Origami Heart (Free-Standing) Wedding Name Card
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Over the last couple of months a childhood pastime has been reignited in my life; Origami. (FYI, in case you’re reading this like, “say what?!” then Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper into decorative shapes.) Perhaps this seems a little unlikely…you might think my pastime could be something more mainstream like cycling or retro-cool like roller skating – if you’re of a similar generation to me, but no, for me it was origami. Let’s just say my childhood / teenage years predated smart phones and Wi-Fi, my attention was not firmly planted on Instagram or Snapchat (but don’t get me wrong, nowadays I spend my fair share of time glued to my phone and my having an internet-based job is mostly just a convenient excuse), and so apparently in the absence of that, 12 year-old me thought folding paper was exciting! Now I think about it, I’m suddenly feeling kinda surprised I didn’t have fewer friends!
Now skip forward a couple of decades, having completely forgotten this part of my childhood – sorry Dad, Christmas Day 2018 arrives and in my stocking courtesy of Santa (via my Mother-in-Law) I open a calendar which has an origami activity for every day of the year and the memories come flooding back in. At this point my husband has a whole menagerie of paper animals around his home office and we’re only 1.5 months in, little did my Mother-in-Law know what she was starting, or re-starting I guess! But aside from the slight fire hazard I may be creating it’s been a fun memory to revisit and a small sense of satisfaction each day when I manage to create something that actually looks like the picture out of a single square sheet of paper.
So now that you all think I’m super cool…this brings me to today’s wedding DIY! As Valentine’s Day was only yesterday, and because, well, we’re a wedding blog/channel, we’re still definitely feeling the romance factor. So these two things collided in my head and I thought an origami heart would make a really sweet, yet cost effective wedding decoration. But, in my evidently geeky mind, what is extra cool about this one is that the heart stands up on its own – which lends itself really well for use as a name card for your reception tables or reserved ceremony seating (assuming that your location is not outdoors with a possibility of strong winds. It is just paper after all!).
Grab a square piece of paper and have a go! We’d love to see what you do with yours, and maybe I’ll update you later in the year on how our menagerie is progressing.
(The paper used in this video was purchased from The Works)
—Bride Society