Tomatoes & Apple Pie: burlap

As we started wedding planning we were coming up with different ideas on how we could have an affordable, fun, self planned wedding. I knew one thing. We were going to have a candy buffet. I scoured the internet, and eventually came up with the idea to do a carnival wedding. I convinced the hubs of this, and then we started telling our family and friends our plan. Some jumped right on board, others were a little more skeptical. I would explain that it would involve carnival games and food, such as hot dogs, cotton candy, and popcorn. Eventually they would understand, or they would at least leave it be. :) So, what does a vintage carnival themed wedding look like? Here you go!

My wonderful mother-in-law made these awesome signs to go around the site announcing where we were.

We were outside, with minimal decor. We did basic white chairs and attached pinwheels around on some of them.

And down to the reception...

Long, family style table and seating with red paper table covers, burlap runners, and pinwheels.

The candy buffet, full of vintage style candy and simple paper bags to fill with the goodies.

And of course carnival games. First off, a game of strength, tug-of-war. The bridemaids and groomsmen had a little competition, and my girls won it! (We won't mention that they just let go, and made the boys fall down) :)

Balloon dart toss. There was also toss the ping pong ball in the fish bowl, and sack races

Cupcakes with swirl frosting, and a cake reminiscent of a big top or popcorn tub.

What is a party without some food? My photographer said he thought it was awesome that there is a picture of hot dogs in our wedding pics. I'd have to agree.

That adorable little candy machine being used as a fork holder is a pinterest project I did a while back.

Don't forget the cotton candy! There was also popcorn, whole pickles, and peanuts to complete the carnival array.

And last but not least is my in my boots!

Hope you enjoyed my little foray into a vintage carnival wedding. This would make a great party theme for anytime!

What to do with lots of burlap?! For the wedding we did a burlap runner down the tables. For that I bought ready to do burlap strips from Michaels. They were $5 for a 30 feet, and it is about 6 inches wide. It was a great buy, and was exactly what I was looking for. Now that the wedding is over I have lots of burlap and wanted to come up with some good things to do with it. Where to turn for ideas? Pinterest of course!

Lots of cute things came up, and I got lots of ideas, but I knew right away I wanted to do a couple wreaths. There were lots of designs and ways to go about it. I was going to a bridal shower this weekend, and decided this was the perfect opportunity to try out making a wreath.

I adapted the way I did the wreath from a tutorial on Today's Fabulous Find. For the wreath base, I took a tip from The Penny Parlor and instead of buying a foam wreath base for this, I headed over to the Home Depot plumbing department and got a piece of foam tubing for 97 cents! This is a 6 foot piece, and I cut it in half to and used duct tape to attach the ends into a wreath form. Craft fail note, I also bought a piece of tubing with a larger diameter...it didn't create a very nice circle, and I had to give up on it. So, stick with the smallest one. But, 97 cents for 2 wreaths is much better then $6-$7 for one!

This is the bigger size tubing, and it just kept getting kinks, but you do the same thing with the smaller size and it works like a charm!

Materials:

Wreath base

Burlap runner/strip - 10 yards (or you can get a couple yards of burlap from the fabric store)

Pins

Fabric flowers, bows, or other decorations you want to add

First you are going to want to cover the wreath base with burlap.

You are going to cut your burlap into squares. I just took the strip, and folded it over to get an aproximate square, it doesn't need to be perfect. This was a bit messy for me, and I was doing it on the couch and luckily had a little blanket under me to catch the bits of burlap falling everywhere.

To create the bubbles on the wreath, I created a triangle with the square an put a pin through the corner, then pulled the other two corners in and put the pin through those as well.

You'll end up with this bubble, and it was just a little big for me, so I then pulled each of the corners in again and put the pin through the gaps in the burlap. On the cut sides you have to put it down a little farther so it doesn't thread out,or you put the pin in the threads of the burlap.

You then end up with this bubble.

You then attach it onto the wreath form. With the tubing I used, if the pin was put straight in it would poke out the other side and pull out easily. However, I just put the pin in at an angle, so that it slide right along the foam part of the tubing and it stayed really well. Keep putting them around until you have filled up the wreath!

Here is the back view, I didn't do bubbles on the back, I didn't think it was needed and the wreath form was covered from the initial wrap around.

You could leave this wreath as is, but I wanted to add a little something to it. I did some fabric flower rosettes, and put them on pins. Then, they can be taken off and different decorations can be added to it for different seasons of the year.

Fabric flowers are fairly simple. I don't know if this is the best way to do them, but this is how I've always done it. You can also do this with ribbons and it comes out great!

You'll need strips of fabric and a glue gun. I use up most of my fabric scraps doing this. Your strips can very in length and width. I do them 2-3 inches wide, and whatever length I have. The wider and longer your fabric, the bigger your flower. Pretty common sense, huh? :)