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 It worked out perfectly that the cots were originally made as risers because we were able to use the tallest cot as the center bench and then step the heights down away from the center (you can kind of see in the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 :)