Build Your Own Flower Arrangement
AdvertisementBuild Your Own Flower Arrangement – Molly Allen is a former bakery owner with expertise in wedding bookings, as well as a former event planner. She is now a freelance writer with a focus on lifestyle, travel and food and drink.
Adding a bouquet to your wedding day ensemble is one of the best ways to make a statement. After all, everyone in attendance will be able to see the beautiful arrangement as you make your way down the aisle. And your bouquet really can be as unique as you are. But what’s a budget-friendly couple to do if they’re looking for a super affordable bouquet? If you’re DIY savvy, or even if you’re not very crafty, it’s still a great option for you. Enter: a DIY wedding bouquet.
Build Your Own Flower Arrangement
Caroline Eells is the founder and lead designer of Passiflora Studio, a floral design studio based in Marietta, Ohio focused on creating designs using flowers sourced from local farms and from the studio’s cutting garden. Eells also offers floral design tutorials on her YouTube channel.
Flowers By The Stem
Although creating your own wedding bouquet may sound daunting, it is certainly possible. With simple materials and a few steps, you’ll be able to put together a stunning custom arrangement that serves as the perfect accessory for the big day.
If it fits your wedding budget, having a floral designer create a gorgeous bouquet is a good option. However, much of the cost of a professionally designed bouquet comes from the labor involved. There are certainly costs associated with sourcing fresh flowers, but costs increase depending on the amount of time spent and the complexity of the design. If you’re able to skip that and do the work yourself, you’ll definitely be able to shave some off your flower budget.
First, you need to decide what type of flowers you want to include in your bouquet. According to Caroline Eells, it’s important to start by considering the style of your wedding dress, as it will reflect the tone of the whole wedding. Next, consider your color palette. Eells suggests thinking about whether you prefer complementary colors or whether you want to integrate contrasting colors to add some drama.
Also, be sure to decide whether you’re hoping for a classic, tight bouquet or something a little more whimsical, such as a garden or bouquet. “If you’re going for a more modern and simple design, I suggest using only one to three varieties of flowers, very little or no greenery, and flowers that have a lot of textural interest,” she says. “For more of a garden style, I suggest five to seven varieties of flowers and greenery and flowers with many different textural and gestural qualities.”
How To Grow Your Own Wedding Flowers, According To Sarah Raven
Once you’ve made a plan to create a gorgeous bouquet, you need to buy your flowers. If you have access to a garden, either your own or a friend’s or family member’s, Eells suggests first looking at what’s blooming there. If you don’t have access to a budding garden, check out local farms or grocery stores to find the varieties of flowers you’re hoping for. As a last resort, you can check online to order flowers in bulk.
One of the main considerations when creating your own wedding bouquet is timing. “I like to make the bouquet the day before the wedding,” says Eells. If a wedding is on Saturday, she usually picks up her flowers on Thursday, makes the bouquet on Friday, then adds the ribbon on the day of the wedding to finish it off. “For your wedding day, you want the blooms to be at their best,” she adds.
Once you’ve chosen your flowers, you’ll need a few other tools for a stunning bouquet. Make sure you have the following on hand to be set up for success:
Before you dive into constructing your bouquet, make sure your stems and greenery are prepped and ready. First, remove all the leaves from your flower stems. Then, for each stalk of greens, remove the leaves from the bottom halves. Cut each individual stem at a 45-degree angle and hold the stems in a bucket of water as you assemble.
How To Make Your Own Fresh Cut Flower Food
Once the stems and vegetables are prepared, you are ready to assemble your bouquet. Start by building the shape and frame of your bouquet first, thinking about dimension along the way. Eells suggests standing in front of a mirror while putting together your bouquet so you know exactly how it will look from the front.
When assembling the stems in your hands, start with a base, then add your larger, focused flowers. Then continue to add smaller flowers and greenery, balancing the design as you build. Once you’ve constructed a bouquet you love, cut the stems to trim them back and wrap the entire bouquet with a rubber band. Make sure it’s wrapped well before adding floral tape to hide the rubber band or tie a pretty ribbon around it. Wrap a ribbon tightly around the stems for a clean, classic look, or let the ribbon fall for a more relaxed, garden-style look.
Along the way, don’t be afraid to get creative with your bouquet. Usually, a bouquet follows an odd number rule of design, meaning that three or five of a certain flower are added on purpose. But you can certainly break that rule if it feels right. “Sometimes it’s that one stem of something from the garden that sets it all apart!” says Eells.
As you build your bouquet, remember that it’s not worth stressing over. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve torn apart a bouquet in over 10 years of floral design,” adds Eells. “Just take a deep breath and enjoy the moment you get to create something beautiful with your hands. And remember, flowers are very resilient.” How to Arrange Flowers Like a Pro: Life Kit Whether you forgot to order flowers for that special occasion, or you just want to flex a new creative muscle, here’s how to DIY a professional-looking bouquet of flowers from the grocery store.
Elevate Your Everyday: Build Your Own Bouquet
Florist Alexander Campbell shares tips to help elevate your supermarket bouquet. We followed his advice to create this arrangement from grocery store flowers. Photo illustration by Becky Harlan/ hide caption
Florist Alexander Campbell shares tips to help elevate your supermarket bouquet. We followed his advice to create this arrangement from grocery store flowers.
Maybe you forgot to order flowers for a special occasion. Or you just want to exercise a new creative muscle. Either way, these tips from florist and TikTok sensation Alexander Campbell will help you choose and arrange flowers at the grocery store so they look like you got them from a florist.
Left: warm colors; Middle: cool colors; Right: one color in different shades Photo illustration by Becky Harlan/hide caption
Build Your Own Bundle
Think about what colors the recipient likes. If you need help deciding on a “color story,” Campbell suggests sticking to a palette of either warm or cool colors, or different shades of the same color—like light purple to dark purple.
Look for one to two types of greenery with different textures and three to four types of flowers in your color palette:
Check the flowers in the store to make sure the stems are green and the petals are firm.
Pro Tip: Look for a mix of buds and flowers that are already blooming to give your bouquet a longer life.
Create Your Own Fresh Cut Floral Arrangement
Cut the stems at a 45-degree angle, removing any leaves that will be below the water line in the vase.
Place your vase on a lazy susan so you can spin it as you work. Add each item in this order:
Make sure your bouquet has different layers of height and feels full and balanced all the way around. Look at your arrangement from different perspectives and sides to see if you want to adjust anything.
Give your bouquet to your loved one. It will be even more meaningful if you arranged it yourself!
How To Make Flower Food To Keep Cut Flowers Fresh
Campbell suggests adding flower food to the water and changing the water every day or every other day to extend the life of the bouquet.
We would love to hear from you. If you have a good life hack, leave a voicemail ready for it with these succulent flowers in our woody and wild DIY bouquet! Warm red tones and muted yellows mixed with dried branches get us into all the earthy autumn feelings. While we’ve made some lovely DIY bouquets in the past with silk flowers from Afloral, this one is definitely our new favourite!
The perfect balance of moody and sweet, this beautiful arrangement of silk flowers lets us know the crisp air and crisp days are starting. This bouquet isn’t just for fall brides, although we think it makes an excellent statement if we do say so ourselves! We think it will make a lively addition to any intimate gathering, holiday party or even mantel.
We bring news of great joy when we share with you the news that this fall bouquet was incredibly easy to make!
