Wedding Wednesday: DIY Bouquets

Happy wedding Wednesday friends! It has been lovely sharing these Wednesdays with you and rehashing some of our special day. It is much better on the other side of planning. I have so been looking forward to sharing today's post with you on something I am a wee bit proud of - our wedding bouquets.

Let me tell you, I lived off of Google searches seeking out ways to cut costs and do things on my own. Discouragingly to me I did not find many outstanding resources that were non-florist friendly. Sure I consider myself partially creative, but making five bridesmaids bouquets from scratch along with my own was a daunting task for this fake flower novice. So allow me save you some time on the search engines and break down my DIY wedding bouquets.
First, it is helpful to know the ins and outs of buying fake flowers. There is definitely a spectrum of quality when it comes to your options and yes they can get pricey. Here's an insider tip - if Hobby Lobby's exist in your corner of the world, every third week they have 50% off all of their flower stems. Hello bargains! My whole timeline for making the bouquets was centered around their sales.

I loaded my cart with an assortment of individual floral stems, fillers, and a few bushes in my color tones. I wasn't one to be too picky about the type of flower, I simply wanted them to look natural and assorted. You will also need the materials shown above, pretty simple, eh?

The first step requires stripping all the floral stems of their leaves and unwanted trimmings. We ended up saving them and having our flower girls throw these instead of flower petals, so trendy, I know. After trimming choose two flowers you would like to be the focal point of your bouquet. Play around with them until they are arranged to your liking and then floral tape them up.

Slowly add more and more to your base in a way that you are particularly fond of. It may seem intimidating but keep playing with it until is fits your taste. To optimize volume I trimmed off small pieces of filler and attached them to a stem and then added it to the larger bouquet.

Once you feel satisfied with your layout and design of the bouquet it is time to wrap it up. Wind the floral tape up and down the base of the stems several times so it remains nice and secure. Finishing off the bouquet with the thick garden wire is somewhat of a task that is much easier with two people. Starting at the top, one person hot glue around the stem in a spiral while the other person slowly wraps the garden wire around the entirety of the stem base. Take your time as it is a tedious process. Your last step is to trim off the extra length of stem and there you have your first bouquet!

Congratulations you did it! I hope you are satisfied and ready to get cooking on the rest of them. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, it is well worth the time and saving of money.