Just because it is on Pinterest doesn’t mean it will work out the way you see it!

Check out these lemons! Aren’t they awesome! When I saw them I thought “wow! what a great, cheap way to make a punch/drink more visually appealing!” and then I tried it myself. Ladies and Gentlemen… just because it is on Pinterest and it looks ‘easy’ doesn’t mean it is! There were so many things flawed with this that I feel can’t be blamed entirely on me!

We had a lemonade station at one of our Wedding Planners get-togethers and I wanted to make it look really awesome as it was our first event. I saw this on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. I went to the store and bought a bag of lemons on sale. Not a bad start. Food colouring was more expensive and these neon colours I could only find at the Bulk Barn but I bought them anyway. I came home and prepared four different containers with water and a different colour for each one. Slice the lemons in thin enough slices so that the die could absorb easier. I separated the slices and put an equal amount in each container and left them overnight in the fridge. The next morning I pulled them out and it seemed to have worked… sort of.

The dye didn’t seem to be the right colour in the first place. It wasn’t very ‘neon’ but I thought maybe it would change when it soaked into the lemon. It didn’t. It was also spotty in places and affected different spots of the slices differently so it wasn’t as pretty as in the photo to the left. Since I couldn’t pick up these lemons without getting the dye on my hands I thought “well this is silly, we are going to dye people’s mouths if we just put this in the punch” so I froze them on a sheet of wax paper to see if that would help delay the leaking dye. It didn’t. I put them in a cup of water to see what it would do and the dye started changing the colour of the water. At this point I officially decided to abandon my DIY wedding project. All went to the garbage. Not before I could snap a few pictures! Though.

My advice to couples looking at DIY wedding projects of their own:

• Do NOT attempt ANY DIY projects in the month leading up to your wedding. You need to have enough time to practice something i.e. dying mason jars or creating a giant paper flower for your flower girl to carry. If you can’t achieve the look you were going for you will still have time to change the plan.
• Do NOT think it is going to be easy. Consider asking a creative friend to assist you with a DIY project you are interested in. They are less likely to get frustrated doing it, and it might end up looking better than you had hoped.
• Ask yourself “How much is my time worth?” Maybe you look at a site like Etsy and see if you can’t have your idea made by someone else for a fee of course but it will save you time, money (in trial and error) and frustration!

Curious to see how our lemons turned out? Check them out below.

 Dream.Plan.Enjoy.

Holly Matrimony