Self-sufficientish wedding confetti

[MeganW]

Hello all,

It's been a little while since I posted here, but having settled in a new house I've been setting up the vegetable patch, composter etc. all over again.

I wanted to share a simple way of making natural petal wedding confetti. I'm getting married next year and am trying to cut down on the amount that we have to buy by making a lot of things myself. Most venues nowadays don't allow the cheaper paper confetti, and only allow natural flower confetti. I came across a great method of drying out petals (well, my fiancee did), and we've been trying it out. At the moment I'm using the petals from my roses, as they begin to wilt. You really need to gather clean, fresh-looking petals as any that are browning or squashed will look a bit ropey once they're dried. Because I can't bear to lop the heads off my roses once they come into full bloom, when there would be a maximum of good ones to use, I am waiting until they start to drop and then taking the plunge and removing the good petals that are left.

I'm still testing this method out, but at the moment it's as follows: place a square of kitchen roll on top of a microwaveable plate. Lay out the separated petals until the paper is full, without them touching. Microwave on high for around two and a half minutes, or until the petals appear to be completely dried (maybe check every minute or so until they feel dry - some take longer). Then put the petals between two sheets of kitchen roll and put in a dry, dark place to continue drying out. The guide I read suggested leaving them for around 48 hours and then putting them in an airtight tub or jar out of the sun to store, but I am leaving mine for a little longer just to make sure - I don't want to end up with mouldy confetti.

I must admit, to head off any safety concerns that are raised, that I was a bit dubious about putting kitchen roll in the microwave at first. But I have done this a few times now and it has been fine.

So there we have it - an easy way of using up falling rose petals and saving some money on natural confetti. I'm going to try experimenting with drying out other petals like wildflowers, to see which work well and which don't. The petals do seem to shrink down an awful lot, so I may still have to pad out my homemade confetti with some dried lavender or something similar, but it should at least put a dent in the amount I have to spend on it. (To give an idea, to buy enough natural confetti for fifty people to throw, it would cost us about £65.)

[berry]

oh have you tried saving honesty seed pods? these I have a few bunches of the seed pods and thought they'd make lovely confetti mixed with petals and flower heads.

[Crickleymal]

What about rice? Preferably not cooked beforehand

[Uller]

A word of warning about the dried rose petals - if it rains on the day, they are no longer dried and the colour bleeds out. My cousin's wedding dress was stained with streaks of pink and yellow from her dried rose confetti. She decided she didn't mind as it was a reminder of the day as it happened, but if you want to keep a pristine dress, be warned!

[MeganW]

I may be wrong, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that rice isn't especially wildlife-friendly. I think often birds eat it and because it's uncooked it can make them ill (I may be remembering this wrongly though).

Uller - thanks for the warning! Did your cousin buy her dried petal confetti? I think some companies actually dye the petals to make them more colourful (or to restore them to their usual colour, as they do fade a bit when dry), so then if it rains they are more likely to leach colour. But if they were just undyed petals and still made colour marks, I will think of a contingency plan for if it rains.

berry - those look lovely, and would definitely make a nice addition to the confetti. I'll try to keep my eyes open for some.

[Uller]

I'm not sure whether they were bought - her parents grew a lot of roses and I have a feeling that they came from the garden (there wasn't much rose confetti, just for the immediate family), but I might be wrong.

I hope it doesn't rain for you - apart from the stains, it was a really lovely way to do confetti!