DIY Pomander Balls - aisle decorations....

Should I DIY or should I not? This was the big question and the answer was hell yeah!! I love doing creative things but hadn't done anything in a very long time. I think the last time was making my travel scrapbooks and that was a good three or four years ago. When we were thinking about ceremony details, I fell in love with shepherd hooks with pomander balls on them. 

Shepherd Crooks, Pomander Balls, Lanterns and Vases

Image credits: 

Top Left: Pink Frosting; Bottom Left: Wedding Bee; 2nd from left top: Wedding Bee; 2nd from left bottom: Wedding Bee; Middle top: Wedding Bee; Middle bottom: Koyal Wholesale; Top Right: Charlotte Geary Photography; Top Bottom: Gator Bride

The botanic gardens in Sydney, where we are having our wedding ceremony, doesn't allow stakes being put in the ground. So my idea for shepherd's crooks is not possible which was kind of gutting at first. So I changed my idea to hanging the pomander balls off the sides of the chairs closest to the carpet as seen in the photos below...

Pomander Balls and Chairs

Image Credits:

Top Left: Bella Wedding & Event Planning; Bottom Left: Recycled Bride; Top 2nd from Left: Crown Images photography by Sage; Bottom 2nd from Left: Be imbued; Top 2nd from Right: Set your Scene; Bottom 2nd from Right: Weddings by Colour; Top Right: Diamond Events; Bottom Right: Inside Out Design

After googling how to make pomander balls on the internet, I came across this link which gave me the general basics on how to make the balls and adapted it as I saw fit. After looking at many ebay stores for silk roses and either finding them too expensive or pretty ugly, I checked out a new zealand web site called Smitten Forever Bride who had a broad range of silk flowers for reasonable prices and even better with the aussie dollar as well.

Red black velvet roses (my photo)

I purchased black silk roses, red black velvet roses and some white velvet roses and waited for them to be shipped over from New Zealand. While this was happening I searched for foam balls in Spotlight, Riot Arts and Crafts and Lincraft and finally found the size I wanted at Riot Arts and Crafts in the Miranda Westfield.


Next step was to find some thick black ribbon and Spotlight in Miranda was the place for this. Reasonably priced and quite a nice black colour. Its interesting because some black ribbon can look quite tacky. I found the double sided satin type to be what I wanted. 

Bella playing in flowers (my photo)

The flowers arrived and I started my pomander ball production.... which the help of my little creature...


Items needed:

• Foam balls in whatever size required
• Hot glue gun
• Thick ribbon to hang the pomander ball
• Sturdy pair of scissors or wire cutters
• Heaps of silk flowers in whatever colours that you require

If you read this link it gives you the general idea on how to make the pomander balls. I didn't use the wire that they suggest instead I hot glued my ribbon around the ball and left a loop hanging which I could hang them from. Then i cut my flower stems to the size that I required, about 3 cms of stem and started sticking them in the foam ball in a pattern that I felt suited me.

If you look at the photo on the left, the top pomander ball, you can see the foam ball under the flowers. This was my first attempt and they are now smaller. I changed my pattern many times but eventually came to one after many different foam ball sizes aswell. I settled on the 80 mm foam ball and it seemed to create a pomander ball that wasn't too big or too small. 

Completed pomander balls (my photo)

The finished balls are in the photos on the left. I think they'll do ok for the ceremony, as they'll hang off the chairs on the inside aisle. I think we are only going to have two or three rows of chair on each side so I have made six in total just to be safe. They do look better in real life as well.  Scuse the squashed looking one on the bottom left, it doesn't look like that in real life, I think I stretched the photo too much... Still learning to photo shop haha..


So they are now wrapped in tissue paper and stored in a box in the wardrobe with the many other to do wedding projects that are waiting in the wings. Sometimes the list scares me as it's quite big but it's slowly dwindling when I get bored and need something to do...