DIY Winter Wedding Poms

Have you seen this bright and happy trend that is sweeping the blogosphere?  Pomanders in the aisles!  Made from anything from tissue paper to flowers, they always add a pop of classy color to an aisle!

source: Weddings By Color

As you can see, pomanders are generally kind of a spring and summer thing, so I had kind of written them off as not for us.  Until Saturday, when I had a magical moment at Michael's.  There, right in the Christmas aisle (I agree it IS early for that) were these perfect poms made of greenery.  They said "Sarah you absolutely must buy us and save us from our current state of tackiness."  I'm a sucker for a cry for help, so I bought 6 with a few other supplies and took them home.

As you can see, the purchased poms needed some TLC.

I decided these little guys would be made into aisle decor.  I had already made 6 "Reserved" signs for the pews, but I had not spent any money on them, so I figured it would be ok to make these too.  The signs and poms can be hung alternating on the pews themselves.  If we don't need to use all the signs, no biggie.

So here's a tutorial for how to make these little guys yourselves!

Step one:  Gather your supplies.

I started with one pom of faux greenery ($5.99), one hydrangea stem (40% off on sale, so $3.59), one cluster of wired Christmas ornaments ($.99), 1 1/2 inch double faced satin ribbon in ivory ($2.49 per 4 yards), floral wire and scissors (I didn't have to buy these).  I got the most bang for my floral buck by going with the sale hydrangeas, because I was able to cut off the various blooms and make it stretch- but you could use other flowers or embellishments too.

Step 2: Dissassemble everything.

I proceeded to remove the red ribbon from the pomander, and then I unwrapped all of the wired ornaments, and cut clusters of three blooms, and the leaves, off of the hydrangea.

Before dissassembly

After dissassembly!

The hydrangea got the same treatment.

Step 3:  Add the new ribbon to the pomander.

First, I folded a length of ribbon in half to hang the pom from the church pew.  In order to attach the new ribbon to the ball, I "stitched" some ribbon through the frayed ends of the ribbon and pulled them tight.  Then I inserted them into the pomander, and used a second length of ribbon to tie a bow around it.  After fluffing the greenery around it, any ribbon ends were fully camoflaged.

Step 4:  Add the leaves.

You might want to skip this step if it makes the pom look too much like an apple to you.  But I liked it.  Using floral wire, I wrapped the gold and hydrangea leaves together and stuck them behind the bow, slightly to the right.

Step 5:  Insert embellishments.

Using floral wire for the flower clusters, insert them throughout your pomander wherever you think they look good, wrapping the wire around branches to secure the flowers.  Do the same with the Christmas ornaments.

Step 6:  Trim and Display!

Trim off any fraying that may have occurred on the edge of your bow, and then display proudly to the world on your blog.  Or at least, at your wedding on the pews!

Total project cost with tax: $70.  These took about 1.5 hours each to make, so I imagine a florist would charge heaps more for the real deal.  And the best part is that we will be able to reuse these in our home after the wedding as part of our holiday decor.  I'm thinking they'll look be the perfect substitute for garland on the stairwell!

Will you be making any of the ceremony decor for your wedding?