Besides the caterer, the most expensive vendor at a wedding is usually the florist.  You can save some money by making your own boutonnieres, and you can save time by making them ahead.  Fresh floral boutonnieres will need to be made the morning of the wedding to keep them looking fresh, but if you use dried or silk flowers, you can make them as far ahead as you want.  With a Fall themed wedding, dried flowers made the most sense for me.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Dried or silk flowers or plants
• Scissors and wire cutters
• Floral tape
• Ribbon
• Boutonniere pins

I used eucalyptus stems as my background or base and built out from it.  Unlike a bouquet, with a boutonniere, you build forward from instead of around the base flowers (or stems or feather).

The process for assembling dried or silk flowers for a boutonniere is probably the most simple out of the other options.  Trim the stems to a manageable length, about three inches.  When you’ve decided how you want the arrangement to look, start taping stems together.  I only had a few stems I was working with, so I did it all in one shot, but if you have multiple stems it is best to start with two and add on.  Start wrapping the tape around from the top toward the end, stopping about half an inch from the end.  It should look like this:

You’re almost done!  Trim the stems to the desired length, usually about 2 – 2/12 inches.  Now you’ll use your ribbon to finish it off.  This time, you’ll start at the bottom.  About a quarter to half of an inch from the bottom, place your ribbon down the length of the stems and pull it down and around, then up the other side.

Start wrapping at the bottom, going around the stem and the small piece of ribbon.  This is to give the bottom a finished look.  If you need to, use a dab of hot glue to help hold the ribbon in place while you’re wrapping.  I didn’t need it, but you might if your ribbon is really slippery.  When you get to the top, weave the end of the ribbon under the last wrapped strand of ribbon and pull.  I also made a knot at the top and cut the end of the ribbon in a V-shape.

Now you can store these until your wedding and move on to the next wedding project!

Check out more from my Frugal Bride series!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays for decorating.  You can really go with any theme you want – spooky forest, fun pumpkins, silly ghosts, creepy ghouls (to name a few).  If you’re lucky enough to have a mantle, this can be the perfect focal point to bring the whole thing together.  Our home has a fireplace with a very narrow mantle, so it’s a little difficult to get the look I’m going for.  Hopefully we’ll be beefing up the mantle soon.  Until then, I can pull bits of inspiration from these eight amazingly decorated mantles.

This cream and black mantle is very chic, but also fun with the pop of orange in the banner.  See it at Candace Stringham Photography.

A gold and white chevron background gives this mantle just the right amount of sparkle and pizzazz.  Check out Jessica Marie Design for printables and tutorials.

Natural touches, antique books, and framed prints on newspaper make this mantle look smart.  Find this design and more Halloween inspiration at The Moes Family.

The details in this design are great, from the cheesecloth spiderwebs to the homemade banner.  Sweet Something Designs has some great ideas.

The elegant simplicity of this mantle make it one of my favorites.  And I’m loving burlap right now!  See more at Hey Lauren Rene.

A whimsical mantle designed with orange and black makes this a very fun focal point.  See more photos and a link to the banner tutorial at Polka Dot Chair.

I love the green in this one, and also the great balance of cute and spooky.  This mantle was featured on Anders Ruff.

Hope you all are inspired to get those decorations up.  I’ll share some photos of my own mantle soon!

Combining households inevitably means dealing with the old bachelor pad furniture.  What to do with the perfectly good dining set that has cigarette burns on the chair cushions can sometimes lead to a power struggle.  For my fiance and I, it meant a trip to the fabric store to finally recover those hideous cushions!

As you can see, they’re pretty simple chairs with a neutral tweed, and a nice burn spot right in the middle of the cushion.  These should be pretty easy to update.  For now, we decided to keep the wood as-is since we will eventually get a larger, more formal dining table and move this one into the office as a craft table.

We chose a fabric that goes well with the adjoining living room.  The most difficult part of this was removing all the staples in the back of the chair cushion.  You will need a flathead screwdriver and pliers for prying up the old staples, your new fabric, and a staple gun.  If you want your chair cushions to be more comfortable, you can also find a thicker foam to use.  Don’t forget batting if you need to replace it.

1. Unscrew the chair cushion from your chair frame.
2. Pry up all the old staples using the flathead screwdriver and pliers.
3. Cut the new fabric and new batting if you’re using it.  If you’re reusing the old foam, you can use the original chair cover as a template to cut out your new fabric.  If you’re using a thicker foam, be sure to cut the fabric in the correct dimensions.

4. Starting in the middle of one side, pull the fabric tight (but not too tight) and carefully staple it in place.  Working your way out from the middle, continue to staple along each side, leaving a little room at the corners.
5. Finish off the corners, tucking in the outer sides and forming a triangle in the center.
6. Screw the cushion back on the frame and check out your beautiful new chairs!

Easy!

A few things to remember:

• If your fabric is wrinkled, iron it first.  You can also wash the fabric before doing this.
• Watch out for splinters!  The plywood on my chair cushions was very rough and I kept having to pull out splinters from my hands.  So, you might want to wear gloves when you do this.
• If you pull the fabric too tight, the foam may become indented.  Be sure to pull the fabric equally tight along the whole side.  
• Don’t worry if you make a mistake – just pry out the last staple and redo it.

Here is the side-by-side before and after:

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