The Butterfly Cage

     I read a story when I first began researching wedding ceremonies about a Navajo legend involving butterflies.  This story involved capturing a butterfly and whispering to it a wish.  After whispering your wish, one should release the butterfly as it is the Great Spirit's favorite animal.  The Great Spirit would be so pleased that you released the butterfly, that he would grant your wish.  This story has been the basis for the release of butterflies at weddings and other special events for many years.
      I loved this idea! I looked up prices for ordering butterflies...and determined that it was WAY out of our budget. (We are talking $65-$95/dozen!) I couldn't believe they were so pricey! I looked into breeding my own as well, but that was not really any cheaper in the long run.  Then I thought about capturing them myself (along with some friends) and putting them in decorative baby food jars for each guest. But that seemed crazy with the number of guests we are planning for.
     Just when I had given up on the idea...I was presented with another option...what if we just released all that we could catch at once instead of giving an insect to each guest? BRILLIANT! I began looking for a birdcage with bars close enough together that they would not be able to escape.  After a few weeks of searching, my former roommate, Nathan, texted me about some potential bird cages that he found at Hobby Lobby.  I rushed to the store and purchased one of these cages.
     




     The only problem was that the cage was blue.  It was the right blue for the wedding, but I still wanted it to be copper instead.  I had a copper leafing pen at home and proceeded to color the entire cage with this...it took forever!  I left the bird and flower on either sides of the door in their original blue, but the stems and leaves from this design were colored copper. I also colored the chain at the top as well as the door and its handle.

     After a LOT of hours, I had the cage foiled in a shimmery copper that I was happy with. Now it was time to figure out how to add the wedding colors to this copper creation! I started by hot gluing a green ribbon with dragonflies around the design border already present on the cage.  Next, I hot glued on a few flowers to the center of the blue metal flowers that I didn't foil.  Then, I hot glued on the same sorts of flowers in each of the wedding colors in a grouping on the door to the cage.  Finally, I clipped on some floral butterflies.  This is going to look great on a Sheppard's hook at the ceremony! I can't wait to release them as we exit the ceremony site! I hope everyone makes good wishes for us! :)