck in a few wedding books.  But, the biggest score of the day was the kick-ass vintage-style wedding planner pictured above.  It was printed in 1980 (Josh's birth year), has victorian images and writing, is somewhat aged and beat on the outside, but totally clean of all use on the inside, and offers history, advice and great organization tools.  We like it so much, we won't so much as write in pencil in the book.  Instead, we're making copies of the pages we know we'll have to edit a few times before the big day, and will fill it as a final momento once we have all our details worked out.  Far less complicated and way more retro than any other planner we've seen, this book both fits our "green" theme and has the romantic look that we desire.
    Picture

    What's our story?

    Tarah works for Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services and has been living in Sacramento for nearly all of her earthly years. She lead a mostly uneventful life, though she always had a love of written, visual and performance art, holds an interest in politics and still can't resist animals.  Josh is a former punk rock musician who is back in college, volunteers with the Sacramento SPCA and blogs about the video gaming industry at 1Up.Com(Electronic Gaming Monthly). He was born in California and traveled around, mostly growing up in  Reno, NV and Southern Oregon.  With his band, he toured the U.S., Canada, and Europe. After the disolvement of his band and a couple years of contemplation, the groom moved from Portland, OR, down to sunny Sacramento.  A month later, the bride found his platonic ad on Craigslist. He was looking for locals who could show him around town, and Tarah knew just the right places to go. The two started a wonderful friendship that blossomed into the unbreakable relationship they enjoy today.  They share strong values for equality amongst people, humane treatment for animals, using diplomacy before voilence, and respectful care of the environment through personal responsibilty and accountability.

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