I don’t think I could ever tire of seeing yellow in weddings — something about its cheerful brightness always feels so fresh. Today’s wedding from Bayly & Moore is no exception — newlyweds Sam and Stephanie wanted a modern, elegant and fun wedding at their dream venue, The Breakwater. Can we talk about this bride’s style for a sec? Heavenly ruffled dress gorgeousness.

From the bride, Stephanie: We wanted our wedding to be fun, simple and elegant. We envisioned our wedding to be elegant and classy while still keeping that colourful, quirky element that is us.

The three words Sam and I picked to describe our wedding and help us plan our special day was Fun with our pops of vibrant yellow, ribbon wall, balloons in boxes and tidbits of trivia. Simple and not overcomplicated in the feel and look. Finally Elegant and you can hopefully see!

Our DIY projects were our ceremony ribbon wall (we acquired ribbon through our florist), the balloon in boxes (boxes online an balloons from a party hire store), we whitewashed single bottle wine boxes (online purchase) to double as flower centerpiece holders. We also made our bonbonnieres which were macadamia shortbread biscuits (aka Beryls wedding biscuit we later found) which have been a favourite of ours every Christmas.

Any advice for brides planning their weddings now? Firstly talk about what you and your groom both want on your special day! Before you involve friends and family so you have a clear vision of what you both want on the day, after all it’s YOUR day! secondly I had some amazing advice from a sister who told me to think about three key words to describe what we wanted for our wedding, then when making decisions about other things go ‘does it fit with our words?’. It’s great to keep the direction clear and uncluttered.

Wedding Music:
Processional: “Love is Here to Stay,” Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
Recessional: “I’ve Got the World on a String,” Michael Buble
First Dance: “Love is Here to Stay,” Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

Wedding Location: Perth, Australia / Wedding Photographer: Bayly & Moore / Wedding Venue, Caterer, and Dessert: The Breakwater / Wedding Planner: Bonnie Machell / Wedding Flowers: Fox and Rabbit / Wedding Dress: Aurelio Costarella / Bride’s Headpiece: Johanna Johnson / Wedding Shoes: Nine West / Bride’s Earrings: Witchery / Bride’s Hair: Jude of Identified Hair / Bride’s Makeup: Grace Buckley / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: J. Crew / Groom and Groomsmen’s Suits: Country Road / Wedding Invitations: Groom’s mother, printed by Whiteman Park Print Shop

After mixing and adapting a few techniques and ideas + new ones we picked up along the way and lots of trial and error, we made these crepe paper anemones just how we had envisioned: detailed but achievable. The leaves – cardstock folded in half and cut in the shape of a leaf and hand stamped with white ink – can double as escort cards, beautifully hanging from a moss covered frame. Thank you Ashley for helping me with these!

Supplies you’ll need:

floral wire
floral tape
crepe paper/streamers
cotton balls
fringe scissors
scissors and fringe scissors
petal template

For the leaves you’ll need:
cardstock
stamp set (we used this one)
ink
scissors

We’re going to start by preparing an assembly line. Once you have all of your bits and bobs prepped and cut, you can assemble your paper anemones in a snap:

1. Stem — Cut the wire at desired length. For these flowers, the length of the wire was about 4 inches, but you can cut a longer length to make a bouquet or shorter to make bouts!

2. Stamens — Using a piece of cardboard as a template, wrap the streamer in one length a few times. Cut the ends. Repeat the process, this time wrapping the streamer in the other length. Cut both ends. You will then have strips of paper in two different lengths. The shorter pieces will be the button stamens and the longer pieces will be the fringed stamens. With the long pieces, fold them in half and make a fringe using fringe scissors.

3. Petals — Cut sheets of crepe paper into strips at desired width of your flower. In my case, our flower template is about 3 inches, so I eyeballed about 4 inch strips of paper (4″ by 19″ which is the width of the roll). With the help of a paper cutter, I stacked several layers of paper strips and started cut them into squares. This stack of paper will soon be your petals.

I stacked a few square sheets and placed the template on top. Start cutting the sheets along the edge of the template. Once the petals are cut, fold them in half and make a cut with the tips of your scissors at the center. Fold them in half again in the opposite direction (so you have a ‘+’fold) and cut again in the middle. You will use this center cut to thread your petals through the stem.

How to make crepe paper anemones:

1. Using small pieces of cotton, wrap it around the wire, like a q-tip. Add on a short piece of crepe paper streamer on top and twist the ends with your fingers around the wire.

2. With the fringed stamen still folded in half, wrap around the button stamen and twist the bottom part around the wire with your fingers.

3. Gently pull the petals before you thread them. Crepe paper has a bit of a give, so it’s easy to shape the petals. Thread two layers of petals (or more if you prefer) through the stem.

4. Wrap the stem with floral tape and you’re done!

photo above by Samm Blake

Check out our DIY Projects page for more paper flowers!

Your wedding stationery is a foretaste of your wedding day and sets the tone for your impending nuptials, so it should reflect your personality and unique style. This is why we love the creative stationery designs by Art by Ellie. The designs are fresh and unique and can be completely customized to your vision. No two designs are alike, which makes for a special delivery to your guests. Laura is also located in Texas if you’re local and would like to make an appointment in person, but all worldwide online requests are welcome!

From Laura of Art by Ellie, Everything we design is completely custom, and since we design for save-the-dates, invitations, programs, menus, place cards, thank you notes, and more, we are honored to be involved with your wedding throughout the entire planning process. We offer standard flat printing, as well as letterpress, thermography, laser-cutting, and foil-embossing — truly, the sky is the limit. With completely custom designs and our super-fast printing turnaround, we strive to ensure our brides end up with their perfect, one-of-a-kind invitation suite.

Head on over and check out more of the beautiful work from Art by Ellie. With limitless customization options, once you take a peek it’s hard to choose just one favorite design!