Martha's Paper Globes



Oh yea, I got this here.

Through out this wedding planning, designing, breathing, eating, not-really-sleeping-well process.  There has been a constant source of wedding/crafty/sanity that I keep referencing: Martha Stewart.

I really, really, love her.

Something I've found about planning weddings, is that shit happens, plans change and you just have to roll with it.

I could run down a laundry list of things that have changed, but allow me to focus on one thing in general.

I had this idea of having paper lanterns with lights in them hanging from the (very open, tall) rafters where the dancing is happening in the front (see picture).  I had this planned for months.  As I began shopping for the lanterns I realized that this project was going to be too expensive, time consuming, and not really feasible in general. 

The only way to light lanterns are rope/Christmas lights, which need electricity, and extension chords, therefore outlets, which we were lacking.  The other option was the electric battery tea lights, but the lanterns would be hung so high that the labor costs would be raised just to hang, light, and then take them down.

Uhhhh....

Tutorial from Martha Stewart, here.

Enter: Martha Stewart and all her infinite wisdom of craftdom.

I saw this idea of tissue balls in various colors and sizes strung together.  Since the ideas of lights were out, this worked perfectly.

Since we'll be there the night before to hang them from the rafters, no labor costs needed to light them.

Finding the cheapest and widest selection of tissue balls was tricky.  Most places you can buy bulk, of only ONE color per order.  If you only want one color this works, but I wanted 4 (peach, red, yellow, and white), 12 of each color and each size was also not working for me... that was too much.  Martha advertised a few places, but they didn't have a wide selection of colors.

Enter: Factory Direct Party .  Not only did they have the best color selection, but 5in, 8in, 12in, 14in, and 19in per color!  Bonus: I also found matching festooning too to go on the lighting rods (see above picture) in the hall where we'll be dining.  For all the paper decorations for the wedding I spent a little over $140.00 with shipping and handling included (see below)!  I spent about 1.5 weeks researching the best price/selection... and Factory Direct Party definitely won.  If you are planning to do this Martha Stewart craft, here's what I ordered for a room that's approximately 45' x 40'.