Terrarium Wedding Centerpieces

I cannot even express how excited I am that I finally made the terrarium centerpieces today! I've been waiting for literally months, and even though the wedding is (eek!) just two months away, I am still scared that they might die before then. Alas, this is the ONLY time I have left between now and the wedding when I could actually make them, so they are made! I followed the directions from the Indie Bliss website and I will sort of explain my steps here and show pictures of each step along the way.

STEP 1: I filled the bottom of the 32-ounce mason jars with smooth river rocks. I wasn't sure if I was going to run out of stones, so I basically just put enough that they whole bottom of the jar was covered. In retrospect, I wish that I had put a thicker layer of stones so that they would show more, but I am still happy with the result.

STEP 2: I put in about 1/3 cup of horticultural charcoal. This helps with drainage and also helps remove yucky gases from the jars.

STEP 3: Added a good layer of potting soil. I made sure not to get any kind that had fertilizers in it, because I read that moss likes very simple dirt to grow in. I measured out about 3/4 cup of dirt.

STEP 4: Added the moss. I bought these adorable little dots of moss from silknparachute on Etsy and they were absolutely perfect for this job. They were mostly small enough to fit through the jar openings and the ones that weren't broke apart gently.

STEP 5: Miniature animals! Of course I had to use animals of the Northeast so they would fit with our wedding theme! The terrarium that will be featured on our sweetheart table has two special animals in it just for us.

STEP 6: Using twine, I added tags with care instructions so our guests will be able to take the terrariums home and keep them thriving!

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Reception Tables: A bit of Adirondack inspiration

moss table runners, birch candles, and tree slices with carved initials:
Bragging Bags

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Guest Blogging and The Environment

Earlier this week I was asked by Milena of There Is Always Room if I would like to be a guest blogger!  As a professional organizer, this month her blog focuses on wedding planning.  She was interested in my ideas about not using any live flowers (or flowers at all, for that matter) in our upcoming wedding.  I was very honored to be asked to do this and I hope everyone will take some time to visit Milena's blog!

http://indiebliss.com/terrarium-centerpieces/

Reflecting on my post about not using flowers, I started to wonder if people actually knew the environmental costs of cutting live flowers for use as decoration.  There are a variety of sources explaining the environmental and social costs of the cut flower industry, and when researching one has to be careful to make sure the source is reliable.  A site that I particularly like is a blog called Reduce Footprints.  They published an article in December 2008 explaining the negative impacts of cutting flowers, and also offers some ways to keep flowers around in a more environmentally conscious manner.  Please take some time to learn more about the environmental impacts of the actions you take!

I've read the following environmentally conscious books and I highly recommend reading them (or watching the movie for the first one if you don't like to read... which hurts me to say, because I am English teacher):

  

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A flowerless wedding...

Can it be done?

Should it be done?

In our case, the answer is most definitely... yes!  I have never been the type of girl who gushed over the idea of being sent roses.  Instead, I would feel bad that flowers had to die just so I could look at them inside my house.  Send me a potted plant that I can help to grow and enjoy for years and I'm yours!  So, the thought of killing tons of flowers just for a wedding ceremony and reception really rubs me the wrong way, at least when it comes to my own wedding.

The theme of our wedding is the Adirondack woods, so we are going to try to keep the decor natural, without having to kill any plants.  Our centerpieces (as I've discussed in an earlier blog post) are going to be living terrariums that people can take home with them, which will hopefully continue to live and grow for a long time.  We are also intending to use pine cones and leaves in some way on the guest tables at the reception.

At first I tossed around the idea of possibly having a flower bouquet to carry down the aisle, but I was never really sold on the idea.  Part of me felt like it was wrong for me not to carry one, but the other part of me rebelled against the idea of doing something just because everyone else does it, and the proverbial "they" say that I have to.  In addition, flowers are expensive!  Holy cow!  Still, I didn't know what else to do, and I thought it would be weird to walk down the aisle empty handed.  Where would I put my hands?

Eventually, after looking around on the internet for who knows how long, I fell back to my old friend etsy and stumbled across something that is perfect for me:

It's called a Rustic Firefly Lantern and is made by April Hiler Designs.  This completely fits our wedding theme, is really cute, and nothing needed to die in order for it to be made!  Better yet, it won't wilt a few hours after the wedding, and I'm sure I can find another use for it!  Inside the basket is preserved sheet moss, dried grapevine, and faux fern fronds, along with a little string of LED lights.

It may not be customary or commonplace, but it wouldn't really be our wedding if we did things like everyone else, now would it!

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An Hour at Michael's

I went to Michael's craft store today to browse and get some ideas for the wedding.  My goals were:
1. Scope out the DIY invitation kits
2. See what kind of materials they had for making centerpieces
It's important that I make as many things for the wedding as I can, since we are on a budget, but I also want everything to look nice and fit with our theme.

I started with the invitations.  There weren't as many as I had hoped for, but there were enough for me to get some ideas.  Before going to the store I had looked online to see what I might like, and I set my eye on a bunch of eco-friendly materials they had.  It's too bad that I looked online a few weeks ago and didn't check again before going to the store today, because Michael's no longer carries these products.  Bummer!  I thought it would be perfect to have eco-friendly paper since we are having an Adirondack theme to our wedding and giving tree seedlings as gifts.  I may just have to look elsewhere to find these.  I did find three invitation kits that I thought were interesting, though... (and I apologize for the poor photo quality - I took them with my phone).

I've listed them here in the order that we like them.  The fern invitation on the right is good, but we aren't sure about the mint colored ribbon.  The one in the middle is a nice brown (even though it looks black here), but it's a little too dull - we'd like more color.  The green and brown one on the left seems really great and has both of our wedding colors, but it doesn't really seem to express our theme.  We'll have to ask ourselves a couple questions before making our decision: 

1. Are we dedicated to eco-friendly paper?

2. Are we willing to trade out our theme to have the right colors at a price we can afford?

The next task on my list was to check out centerpiece materials.  We've decided that we really want to make living terrariums, and I am using these ones I found on the Indie Bliss blog for inspiration.  This part was actually more fun for me, since I'm the kind of girl that would much rather play with dirt than frilly ribbons.

I found Ball Jars which I think would be really cool, and were sort of reminiscent of something I might find in a mountain lodge filled with fruit or something yummy.  I also found these square containers which I didn't like as much as the Ball Jars, but would also work.

Michael's also has a relatively large selection of river rocks and moss - although I don't think moss bought in a bag is really alive any more.  I will have to look into getting this from outside or a garden store.

I saved the most fun part for last - looking for the interesting detail pieces to make the terrariums awesome!  Our first thoughts were to create miniature camping scenes (out of doll house pieces), or put small Adirondack chairs, but we are having a very difficult time finding those things.  Our next option is to include little woodland animals - which Michael's actually had quite a few of!

First I found little feathery birds (although I'm not sure the feathers will work in the moist terrarium)...

Next I went to the kids' section where I found animals in tubes, aptly named Toob Animals, but they didn't really have the specific kind of animals I was looking for and they were also on clearance sale...

And my favorite was the little plastic moose and deer figurines, which remind me of toys I might have actually played with as a kid (in the dirt)...

I'm not sure that I will actually buy anything that I found at Michael's today, but all in all I found my trip to be very productive.  I had a lot of vague ideas tumbling around in my head and browsing enabled me to obtain a visual grasp on what I it is that I would like my end products to look like.  After seeing all this stuff I can't wait to get started!

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