Sincerely, Sarah: Wedding Banners

It's that time of the year.... WEDDING SEASON!

Tyson's younger sister is getting married in May and asked me to make a wedding banner for their main table as well as a mini-banner for the card box.

Of course I said yes!

Anytime I can get my hands on some crafting, I'm game!

Her colors are a beautiful vintage palette of mint, blush and cream.

I sat with her and drew up a draft of what she wanted the banners to look like and I gave her a shopping list based off of the drawing.
*It's always easiest for me to draw out my banners and crafts so I know exactly what materials to buy and how much I'll need.

Wedding Banner How To:

Unfortunately, I haven't purchased any additional cartridges or software for my Cricut yet, so I only have what came with the machine. The flag shapes I needed weren't on my Cricut so I cut them all out by hand.

**I started with the banner flags.
I cut out all 11 I needed with a ruler, pencil & a paper trimmer.
The banner was to hang on an 8 foot long table. So, I accounted for the drooping look as well as ribbon on the sides and in-between each flag to know how wide each flag should be.

looks crooked but I promise, they were perfect :)

**I then cut out lace for the next layer.
The lace was a bit tough to work with just because its so soft and flimsy.
I laid it out on my cutting mat, cut strips as wide as the first paper layer, and about an inch longer than the paper as well.
Once the rectangles were cut, I proceeded to cut the lace into 11 more flag shapes.

**For the third and fifth layers, I was actually able to use my Cricut!
I do wish the Cricut cut into thicker paper though; it ends up cutting a basic line and I had to use scissors to cut them all the way out.

**The fourth layer was added to help break up the flat plain look of the banner.
I didn't want to over complicate the lace as it's difficult to cut into shapes, so I just cut out oval shapes wide enough to be seen under layer 5.

**Then came the letters.
This is the part of banner making that makes me eager to hurry and invest in some Cricut letter cartridges.
I end up drawing and cutting each letter out by hand. Definitely a time investment.
If it was for my own banner I wouldn't have been so worried and 100% precise about everything, but since it was for a wedding, I knew it had to look perfect.

**Once the layers were cut out and glued in place, I cut strips of mint ribbon and glued them in between each flag. (I cut strips to save on ribbon)
Ending with about a foot or two of ribbon on the ends for the bride to work with when hanging.

This banner took me a while to complete. Not only were there a lot of flags involved, but I wanted it to be perfect for my sister-in-law's wedding where hundreds of people will see it.

Wedding Cards Mini-Banner
Her mini-banner for Cards was much easier. I was able to complete the banner in under 30 minutes.
This little banner will be draped across an open vintage suitcase for guests to leave their cards in.

** I first cut the burlap into 5 triangle flags
glued on her lace ribbon
then drew and cut out the little letters

**Because the burlap flags were so small, I was worried about the fraying that comes with using burlap.
I didn't want to spend a lot of time sewing and gluing, so I used clear nail polish around each edge. It dried really quickly and worked perfectly!