Ruffled
Now Reading
DIY Easter Lily Backdrop
Ruffled
Ruffled

DIY Easter Lily Backdrop

May 4

Veronica from My Hands Made It is back with us again, now sharing with us one last project she made for her wedding. She is also the brains and crafty hands behind Coco Irene, a fabulous accessories shop with the cutest belts and statement necklaces.

Easter Lilies Altar backdrop

I’m pretty sure the first time I saw the Easter Lily altar from Martha Stewart my heart stopped beating for a second. I had been searching for a ceremony backdrop with a 1930s look and that altar was so sculptural and had such a great deco feel to it – I HAD TO HAVE IT. Unfortunately a couple hundred fresh Easter Lilies are not within our budget nor are they even available in late June for our wedding. So I went with artificial lilies, and although they are definitely not as fragrant, they still look seriously awesome.

The cheapest flowers I could find were bought by the bush, which meant a lot of time spent stripping the flowers and leaves from their plastic stems and then removing the stamens. The flowers then had holes running through the centers – perfect for stringing onto wire.

To make our 7 ft tall x 4 ft wide altar, I used:
– Approximately 450 artificial lilies
– Two 3 ft long wooden dowel rods
– Bendable wire
– 4 ft long leaf garland
– Masking tape

DIY do-it-yourself easter lilies altar ceremony decor backdrop

See Also
couple portrait at Kona Beach
A Vibrant Destination Wedding on Kona Beach in Blue & Gold

The process is actually super simple. Make an “O” at the end of a length of wire and drop your first lily on, bell side down. Then crimp and twist the wire so that the bottom of the next lily will just graze the top of the first. Add another lily and so on until you’ve reached your desired length. Wrap the top of your wire around a dowel rod and begin on the next wire. I also added leaves from the lily bushes for a little extra color. Keep working with the dowel rods separately and vary the length of wire. When both dowel rods are filled, tape them together to achieve the width of your altar. The flowers will then overlap, creating great depth. The leaf garland is great for camouflaging the dowel rods – simply attach with wire.

Pretty romantic stuff, right? I can’t wait to see the sun shining through this gorgeous curtain of flowers as I walk down the aisle.

Tags
View Comments (23)

  • this is incredible! it’s like an indoor weeping willow. wonderful backdrop.

  • This is absolutely gorgeous – kudos on a job well done. I’d love to see pictures of your backdrop in use! The fake flowers look good too – I can’t tell the difference, and I’m sure no one at the ceremony will be able to either!

  • Stunning. I love the curtain of flowers. It is defiantly worth the time put into it.

  • Totally in love with this idea! I was looking everywhere for ideas for an altarpiece. I might want to do a variation of using orchids. Thanks!!

  • oh this is perfect!! i was looking for some decor ideas for a flowers wedding redo post and that’s perfect, i love that flower wall!! wow, and from real flowers it would just smell amazing!!

  • Oh hey, and if you don’t feel like doing the work yourself, you can always just purchase one from BHLDN for $1,800 and pretend they didn’t steal the idea from anyone (:

    https://www. bhldn. com/the-shop_decor_decorating/forever-flower-ceremony-backdrop

  • This is so beautiful! I loved it so much that this was the one creative project I was looking forward to most for my wedding! I bought all the “eastern lilies in cream” from http://www.silkflowersfactory.com for about $250 with tax and shipping.

    The flowers worked, however, many of them were poor quality or stained. Luckily I ordered enough so that I had plenty of good flowers to work with and I used the rest for another project. After taking the flower heads off the stem, which was a lot of work because I had so many flowers, I had to find a way to fluff them up because some had been pressed in the shipping box. So, I put them in the dryer for just 20-30 seconds on high heat. If they were in longer I figured out that the plastic started to melt. Can you tell I really wanted this to work?

    Anyway, it all worked out and looked beautiful! Since I had to fill an 8 foot long square copper arch, this project probably took longer than making a 4 foot long altar backdrop. Check out the pictures:

  • I am looking for some nice quality artificial Easter lilies. Can you tell me where you found yours? Thank you!

  • I’ve been scouring the Internet to figure out how to make this myself. Where did you buy the fake Easter lilies ?

  • Wow this is stunning ! I’ll try to do it for my wedding but i don’t think it’s gonnas be that gorgeous.. 🙂

  • This is gorgeous and took my breath away when I saw it as well. My ceremony is going to be in an outdoor gazebo and I’m thinking of using this as a backdrop at the back of the gazebo. The gazebo is brown wood so needs some lightening up!
    You can get 6′ Trumpet Lily Garland in white from Silk Flower Depot, this is the cheapest already stringed garland I’ve found so far.
    https://www.wholesalecentral.com/flower0001/store.cfm?event=itemdetail&itemid=1149027&returnto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wholesalecentral.com%2Fflower0001%2Fstore.cfm%3Fevent%3Dshowcatalog%26catid%3D133469%26pagenumber%3D2

    If you prefer to do it yourself or what different colors, eFavorMart has 60 lilies for $20
    https://wedding-supplies.efavormart.com/search?asug=&w=eastern+lily&ctl00%24ctl02%24go.x=0&ctl00%24ctl02%24go.y=0

  • Very impressive! Super idea for those who have elegant taste but are on a strict budget. This is when you call in all your “artsy” friends and get it done more quickly in a party atmosphere.
    I really love this idea!

Scroll To Top