Home & Things

DIY Wedding Boutonnières

Guess what… We got engaged! Which means tons of wedding planning and budgeting. It should be a fun and exciting experience, right? Then why does it sometimes feel so overwhelming? As a hairstylist, I’ve worked with many brides and what the majority of these brides have described as the most stressful part of their wedding planning journey wasn’t actually the massive amount of decision making like I had assumed (seriously, it goes all the way down to the type of forks you want), it was the budgeting and figuring out where to prioritize their spending.

Now, I have never in my life panned a wedding nor helped anyone else plan their wedding so I was grossly uneducated in this department of life. Of course you can have an absolutely gorgeous and perfect day no matter your budget, but oh boy, the overall cost I assumed for what is now considered an average amount of guests was way below the reality of it. That’s when the stress kicked in. “How can we save money?”.. “Do we really need to spend this much on this part of the wedding?”.. “What can we do now that will make things easier and less stressful as our big day gets closer?” Those were all questions I asked myself (and probably stressed my fiancé out with – sorry..) then I realized there are actually quite a few ways that can help if you’re willing to give it a try!

I am by no means an expert at saving money (even though I wish I could say I am) but we noticed that one of the larger expenses we came across was the overall cost of floral arrangements. Of course every couple has their own style and idea of what they’d like their wedding to look like, but my fiancé and I decided to not have a large amount of flowers at ours so I figured, why not make our own bouquets and boutonnieres? No harm in trying! Once I came up with a game plan, and after a little trial and error to get the best results I could, this is the process I ended up with:

We’re having an October wedding so we decided to incorporate the fall colors into the overall design. After searching through all of the craft stores near me, I found some very realistic and beautiful pieces!

Try out different arrangements, sizes and patterns to see which is the most appealing to you. Once you narrow down your favorite look, wrap it with a small rubber binder. Keeping everything secure and steady will make the rest of this process a whole lot easier…trust me.

The rubber binder is also there to keep the safety pin in place. Make sure when attaching the safety pin that you don’t accidentally poke the binder or it’ll snap!

Studio His & Hers Twine from Hobby Lobby

Now this is the best part because this is where everything really comes together.. plus it means you’re almost done. I decided to go with twine to wrap our boutonnieres but you can get as creative with it as you’d like! Whether it be ribbon, lace, ect. take your material of choice and wrap it around the stems. How far down should you wrap them? Well, that’s completely up to you! I ended up keeping the base about the same length as the floral arrangement. Be sure to use tension and wrap the stems nice and tight! You don’t want anything to shift or slip out. Remember to double knot and also make sure its on the back side of the boutonniere unless your design incorporates the knot somehow. When tying off the remainder of the twine, I found that by also creating a knot through the loop of the safety pin it seemed to feel a little bit sturdier. However, it’s not necessary so if your material of choice won’t fit through the loop, don’t worry about it! That pin isn’t going anywhere.

Since we’re making these so far in advance, I did leave a little bit of twine at the end just so the knot can be tightened later on if need be. Otherwise go ahead and cut off any ends you don’t want to see from the front. Once you’ve done that then…

…Ta Da! You have your boutonnieres! That’s one more thing you can cross off of your wedding to do list! Let me tell ya, getting this done ahead of time has definitely saved me some stress. It’s also a super fun, budget-friendly project that can be done in just one day.

What do you think of this cute DIY project? Would you make your own boutonnieres or stick with real flowers? More DIY wedding projects coming soon!

DIY & Decorating Inspo

I don’t know about you, but I go all out with holiday decorating…and I’m proud of it. However, with the holidays coming to and end it means trying to tidy up and get your house back in order. I personally love to utilize light and bright colors to keep everything feeling fresh and springy. Although that’s just me trying to convince myself that Spring is already here.

Either way, using light colors does serve another purpose other than willing it to be warm and sunny. Keeping things bright, but still cozy, can really open up the space and make it feel larger. In this post I’ll be sharing with you some of my decorating ideas, why I chose to use these pieces along with my own creations, and how they were created. Let’s start with the entryway..

Welcome sign from Home Goods : Small wreath from Kirklands : Coat hooks from Target

Being that the entryway is the first thing you see when you walk into a house, it’s a fun space to get creative and really show your style. While keeping it simple and decluttered, you can still add your favorite design elements. I personally love a good rustic farmhouse design. It tends to feel very bright and inviting while incorporating a lot of texture.

HOME sign from Poppy Boutique : Lantern from Gordmans

Aside from Pinterest, a lot of my inspiration comes from stores like Kirkland’s and Home goods. Let’s be honest, I could actually live at Kirkland’s if they’d let me. When I find something I love in store, I’ll find a way to incorporate that piece with my own ideas into the final design. I’ll show some more examples of that in the following photos.

Let’s move on to the living room..

While I do have a lot of décor from various stores throughout my house, I love to add my own personal piece of art into each space. For example, these wooden signs. While the wooden frames were pre-made, I still had a blank canvas to create whatever came to mind. Going with my light and bright theme I decided to paint the background white. After penciling in the lettering and painting them black for a bold look, all it took was a little touch up and voila! Finished. Now we are left with a very simple yet very personalized piece of art.

‘This Is Our Story’ sign from Home Goods : Key, Gather, Hi, Blessed, Wifi Password wall hangings from Hobby Lobby : Photo Frames from Target & Hobby Lobby

Another feature wall In our house is what I call our ‘Story Wall’. Whether something be crafted by your own hands or not, it can still carry a lot of meaning to you. Each piece here was something that spoke to me and continues to play a part in telling our story. This being the first house we’ve owned together, I felt the iron key and the Home Sweet Home sign were fitting. Accompanied with some other beautiful works of art and a few pictures, we now have the perfect (in our eyes) feature wall that we can continue to expand as our family grows.

Whether you realize it or not, everything you choose to have in your home was chosen for a reason. That reason could be that once you saw that piece it immediately spoke to you, that it was created by yourself or a loved one, or simply just because you liked it and felt it would tie in your overall design. No matter what the reasoning may be, we have the ability to create some really amazing spaces and showcase who we are as a person.

What DIY projects do you enjoy the most and where did you get your inspiration? What are your favorite design styles? I’d love to hear what about them stand out to you!

Thanks For Visiting!

Hey there! Welcome to Home & Things! Here you’ll find all things related to home décor, beauty, and DIY, as well as a few of my own creations that I’d love nothing more than to share with you.

Whether you’re looking for a quick beauty hack, new product, design idea, or organizational tips, Home & Things covers it all! I have found so much inspiration from other bloggers, artists, and creators over the years and I hope I can do the same for you! This is a great space to share our interests/ideas and turn them into something amazing, and I’m so excited to be a part of it.

I won’t keep you too long, but I want to finish this first post off by thanking you once again for visiting Home & Things! Your support is so appreciated, I can’t even put it into words. I hope you enjoy what I have to share with you and I’m so excited for what’s to come.

All my love, Miranda ❤