pom poms :)

I heart these
keep seeing them on off beat bride in american weddings but don't think the craze has rreached the uk yet 
thinking of hanging them from celing at our wedding..anyone else doing pom poms/ have top tips?
http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/article/pom-poms-and-luminarias


thinking of hanging them from celing at our wedding..anyone else doing pom poms/ have top tips?
http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/article/pom-poms-and-luminarias
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Thankfully where I was planning on putting them didn't work in reality so I ditched making them.
I made around 500 dinky ones for napkin rings. They are fiddly, but look really cool. Just make sure you allow yourself a stack of time. I used green garden wire from Homebase instead of florist wire - I think it worked out cheaper in the end and the wire was more bendy.
I think DustyMoth is making the pompoms too. Bennic made a whole host of the smaller flowers for her wedding and they looked great.
What the Martha directions don't tell you, is that if you make them out of a full sheet like she says, they end up BIGGER THAN YOU. Well. Dave and I could hide behind our heads behind one and it wasn't far off the width of me. We're splitting a sheet into 4, and using 12 sheets. They end up fluffier and smaller - and abut 30cms wide rather than a good 60-70! If you like, I'll try and take a photo of my test ones for you which I did in two colours so you can see the size of them.
We're going to make them up in advance and then fluff them up the day before, attach them to twigs and make sort of pompom trees. A bit like big blue alliums.
This was the easiest link I found to follow the directions- I like pictures
http://www.deepfriedkudzu.com/2006/04/making-giant-paper-pom-poms.html
Coloured paper lanterns might be easier for you with similar effect: http://www.paperlanternstore.com/nylonlanterns.html
Our problem is that we can't hang anything from the marquee roof... I do like the lanterns though!
Forgot to add - don't buy tissue paper from hobbycraft. SO expensive in there. I've got a few reams off of a company on ebay called jwspackaging who are really good value:
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/JWS-Merchandising__W0QQ_armrsZ1
I'll get my camera out for you this afternoon!
This is the big one, with cat for scale...
This is the smaller one, with watch!
And (can I get three in a post or just two?) here are both for comparison. I coudn't get Esme to keep out of the way, but it gives an idea, anyway. She's now gone to sleep in a bag. Bless. Why she couldn't have done that earlier, I don't know!
Turns out I exaggerated about the sizes - smaller one is just over 20cms and the big one is about 55cms. We can both hide behind the big one though!
First I book the same venue as you and now I discover I'm also doing paper poms same as you!
I discovered these looking on the US stylemepretty website (which is great for ideas) and it led me to the Etsy website and a seller called PomLove. I contacted her to see how much I'd be looking at for her to make a whole load of poms to send over from the US and she directed me to a seller in London who I've emailed but not heard back from....to be honest I hadn't even thought about making these myself. I'm SO uncreative but maybe I should give it a go rather than paying someone else to put them together - how hard can it be!?!
Question though - once you've opened them up and made them into the pom shape to hang, how to you store & transport them? Or would I have to make them all up but not actually open them up until we get to the barn the day before to hang them as we open them up?! That sounds like a lot of work to me katiejones!!!
The most time consuming bit is getting them to the pre-pouf stage. The first batch of 120 took me the evenings of about a month. When at the last minute we needed more, I made the other 380 in about 4 days! I was speedy!
Those PomLove ones work out about £5.50 each - and you still have to unfurl them!!!
Seriously, they aren't hard at all - the unfurling is the time consuming bit I found - but Bennic is probably better placed to confirm this
I was just planning on doing the big ones to hang from the beams in the barn. If the most time consuming bit is getting them folded etc maybe I could make about 80 in advance then enrol someone the day before to help me unfold them...although I haven't even chosen my theme, colours or anything yet so God knows why I'm thinking about pom poms already! Ha! x
however it has led me to have another pom pom related thought - do you think you could make woolen poms poms like you did in brownies but bigger - is this a mad idea and do you think the cost would be prohibitive (sp?), maybe i am just getting a bit carried away!
AJS - you obviously have great taste
xx
haha - it's a 2 tier, shoulder length veil with ribbon edging.
The only problem is our venue. We're having the reception here http://www.6stchadsplace.com/ and whilst they have perfect beams for the job we can't get in earlier in the day to do any decoration - anything I want will have to be brought in the night before and they'll set the tables before they leave - so i can't imagine they would be too chuffed to be on ladders hanging up pom poms at closing time on a Friday.
I think I'm going to make smaller ones in the right colours and attach them to my table settings instead.
www.specialcreations.co.uk
£24.99 inc postage for 20 lots of colours usually posted same day if ordered by 12