Made It: Wedding Terrariums

With my wedding being pushed back thanks to Covid-19, I now have time to do a lot of the fun, crafty things I originally wanted to do but ran out of time for. 

At least, that's the idea.

I'm the queen of making grand plans that quickly get forgotten (which, yes, is what happened the first time around) so whether all this happens remains to be seen. Somehow though, I managed to make some slight progress recently in the form of a terrarium. 

At some point, I got it into my head that having living plants, especially terrariums, would make for a really cool centerpiece for the tables at my wedding; something people would actually want to take home and would be able to enjoy for a while. I've never made a terrarium before though so I knew I needed to have a test run before I commit. Luckily, I braved Ikea and stumbled across a really cool (and cheap) domed glass... thing that would make the perfect prototype. Et voila: 

I'd want to use a larger container (but not too large- I want people to bring them home with  them after all) for the centerpieces but this was just a dry run anyway. I really like how it turned out! I knew I'd want to include funny little figurines or whatever in my wedding stuff so I found this tiny alien that I'm pretty sure was an arcade prize of some sort (I don't mean to brag but I'm a pro-level skee baller). It seemed right to put an alien in a weird miniature world I created.

Something I did not think about when I chose the dome though, was that I'd have to put the rocks/charcoal/dirt in a separate container to plant my plant in so I could take the dome on and off for watering without lots of spillage. Luckily I had a small plastic container I could trim down to make fit.

I wanted to make a test terrarium super early because I wanted to see how it'd look over time to see if I needed to make them far in advance or super close to the wedding. Or at all of course. Here's what it looks like a little less than a month later where it sits on my bookshelf:

It's doing super well! As you can see, it's making it's own little rainforest in there. That was something I was worried about in the wedding department actually; would it be too hard to see into/look bad as a centerpiece with all the condensation? I don't think it looks terrible but I am leaning toward an open terrarium now to be honest. I'm still pretty happy to have this dude living on my self though so no regrets. That was the purpose of making it anyway! 

I highly recommend making your own if you're even considering it. It came together quickly and relatively inexpensively. Here are my materials:

1. A plant(s). Make sure they're moisture loving and will fit in your container obviously. I used a Peperomia Frost because it was my favorite plant in my Garden Center's terrarium plant section. You do you of course though.
2. Potting soil. I just used some that I had hanging around.
3. Horticultural charcoal so your plants don't rot in the wicked humid conditions.
4. Sphagnum moss to regulate the humidity.
5. Small stones for drainage.
6. Something to put it all in, preferably made of glass. Thrift stores would probably be a more fun place to find that then Ikea. 

I layered it like so, starting from the bottom: Stones, charcoal, soil, plant, moss. For more of the particulars of how and why, check out this Popular Mechanics article, and/or this one from The Spruce, they're what I consulted the most before starting this. There's tons of help out there for whatever kind of terrarium you want to make though.

It was really fun creating my own little world and look forward to maybe doing it more in the future. It was also nice do do something a little different with my plants, now that I'm a full fledged plant lady. 

And on that note, I'll leave you with this Strange Planet comic. Enjoy!