Frugal Flower Girl Accessories

When my husband and I got married we didn't have much money to
have any fancy decorations at our wedding. I did, however, come
up with some inexpensive, creative ideas to make sure our flower 
girls were dressed in style.

We had an outdoor wedding in August, so it was easier to dress
our young flower girls for the nice weather. We had two flower
girls in our wedding, ages 7 and 9. Because we have two mothers
who love to sew, the flower girls' dresses were very inexpensive. 
I picked out a simple, yet elegant sundress pattern, and paid
about $3 a yard for a pretty summer print. The dresses were calf
length and sleeveless, with a big bow in the back.

My husband had a hand in decorating the flower girls' baskets. 
He is always one to fix up something instead of throwing it away,
so he came up with the idea of spray painting wicker Easter
baskets. It was perfect--we already had the baskets and the
white spray paint. 

Next I tied some pink and white ribbons around the handles of the
baskets, and then I glued on some matching silk flowers (just a 
few, to accent). The baskets were simple and elegant.

Finally we gathered together the rose petals we'd gathered from
our garden just for the occasion, and filled the baskets with
petals we'd laid out in the sun to dry. 

For a finishing touch, I took some of the leftover silk flowers
and ribbons and decorated hair clips for the girls.

The grand total for the two matching flower girl dresses, with
matching baskets and hair clips, was under $30.

Rachel Paxton publishes the Creative Homemaking Recipe of the
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