The Indie Wedding Guide would like to welcome Maria of St. Jude's Creations for today's Designer View. Maria creates beautiful handmade paper flowers, a great alternative to the real thing.
How did you get started creating beautiful flowers with paper?
Making flowers goes a very long way back! My mother and her sister learned a tradition of making flowers and so from the time I was young I used to see my mother make flowers for bridal bouquets and for floral arrangements. I used to help her out from the time I was around 8yrs old!! She in fact used to make flowers from many mediums like fabric, paper, wax and wood. My house was always full of handmade flowers and everyone used to come and admire them. Now when I became a stay at home mom I decided to put my spin on her art and St Jude’s Creations was born. Many of my friends like the arrangements I made and hence it ‘bloomed’. I gradually put up a web site and have been receiving orders through the site. Right now I know I have only scratched the surface, knowing the vast variety of beautiful flowers that my aunt and my mother used to make in many mediums. There are just so many ideas that are I have yet to do that sometimes I just wish I had more time on my hands to just experiment and revisit some of the flowers they used to make. My mother still makes flowers! My aunt sadly passed away last year.
What would be your advice to a bride thinking of using your paper flowers for her wedding?
Paper flowers are really unique and are growing in popularity with brides. The flowers don’t wither and last as an everlasting keepsake of your wedding day! The flowers are each uniquely handmade by old traditional methods and hence take some time. So if you are looking for using them for a wedding you would need to order at least a month or two early depending on the season.
What do you offer that "big box" companies and retailers do not offer?
Since the flowers are handmade the color/shade/shape/design can be custom made which is the greatest part of using handmade flowers! In short you get exactly what you have in mind and you get to keep them or give them away as favors.
A special thanks to Maria for sharing her beautiful work with us. You can visit Maria's site St. Jude's Creations for more flowers, or visit her Etsy shop.
