WEDDING | SHOWER | DECOR [Part 1]

We absolutely lucked out for our shower.  My parent's "besties" own a banquet hall nearby who were able to offer us an amazing opportunity to have our wedding shower at their venue.  They were really great with helping with the details of the tablecloth colors, chair colors, bow colors, etc...  and the food was incredible!  If you are in the area and looking for a great banquet hall, please do yourself a favor and look into Alta Villa Banquets in Addison, IL.
(www.altavillabanquets.com)

WEDDING | SHOWER | DECOR  [Part 1]

I still wanted to be able to tie in our wedding Gatsby theme to the shower, so I decided to make/arrange our own centerpieces and other various decorations to give the shower more personality. 

The Dollar Tree has been one of the most useful, money saving places throughout our entire year of wedding planning.  You might have to use your imagination, but they have some great items for ... a dollar.  We used a lot of Dollar Tree items to spruce up the shower.  For example:

THE | CENTERPIECES

I found packs of tissue paper that had plain ivory, plain gold and a gold/ivory design at the Dollar Tree... and basically bought them out!  I used these to make tissue poms to cover the center of each table, as well as for the gift table, sweet table, etc.   Each pack make 4 poms... which is an unbelievable deal when you compare it to the pre-made poms you can buy in the stores.  (i.e. getting 8 Martha Stewart Poms for $12.99 which comes out to $1.62 per pom!)  HERE'S HOW:

Materials:
Tissue Paper Pack
Scissors
Ribbon/String

Step 1 - Leave tissue paper folded in half & cut across to make 2 parts.

Step 2 - Open and cut your 2 remaining parts in half again to be left with 4 square parts.

Step 3 - If you are working with multiple colors or designs, mix up the arrangement to create different final looks.

Step 4 - Starting at one end, fold all the sheets together accordion style in about 1 inch sections all the way to the other end.

Step 5 - Tie a ribbon, string or any other item you wish to use around the center, securely, but keeping the flat shape - don't tie it too tight and bunch the material in the middle, this will make it harder to open.  BEFORE fanning the item out, cut the ends to your desired shape.  I wanted a pointed edge, but you can also do a rounded edge for a different look.

Step 6 - Fan open the top and bottom parts.  Starting on one side, carefully pull the top sheet of the top section towards the bottom, and vice versa.  I found it is easiest to do 1 or two sheets on one side, and then flip to the other side so you end with the sheets in the middle.   Then... just fluff it out to create the circular shape!

Here's what I ended up with for my centerpieces.  When you put them all together, they look really stunning!

To finish off the look at the shower, I purchased tea light candle holders, tea lights  glass pillar candle holders and short pillar candles from the Dollar Tree as well.  Here's a sketch of the final look:

I wasn't done there though... I wanted to add more of our theme and personalities to the decor...

WEDDING | SHOWER | DECOR  [Part 2]