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Mother’s Day is around the corner! Writing about all of these amazing working mothers has certainly got me thinking about Mother’s Day a little more than I normally would. It has made me want to tell my mother and mother-in-law just how much I appreciate them. Makes me want to snuggle up with the two boys who made me a momma. These DIY Mother’s Day Flower Arrangement tips make giving flowers easy and inexpensive.

Flowers are such a beautiful way to say that you are thinking about someone. But, with prices starting at $50 for a nice small Mother’s Day flower arrangement it is fairly cost prohibitive to many. I typically love giving flowers in addition to a small item that will last for some time or be a sweet treat for that person. Often spending $50 or more on flowers is just out of my budget. Thankfully, I know a few tricks to make a DIY Mother’s Day flower arrangement look like a million bucks.

Tips for DIY Mother’s Day Flowers:

Simple Flower Arrangement

Keep it simple!

Use one flower (or one color scheme) in a low vase to make a simple, but beautiful, flower arrangement. It doesn’t take much time to  make an incredibly easy flower arrangement. Your mom will love it, I promise!

 

Floating Flowers make great impact in an easy DIY flower arrangement - A Well Crafted Party
Photo by Katherine McLoskey Photography

Float your flowers for high impact and low cost.

Floating one or two stems or buds of flowers in water is a cost effective way to make a statement. These don’t last as long as some flower arrangements, but they are beautiful! The photo above shows a beautiful black lily floating with the bud of a white rose and some lily grass. If you would like some sparkle, try putting some sequins in your vase as well!

 

Use Unexpected Vessels in Creating Fun DIY Floral Centerpieces - A Well Crafted Party
Photo by West Impressions

 

Use unexpected vessels for your DIY flower arrangement instead of vases.

 

I love using unexpected vessels for flowers. Use bottles, cans, baskets, or boxes to house your arrangement. (You may need to put a small vase or jar in to hold the flowers with water, but the outer vessel can be anything really!) Get a beautiful serving bowl for a gift and put the flowers in it! Two gifts in one. We used picnic boxes for flowers on the tables at my sister’s cheery Summer Wedding. Guests received their lunches in the same boxes so it was a lot of fun seeing them all together.

 

Sprinkle your tea table with flower buds - A Well Crafted Party

 

Sprinkle your table with flower buds!

 

Last year we had a little Mother’s Day tea on the coffee tables in our living room. I simply sprinkled the tables with the buds from a few flowers that I picked up at the store and snipped out of my yard. The table looked festive throughout the entire tea party. The buds do get a bit wilted over a long period of time. But, this was a short tea party so I was able to make a small, low arrangement in a jam jar after the party that I was able to enjoy for a few more days.

 

Want to make some flowers that will last a little longer? Check out the posts below:

 

DIY Cherry Blossom Branches - A Well Crafted Party
Photo by Aubrie Legault – First featured on Hostess with the Mostess

DIY Cherry Blossom Branches

These DIY Cherry Blossom Branches will last for years and are so pretty to look at! A large vase with these sticking out would be a stunning gift.

Mix up your Mother's Day Flower Arrangement by adding in some paper flowers and leaves with real, inexpensive blooms. - A Well Crafted Party

Use Paper Leaves and Flowers to Fill in Real Blooms

I love real flowers. Sometimes when wanting to create a fun, whimsical look and to save money I’ll combine paper flowers and leaves along with inexpensive real blooms.

Make Mom a Tissue Paper Flower Arrangement - A Well Crafted Party

 

Make a Tissue Paper Flower Arrangement for Mom

 

Tissue paper flowers are easy to make, inexpensive and a lot of fun. Plus, they don’t die!

 

What do you like giving mom for Mother’s Day?

 

The Portland Bloggers, a local bloggers meet-up group and resource, hosted a Valentine’s Day brunch potluck this past month. We were happy to have decoration supplied by Minted.Com and tasty mimosas with Santa Margherita Wines. All thoughts and opinions are my own. To see my sponsored posting guidelines please visit my policies page. Thank you to Jennifer Landers for helping us find a swanky venue and Suzannah Stanley for these fab photos! 

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

 

What kind of potluck should I host? …. BRUNCH!

 

When you live in Portland you tend to come around to the amazing-ness that is B-R-U-N-C-H. You see, it may have to do something with the rain and the grey skies or perhaps it is the laid back nature of this town… but, getting up early in the morning and heading out to breakfast really is just not our thing. Yes, it happens. Yes, there are people that seem to make it out of the house before 10 AM. Those are the people who get to walk right in and sit down for a tasty meal with no wait.

The rest of us, well, we do brunch and we do it hard. We have some of the most amazing restaurants out there creating brunch menus just for us. Heck, even the amazing Gregory Gourdet of  Departure (you may know him from Top Chef) is getting into some brunch mischief with a pop-up brunch feature this Easter. Personally, I love brunch. There is something about the perfect mix of sweet and savory breakfast food paried with a breakfast cocktail all while fully rested. My love of brunch is one of the many reasons why we decided our recent Portland Bloggers meet-up was going to be a brunch potluck. One of the other reasons is that brunch is perfect for a potluck.

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

 

Brunch Potluck Food

 

There was such a great variety of foods and treats. I love brunch foods for potlucks because they can be savory or sweet. Great brunch potluck foods include mini bagels with cream cheese, quiches, muffins, waffle bites, deviled eggs… the list goes on and on! And for this particular brunch, because we hosted the party near Valentine’s Day, there were a lot of sweet treats on top of the great brunch foods.

 

Brunch Potluck Beverages

 

One of my favorite parts of any party is the beverage choices. Because we were having a brunch, we felt mimosas were a must! Santa Margherita wines sent us some of their Prosecco to try out. The crisp Santa Margherita Prosecco was stationed in a ice bucket ready to pair with either orange juice, peach puree, or strawberry puree. My favorite pairing was with the peach puree because the lightly tart taste of the Prosecco brought out the bright and juicy flavors of the peach. We also had plenty of sparkling water to pair with the juices to round out our beverage selection.

 

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

 

Beautiful and EASY Party Decor

 

We decorated the meeting space using Minted’s Party Suites. Seriously, such an easy and beautiful solution to party decor. You simply pick your suite, customize and purchase and then a neat little party package comes to your door complete with custom items, paper straws, plates, and napkins! We chose the Valentine’s Ombre Love Party Decor in the Perfect Party package. The mini note cards made for perfect labels for the food for the potluck. The banner is such great quality of paper that I’ll be keeping it to use over and over again at upcoming Portland Blogger meet-ups.

 

Simple and beautiful party decor compliments of Minted

Simple and beautiful party decor compliments of Minted

Simple and beautiful party decor compliments of Minted

 

What makes potlucks so great?

 

I go on and on about potlucks like they are the butter to my bread… but, heres the thing, hosting parties can be quite expensive. Going out to eat and be expensive. Heck, even a drink or two at a bar can break the bank at times. Hosting events potluck style gives everyone the opportunity to gather together to enjoy a meal while not sticking one person with the check. I love the laid back feel of potlucks. I enjoy getting to try the items that other people bring. To be perfectly honest, in the end, I love not paying for everything. Cheers to whoever invented the very first potluck—those cavemen and women who all came to the table with something to share. Cheers also to the awesome guests that came to this potluck. They brought their A-game in the food and networking departments!

 

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

Portland Bloggers Valentine's meet-up with sponsored decor by Minted and beverages from Santa Margherita

In the spirit of celebrating FREEDOM I’m giving away some more FREE printables!

Free Printable Potluck Recipe Cards - A Well Crafted Party

To go along with your last minute Fourth of July potluck party or BBQ I’ve put together some recipe cards that you or guests can fill out and put next to dishes or to hand out as favors with your world famous barbecue recipe attached to a fun silicone basting brush.

Click here to get your free printable potluck recipe cards. 

 

Have a happy, fun and safe 4th of July weekend to all of my readers out in the U.S.A.!