Tutorial: Flower Girl Wands

A super cute alternative to flower petals and baskets for your flower girl, or even your junior bridesmaids, are the ever adorable flower girl fairy wands. They can be made with real, dried, or fake flowers, but for our tutorial we simply used fake ones in our chosen color.

You’ll need
Flowers & ribbon in your chosen colors
Styrofoam ball
Dowel
Glue gun
Glue

1. Remove the stems from your flowers and push them one at a time into you Styrofoam ball, strategically placing them where you want and making sure to cover the ball; utilize a small dab of glue to hold your flowers in place.
   


2. Cover your dowel with the ribbon. Play around with multiple colors for a different look.
   


3. Carefully push the dowel into your Styrofoam ball making sure to only push it in a little bit and not all the way through. Pull the dowel back out and reinforce the hole with hot glue before placing it back in.

You’ve now completed a great DIY project AND you’ve got a beautiful wand for your flower girl and/or junior bridesmaids to carry.

In the event it didn’t turn out the way you would have liked it to, you’re just not as "craft savvy", or you really prefer to compensate others for their work (nothing wrong with that), here are a few fabulous Etsy boutique options we *heart* at Bum Bum & Button.

Clockwise from right hand corner: Blue & Silver Sparkly Wand – Blue Belle Boutique TN, Pink Flowers, Crystals, and Feathers Wand – Pretty Keepsakes, Vintage Plumes & Pearls Wand – Ardesign, Dried Flower Wand – NHWoodscreations

Q & A: Including Some Kids, While Excluding Others

I recently came across a bride wishing to have only a select number of close children at her wedding, but she wasn't sure how to tactfully exclude others.

I think a great way to handle this situation would be to give the children you hold close to you a role in your wedding (if possible) perhaps as junior bridesmaids, pages, etc ... With this you accomplish two things at once ... you've found a way to not only have them there, but also have a special job on your special day and you can follow up with other guest, via telephone after invitations have gone out, letting them know space/budget constraints only allow for children in the wedding party.

We've Got a New Look!

Welcome to the new Bum Bum & Button blog! We’re so excited about our beautiful, new look and want to give HUGE thanks to Fran at Small Bird Studios for all her hard work … thanks Fran!!

It is my desire to update regularly about various topics dealing with children in weddings from incorporating them, entertaining them, and cute wedding fashions for little ones. Children tend to be overlooked in this area and I really want to change that, so I hope you follow along, enjoy the blog, and maybe even consider it a bit of a resource.

"A person's a person, no matter how small." -Dr. Suess

A Little Background

I had written this very lenghty blog post when my computer decided to update on its own and restart ... WHY????? Of course I don't recall what I typed other than I was talking about my journey into wedding sitting and saying how I'm going to start blogging more regularly, though my now gone post certainly didn't get me off to a good start, so I'll try this again ...

My son was invited to be the ring bearer in an "adult only" wedding, but then was not allowed into the reception afterward. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that or "adult only" weddings per se, BUT I do feel if you want to include children in the actual wedding to help enhance it, you should certainly allow them into the reception afterward and provide something special for them to do as a thank you and job well done, but I digress ...

That was 3 or 4 years ago and since then I have been trying to figure out what it is I really want to do. I always knew I wanted it to be something that included my children in some way and allow me to be creative (I wanted to be an Architect when I grew up, but I'm beyond horrible at math and still use my fingers to count, so I realized that probably, really wasn't the way to go).

When I originally started Bum Bum & Button (named for my children) I wanted to plan children's parties and events, but after doing childcare subbing at my daughter's school, I thought back on the wedding incident and after doing some research, realized wedding and event sitters really don't exist. I have managed to find a few, but it's a tiny market just waiting to grow ... think of all the weddings that happen every year and how many of the guest likely have children, but might not have a sitter, especially with an out of town wedding.

SO, there's my little synopsis about wedding sitting and I plan/hope to give lots of insight into this up and coming trend.

Disaster Relief For Japan With Love

With all that's going on in Japan after the tsunami, like most, Im sure you're wondering what you can do to help and wanting to make sure your money gets to where it's suppose go. The wonderful ladies of Utterly Wed and ever thine.ever mine.ever ours have created the wonderful site http://www.forjapanwithlove.com/ where you can go to securely donate to the disaster relief in Japan; your money will help with emergency shelter and life saving supplies ... thanks to many amazing donations, so far they've raised $57,830.

Under construction ...

new things coming for Spring including an updated look and information regarding our wedding sitting ... very excited!

What's in a Theme?

With the start of a new calendar year, it’s time to start thinking about celebrating another birth year.

Aw the joy of an excited child waiting in anticipation of yet another birthday and if they’re anything like mine, they start announcing their age by saying they’re “4 ½” even as their birthday is only 5 days away, but of course that addition of a fraction makes them feel special and more like a “big kid”.

Along with a new age, generally comes a memorable celebration such as a birthday party, which can lead to stress over what to do, but it doesn’t have to. Think about all the things your child enjoys and create something based off of that. It could be something as obvious as their love of art that might lead you to an art themed party or perhaps something not so obvious like their new found interest in apples that immediately brings a green, red, yellow and brown color scheme to mind with the thought of an apple, apple tree or bucket invitation, a bobbing for apples and/or a “What’s Your Favorite” apple tasting activity, and a cute little caramel apple bar where guest would choose a few mini, lollipop sized caramel apples to take home as their party favor. You could even go in a completely different direction having someone dress up as Johnny Appleseed, tell the kids a brief story about himself and then have them paint pots, which can be combined with apple seeds, left by Johnny of course, to take home as their favor.

The options are limitless when planning a party for your child and they don’t have to be the typical character themed parties. Think about your child’s taste or even better, do a casual, mini question and answer session with them to find out what their current favorite things are.

It’s great to think outside of the box in terms of party locations as well. Chuck E Cheese and bouncy places, while tons ‘o fun, aren’t your only options. There’s always your own house or backyard and the local park, but you could also take a sport themed party one step farther and have it at the ball field or court likewise with an ethnic themed party being held at a correlating restaurant or a fashion party at a local boutique.

No matter what theme you decide on, remember to plan ahead and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Whose coming to party?

Unfortunately RSVPing has gone by the wayside. Some parents think it's only for giving a "yes" response or only for a "no" response ... it's not, unless otherwise stated on the invitation. Even a "maybe" is extremely helpful because it allows for planning and lets the parent/planner know there's a 50% chance your child may be in attendance.

Whether inviting a small playgroup or large class of 24, it can be challenging enough to plan a party without having to hunt down responses from invitees. On the flip, being a busy parent means you may misplace those invitations or think the other parent responded when they actually haven't.

If sending invitations out yourself, here are two options for planning your child's next party:

• If your child's school has a directory, adopt a "double hit" method where you first send a "save the date" evite to each invitee parent's email as soon as you know the date of the party. At least 2 weeks prior to the party, send the official, mailed, invitation dirently to the child's home. The "save the date" will alert parents of an upcoming party (and hopefully prevent them from planning another event during that time, especially if it's a party their child really wouldn't want to miss) and the mailed version will do duel duty, serving as an invite and as a reminder.


• If your not lucky enough to have the information that will allow you direct contact with the invitees parents, though considered a bit formal for a child's party, try including an RSVP card in the envelope along with the invitation; teachers can discreetly place the invitations in children's take home folders and the responses in your child's folder when they come in ... always ask politely.

Hope one of these works for you!