When my husband and I got married we didn't have much money to have any fancy decorations at our wedding. I did, however, come up with some inexpensive, creative ideas to make sure our flower girls were dressed in style.

We had an outdoor wedding in August, so it was easier to dress our young flower girls for the nice weather. We had two flower girls in our wedding, ages 7 and 9. Because we have two mothers who love to sew, the flower girls' dresses were very inexpensive. I picked out a simple, yet elegant sundress pattern, and paid about $3 a yard for a pretty summer print. The dresses were calf length and sleeveless, with a big bow in the back.

My husband had a hand in decorating the flower girls' baskets. He is always one to fix up something instead of throwing it away, so he came up with the idea of spray painting wicker Easter baskets. It was perfect--we already had the baskets and the white spray paint.

Next I tied some pink and white ribbons around the handles of the baskets, and then I glued on some matching silk flowers (just a few, to accent). The baskets were simple and elegant.

Finally we gathered together the rose petals we'd gathered from our garden just for the occasion, and filled the baskets with petals we'd laid out in the sun to dry.

For a finishing touch, I took some of the leftover silk flowers and ribbons and decorated hair clips for the girls.

The grand total for the two matching flower girl dresses, with matching baskets and hair clips, was under $30.

Originally published at Suite 101. Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of What's for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. For recipes, tips to organize your home, home decorating, crafts, holiday hints and more, visit Creative Homemaking at http://www.creativehomemaking.com

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