How to Make Your Own Wedding Bouquet

Wedding Bouquets come in varying sizes and colors to fit any wedding ensemble and style. From the luxuriously hanging bouquets with tumbling rose buds, to the simple monochrome ivory sachet, you can’t go wrong with this accessory. The only decision you have to make is whether you want them to be real or silk. There are the obvious benefits to real flowers, but you can just as easily have a gorgeous bouquet without the hassle from the florist. Besides, if a bud falls off of a silk flower bouquet you can reattach it; on the other hand, real bouquets don’t come with this guarantee.

But you don’t need to be a ‘crafty’ person to pull this off. All you need to get a quick and easy wedding bouquet is an eye for beauty and some floral tape. Let’s start with the flowers.

Flowers

I don’t know about you, but finding the flowers you want is the most exciting part of it all. There are so many stunning choices of silk flowers that it is impossible to decide on colors unless you already have your wedding colors picked out. You can buy silk flowers that appear to be ‘dried’ and preserved, for a vintage look, or you can try for the just picked look. Whatever your style, it is best to pick out a variety of complementing colors and flowers. You will want to choose different sized flowers unless you want them all to be the same type. Either way, do a little research on what types of flowers you like best and then go to the craft store with those in mind. It doesn’t hurt to make some drawings or ask a sale’s representative for help on suitable arrangement ideas.

Although most people can figure out well-balanced color schemes, here are a few tips on how to make sure you have a winning showcase. Do you want it to be bold? Choose colors that highly contrast such as white and any other dark color. Purple and yellow, blue and yellow, or red and orange can be striking pairs also. But what if you want it to be more traditional? Choose only ivory or white roses and baby’s breath (small white flowers) for a very classic appearance. Monochrome ideas include washed out pinks or peaches, with a splash of green.

Greenery

And speaking of green, don’t forget the greenery! The most lifelike aspects of a silk arrangement are the accents of green. Onion grass is very inexpensive in its plastic form and gives a spray of long, thin grass to the back of any arrangement for vivid volume. You should either purchase some silk leaves or use the ones on the stems of the flowers, as you will cut most of them off. Baby’s breath or Ivy on long stems will breathe life into this decorative hand accessory and make it look professionally done.

Shape

Shape is arguably the most important aspect to consider BEFORE purchasing any flowers. By shape I’m referring to the overall silhouette of the arrangement. For example, most bouquets are shaped like the one pictured, with large central flowers in the front core and smaller, rounded flowers surrounding it, making an almost diamond shape. But the more modern bouquets are what are often referred to as ‘hanging bouquets,’ which are made in a circular contour and have some buds fashionably ‘falling’ down the front over where your hands will be. Any shape is easy to recreate. You just have to decide how big you want the bouquet and how much volume you want in front of you in the pictures. With the desired shape in mind, figure out whether you would like large central flowers (and what kind they are) or if you’d like a bouquet with all the same sized buds.

Assembly

Assembly is easy. Cut all extraneous silk leaves from each stem with wire cutters. You can leave the top ones intact, but the ones that cover most of the stem should be done away with. Then cut each stem to the length they need to be for all the stems to end up even on the handle portion. Next, wrap the stems securely with floral tape. The greenery is now added to the back and sides and secured with floral tape as well. The last step is to make sure the handle is the length you want it, and then wrap desired ribbon (maybe the same ribbon on your dress or veil) in a one way spiral the entire length of the bundled stems. You can secure the ribbon with a hot glue gun and let it set.

By Corrina Marquit-Phillips