When you have artists in the family...

Today's WEDding WEDnesday post features some super cool art from our ceremony, made especially for us by Gabe's older brother, Cameron.  Cam is a master origami sculpturist, IMO, and has created everything from stars to balloon animal lamps (not their technical name).  We turned to him when we found our wedding site and decided the gazebo could benefit from adding some personal touches.  When searching on various wedding blogs, 100LayerCake, Green Wedding Shoes, snippet & ink, and the likes, I came across a photo of a couple at the altar, surrounded by Japanese origami cranes, and thought: hey, I know a dude that can do origami.  Just after saving that photo, I learned that a person who folds 1000 paper cranes will be granted a wish.  While that sounds awesome, I wasn't about to ask Cam to take on that big of a feat--I'd rather not have our new-sibling-relationship start out with him hating me if I could help it.  Instead, we asked him to create a few stars to hang around the gazebo to form a framed altar area, and he was so honored.  We gave him full creative license to use whatever colors he wanted, whatever materials, and whatever sizes to create these stars, and he totally delivered!  Check 'em out:

We joked that he should slap a price tag on them after the ceremony so guests could purchase them right then and there.  But I ultimately pulled the greedy bride card and kept them for myself.  And now they hang over our dining room table!

Being resourceful not only saved us money on say, traditional altar floral arrangements, but also showcased the talents of a family / wedding party member.  So proud.  

Cam makes all kinds of cool origami sculptures, which are available for purchase, so I've posted his contact info below in case you are interested.  One year, he surprised each family member on Christmas with sculptures he made special for us--ours is a howling wolf lamp inspired by our howling husky, Bowie.

In my experience, people are uber-flattered (why won't blogger let me put in umlauts?!) when you ask them to help make something for your wedding, so ask away!  It's a win-win.