​We had so much fun during out ten-year anniversary photo shoot.  We spent time and effort putting love and thought into this shoot.  I wore the same dress I wore the day we got married (with a few alterations) and my husband wore his kilt.  We used our glasses from our wedding day and made some of the props ourselves. 
For me it is always a little bit more relaxing to work with people you know well. We had my friend Chris do our photos and he was awesome.  You can check out his website at: https://lucidphoto.squarespace.com/.  If you live in Colorado and are looking for a great photographer I recommend. 
Now for the shoot…we were going for a beautiful outdoor shoot that was the opposite of our original photos.  Why, because we really didn’t like most of our wedding photos.  We had success.  We were trying to get a beautiful fall backdrop, however, with this warm weather it was a little bit of a challenge. In the end our pictures turned out so wonderful!
I've included a preview of the pictures below.  **DO NOT RETOUCH OR USE THESE PHOTOS**

​We wanted to do a Celtic, Bohemian, earthy theme for our photo shoot.  I knew I really wanted to wear a flower crown since we were going to be in the woods and it fit with the concept we were working towards.  I started doing some research to order one online since I am not always the craftiest person.  The pricing was much more than I wanted to pay (ranging from $30-$50).  I started my DIY Flower Crown journey. 
Most of the videos and write-ups I found appeared to be a fairly simple process.  I decided to just dive in and give it a go, I had enough time to order one if it didn’t work out.  So, I headed out to Michael’s to find my flowers and price out the cost.  I already had the wire for the crown foundation from making my bridesmaids bouquets 10 years prior.  I only needed the silk flowers and some new floral tape. 
I did well on the cost because they were having a good sale and I had some great coupons.  I ended up getting all my flowers and the tape for $12. I got home that night, put a movie on our TV, and went to work creating my vision. 
 
Steps for DIY Flower Crown:

1. I started by cutting a lengthy piece of the wire so that I had enough to go around my head.  I straightened the wire out and then did one circle around my head in the spot I knew I wanted to wear my crown. 
   1. I had my husband help me loop the wire in that spot so that it was the correct circumference. 
2. Next, I made two more loops with the extra wire and then wrapped the remaining around the crown to give it some extra support.  Then I used pliers and pushed the areas where the end of the wire meets the crown down so that there were not any sharp spots on the wire. 
3. Finally, I taped around the entire loop with the floral tape to ensure I did not get poked in the head (I added an extra layer of tape to the areas that had extra wire from it being wrapped). 

 
Now for the fun part…adding the flowers!

1. I started this step by cutting off 4 flowers from each bundle that I purchased (a total of 12). 
   1. I did it this way because I didn’t want to waste the extra silks if I didn’t need them, and I didn’t want to overwhelm myself. 
2. I didn’t really have a layout for the flowers planned so I just started adding the flowers around in the way I thought they looked best. 
   1. I made sure to cut the stems fairly short as you must tape each flower to the crown as you go around and I didn’t want it to get too bulky. 
3. It took me about an hour to get everything taped on where I thought it looks best.  If you haven’t worked with floral tape before it is a little tricky because it feels sticky on both sides. 
4. With that in mind, I did have to go back the next night and hot glue the tape down in a few spots.  I also glued a couple of the flowers to the wire ring so that they would lay properly on the crown.

 
I love how it turned out and how it looks in the pictures.  I also love that I was able to save myself about $40 by taking the risk with the DIY.  Sometimes we just have to go for it and see how things turn out.  Stay tuned for the final article about the photo shoot!