Wedding Projects - The Mendhi Night Tent (Part 2 of 3)

Quick Recap of yesterday's post (Part 1)

Before:

And....VIOLA! (after, obviously)

Break down of all the layers:

Yesterday I covered 

1) Swagging the ceiling

2) Marble backdrop

3) Mughal windows

Yesterday I said I would go over the the umbrella stands. I lied. I'll go over those in Part 3 (best for last). Today I'll talk about the benches, the bolster pillows, reflective pools, and pedestals. 

Here goes:

5) The Benches: These benches were originally built to make wide risers for a temple project. After that project no longer required the benches my parents and their friends each took one and they became cots in our homes. When we were in the planning phases I thought we would just have floor cushions under the umbrella stands. My dad recommended that we use the cot in our home for me to sit on so that it makes a stage like setting. We already planned to give my seating area extra attention with three umbrella stands. I felt that triple umbrellas plus the bench would put too much attention on the center and would throw off the proportions in the tent. When I told my dad this he said (imagine an Indian accent for me) "no problem, beta! I can get you more benches!" And get more benches he did. The weekend before the event my dad's friends trucked over the benches. It worked out perfectly that the cots were originally made as risers because we were able to use the tallest cot as the center bench and then step the heights down away from the center (you can kind of see in the picture). The risers lead the eye nicely to the center bench. 

We wanted to cover the benches with something soft so they would be comfortable to sit on, but cuts of foam were pricey. 

Almost everyone in my parent's friend circle owns a hotel. Hotels have thick bedspreads. When these bedspreads get worn they have to be removed and replaced, but we keep the old ones around. We happened to have lots of these nearly perfect bedspreads on hand. The bedspreads are printed on one side and white on the other. We folded them inside out and into fourths. Laid them on top of each cot. Done. Next, we cover the cots with a large satin table cloth (all of the linens are from LinenTablecloths they have the best deals). From the underside, diaper pin the satin to the bedspreads so the satin doesn't slide around. Now the cots are covered and ready for some bolster pillows. 

6) Bolster Pillows: In full disclosure, my grandma came up with this genius idea. To make the bolster pillows we folded the bedspreads inside out and into fourths, then rolled them up. To keep them from unrolling we used clear packing tape. Pillow complete! 

Next step, covering the bolster pillows. We needed a way to cover them that was fast and easy. I mentioned in my last post that everything in the tent was prop quality. The pillows didn't need to last more than a few hours and sewing would require more time than we were willing to spend. So via my mom and aunt another brilliant idea was born. My mom called over all of her friends one day and we got to work.

1) cut fabric so that it can fully cover the bolster

2) roll up the bolster in the fabric hot dog style. Using clear packing tape, tape the long seam. Leave the ends hanging open.  

3) For the ends we had to do a bit more work to give the pillow a nice puckered look. We used needle and thread to make big stitches around the open edges and then pulled the thread tight to gather the fabric in the center. Make a knot to hold the pucker in place.

We formed an assembly line and before we knew it, ta-da! Pillows were complete! Except they looked plain just covered in solid satin. The pillows needed pizzaz! I found gold ribbon at costco nice and cheap. I also cleaned out rhinestones from Michael's. Although I had these items I wasn't quite sure how to use them yet. Then a friend of mine came up with the great idea of criss-crossing the ribbon and hot gluing rhinestones on the cross sections. It was easy and we got to work!

Here you can see the criss-cross patten and the pucker. 

7) Reflective Pools: These were simple to make (and I'm sure you can see why!). Gather kiddie pools. You know, the cheap kind you get for like $7.00. Well, they are really hard to find in the PNW - especially in the winter time. Good news, you can find these in AZ year-round. So, I just had the hubby fly a couple out with him (yay for Southwest allowing 2 free checked items!). We spray painted them gold inside and out. Then to cover the sea horses on the bottom we used a square of teal fabric and then weighed it down with a bunch of Dollar Store water gems. Next, fill the pool up with water and sprinkle with rose petals and floating candles. 

So pretty!

8) Pedestals: These are Ikea Lack tables that were in my old apartment and in my brother's bedroom. We covered them in gold square linens and my meticulous aunts nicely folded and pinned them into place. On each table we put a candle, some mendhi cones, some mendhi design books - all nicely sprinkled with rose petals.

So that's it for Part 2! See you all back Monday for the final installation of the tent saga :)

Wedding Projects - The Mendhi Night Tent (Part 1 of 3)

When I first started planning our wedding, I thought we would hold the mendhi night inside our home and not fuss over trying to decorate.

What I actually ended up with was one of the most elaborate DIY projects of my LIFE. I decided I wanted a Mughal-ish theme and ran with it.

The tent that made the beautiful setting for my mendhi night was a DIY project on steroids. It was a culmination of many months of planning and would not have been possible without help from SO many wonderful people. Because everyone put so much effort into decorating this tent I feel compelled to share it's making with the world.

Here is what the empty, clear-top tent looked like:

And....VIOLA!

The Beautiful Finished Product (should've ironed that teal sheet in the center!)
I chose a clear top tent so we could see the stars during the event (and white tarp overhead would have been really unsightly). Unfortunately, with the heaters running and about 250 people inside, the condensation on the tent  made it impossible to see outside. This is just half of the tent. The tent was double what you see here.
Here is the 'dining' side of the tent

The tables were draped with a large fuchsia table cloth, a gold square (laid on the diagonal) and a teal table runner.
The centerpieces comprised of a large vase filled 1/5 of the way with blue beads. We put a tea-light on top of the beads and a peacock feather wreath around each vase. 

Okay, back to the main part of the tent. Here is a break down of all the layers:

The pictures and directions that follow are going to seem unclear at times. When we were making everything I had no clue I would be putting together this blog and showcasing our work. If you have questions or need clarifications feel free to email me. 

The decor was meant to function for only a few hours so it was similar to prop quality. No one that helped in the planning. design. or making of this tent was a professional - we're just a bunch of creative types who went nuts. 

My friend's dad securing the fabric to it's high point

1) The Ceiling Swag: I bought all the fabric bulk from CV Linens. In order to make the swags we measured the cross beams of the tent that we were covering, decided on how low we wanted the swag to hang and cut the fabric accordingly. We gathered all five panels at one end and tightly zip tied them together. This clump of fabric was then attached to the central high point. Each panel of fabric was pulled to it's respective section of the corner and zip tied to the tent frame. To get the swag right we just had to play with the fabric before we zip tied it down.

This was actually the last step we completed because swagging the ceiling was a last minute decision. I decided to add the ceiling swags because it brought the eye up and added much needed color up high. We did this in all four corners and it made a huge difference to the feel of the tent.  Even though it was late, my uncles and my dad's friends were all there ready to help get the swagging up. The wedding really made me realize how blessed I am to have such a supportive group of family and friends!

2) Marble Effect Backdrop: The final effect we achieved was partially intentional, partially accidental. I ordered bolts and bolts of gold fabric from India to function as the backdrop for the tent. When the fabric came it was a pastel yellow (that's what I get for ordering from India). Pastel yellow as the backdrop would have taken the mood in the tent from 'sultry Bombay night' to 'baby shower' in no time. So, I invited over my trustee bridesmaids, loaded up on gold spray paint and we went to work.
1) Cut the bolts of fabric into enough panels to cover all the walls of the tent. Cut the panels 3-6"shorter than full length to prevent them from soaking water up into the tent (if you're dealing with rain).
2) Hem the top and bottom of each panel to give a clean look and prevent fraying. We hemmed the top of the panels like curtains to make hanging them easier. We didn't have to hem the side edges because we kept the width of the fabric as the width of the panel.
3) Spray paint the panels gold. Some may think I am crazy to spray paint so much fabric gold - you're right, I am crazy. Initially I wanted a flat gold look but the marbled effect added depth and dimension to the tent. What I am saying is, the baby shower yellow worked out to my advantage. We got (pastel) lemons and we made lemonade.

My dad and his friends stringing up the backdrop and
arranging the over-sized wooden benches. 

4) Hang the panels all around the tent. We used fishing line to hang the panels because it's cheap, strong and lightweight. My dad and his friends would string the panels onto the fishing line, pull the curtain taunt, and then secure the fishing line to the tent frame with a zip-tie.
5) After all of the panels were up my cousins went through and pinned all the panels together along the vertical edges. This kept them from gaping and flying up every time a gust of wind blew through the tent.

3) Mughal Style Windows: This is something I said I wanted and a good family friend took it upon himself to make it happen. Making these babies took patience. This project requires 1" thick pink insulation foam board, soldering tools, sandpaper and black paint.
1) Decide on the design of the window.
2) In order to get our design to the right size we used a projector. Hook up your laptop and projector and project your window design onto the foam board. Carefully trace the design onto the foam board. While you trace the design let your soldering tools heat up.
3) We used a blade like attachment to cut through the foam. The heated soldering tool should slide through the foam like butter. If you have never done foam carving before I recommend practicing first. Another way to do this is to set up a hot wire station in your garage or shed. We used to have a hot wire station in our garage and it made foam carving much easier. For the tent we carved about 20 windows.
4) Once you finish with the soldering tool you'll have to go in with ultra fine sand paper to give the windows a uniform finished look. The shape I chose had a lot of little crevices that needed sanding. I also liked a rounded look around the edges so that took time as well.
4) Paint them black. I wish I could have spray painted these windows but spray paint + foam = no good. Spray paint eats away at the foam. You might be tempted to use latex paint because it comes by the gallon but latex is too sticky and takes too long to dry on the foam. Acrylic paint is the way to go. It's cheap and it dries quickly without a tacky finish. The sanded portions can be hard to paint because they are a a bit porous and the pink shows through easily. Instead of trying to paint the edges we used black duct tape all around the windows and it worked out really well. It gave each window a nice polished look.
5) As the finishing touch I sprayed silver glitter over all the windows. Again, you can't use anything that is aerosol based. I was able to find a non-aerosol glitter spray at Micheal's.


Because there are so many layers to this tent I'm breaking it into a three part post. This is it for Part 1 of the Mendhi Night Tent. To those of you who put your blood, sweat and tears into this tent (you know who you are!), THANK YOU! See you back here tomorrow for Part 2: Making of the umbrella stands.