Third times the charm!

 I have always dreamed of an elegant hall with chandeliers and beautiful architectural details for my wedding reception...reality check......elegant halls with chandeliers are EXPENSIVE!!

I dreamed of being married at the Henry Clay building from the first time I heard it was being remodeled:


isn't it gorgeous...

But at $3500 for 4 hours and you must use their super expensive caterer...not in the budget.

So I settled for the Old Medical School Building.

Pretty on the outside...gorgeous lobby and stairwells for pictures....but a boring hall for the reception. 

It's not terrible...but needs some help.

I checked ebay....but at $15 a piece..still out of the budget...so I decided to DIY it! 

I first found this beauty at dollarstorecrafts.com.

My version was not so pretty. I didn't even take a picture it was so bad. VERY bling....note don't use silver beads.

Then I found this one at http://www.craftstylish.com and this one at weddingbee.com and thought maybe I could do it with the cricut and Scal program...by the way LOVE the Sure-cuts-a-lot program. You can cut almost any image or font on your computer without having to by expensive cartridges.

The weddingbee version was also a flop. The home decor cricut cartridge chandelier was too flimsy and drooped after just an hour.

I had almost given up on the dream when I found this beauty.

Total cost for 12 chandeliers: $11.75 (definately within budget)

for each chandelier you will need:

2 sheets of posterboard (we cut then into 12x12 sheets for the cricut)
glue (we found elmer's white glue and a foam brush worked best)
chandelier crystal (I bought a crystal garland at Hobby Lobby in the wedding section $4.99 on sale)
 fishing line

I'm sure you could cut these out by hand with a craft knife, but I purchased the Scal2 file and it made life so much easier. She also included a PDF with instructions. http://littlepurplepansie.blogspot.com

We did change a few things, we tried spray adhesive, but found it messy and it dried too quickly to match up the chandelier pieces correctly. We brushed on good old Elmer's glue and it was MUCH easier.

I also added some bling and our monogram (also cut with the cricut). I added the fishing line before gluing the last 2 chandelier sections together, then glued 2 "E"s together with the fishing line in between and tied on the  crystal.

I need another pic in the daylight...maybe tomorrow...

3 more finished chandeliers

cutting with the cricut (helps to have 2 mats when doing big projects)

pieces waiting to be folded and glued

the fiance patiently scoring the pieces

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What do you think?



I was featured on DIY Friday at