Hot air balloon centrepieces

Last year the lovely Elaine at Elsham Hall got in touch. One of her summer brides wanted these hot air balloons as the centrepieces for her guest tables. Would I be able to recreate them? Of course I said yes!!! I really should research these things before committing myself and jumping in with both feet. 

I knew balloon companies sent hot air balloons as gifts, so that is where I started to look for all the balloon components. Wow was I in for a surprise! I had already been advised the bride wanted the design as near to the picture as possible so on seeing the set up from my balloon supplier I knew she wouldn't be happy with what I was given. A very basic and rather tacky net just wouldn't do. More research was needed. Other balloon supplier friends couldn't help and I even contacted a net maker all to no avail. This design was tracked down to an American wedding blog where all the comments where where or how could this be bought/made, with no details at all to give further advice. Blogs, please take note: If you are going to put these types of designs on, please credit the maker/designer etc to give brides a chance.

Well that was it. I decided if I was going to fulfill this order then I was going to have to make the whole thing from scratch. I learnt how to make the netting, and what to make it with to give the best finish. With help from dad (thank you :-) ) we designed the frill and worked out how to put the whole thing together. A few sample pieces were put to the bride and refined where needed until we finished up with the design below.

This took many, many hours but in the end, once final colours were decided (These started life as pink but the peach, gold and ivory gave a much better overall look) I am very happy to say, the bride loved her designs.

As the ceremony also took place at Elsham Hall, I never got to see the room dressed as the guests and bride and groom saw it but here they all are waiting for their final placement.

The flowers used were peach avalanche roses, peach and ivory stocks, ivory eustoma and astilbe.

The registrars table display was different too! The bride provided small bottles dressed with lace, ribbon and pearls for me to place a couple of stems of flowers in.

These also adorned the radiator covers with other items from the bride.

Peach stock

Astilbe

Stock and Astilbe

Peach stock and eucalyptus

Roses and stocks

This wedding set up took a long time to refine so the bride was happy. We got there in the end and hopefully it shows the lengths we go to to get it right.
The overall look of The Barn was once again transformed completely and made personal to this couple.

The bride sent this to me the next day:

Sandra

I just want to say a huge thank you - the centrepieces were fantastic! I hope you can market them now and I hope other brides can love the idea as much as I did. The rest of the flowers were also beautiful! Couldn't have dreamt of them being better - thank you so much xx

Sara (June 2013)