Here Comes the Bride!

DIY Wedding Flowers – Leeann’s Experience, June 17, 2010

When a dear friend of mine said she was doing her daughter's wedding on her own, I happily said I'd love to do the flowers. Now, I've never put a bouquet together, but I positively adore arranging flowers, so I figured I could make it happen. Turns out the tables were decorated with tall vases of white sticks, so my visions of flowery tables never came to fruition. I started getting nervous when I realized just how "big" the dreams were (think Disney Princess wedding) and that the colors were hot pink and "swimming pool blue," but kept plodding along. I did receive a priceless gift in this process: another friend, Tammy, who has done many bouquets! The end result was gorgeous - the only thing I wish I could change would be to go back and cut out some of the worry! Well, and take more pictures of the actual "putting together" process. Below is my story so if ever asked again, maybe I'll remember some of what I did.

Getting Started Tips

• Talk to the bride and the mother-of-the-bride about how many bouquets, boutonnières, corsages, arrangements, and misc. other flowers will be needed (e.g. for the cake, on window sills, etc.)
• Have the bride send pictures of her dream bouquets (colors, flower types, shape, any special adornments?)
• Order flowers at least a month before the wedding for best selection. These were ordered online from Sams Club. Have them delivered the day before the wedding date. Plan to be home and set the air temperature around 75 degrees as long as the flowers are in the house.
• If this is your first bouquet experience, buy similar flowers the week before and make a practice bouquet.

Supplies

(For: 1 large bridal bouquet, 7 bridesmaids bouquets, 1 tossing bouquet, 3 mother/grandmother bouquets, 16 boutonnières, 1 large arrangement on groom’s cake table, 10-12 flowers on bride’s cake, 18 large alstroemeria stems on window sills with candles)

• Flowers, with at least 10% extra
• Greenery (frame lower portion of bouquets where necessary, use remainder in reception décor)
• 8 - 5 gallon buckets half-filled with water and flower food (can add when flowers arrive)
• 3 large coolers
• Freezable cooler “ice” packs
• Plastic container for boutonnières
• Beach towels for floor
• Wire cutters
• Flower cutters
• Scissors
• Floral tape – at least 2 rolls; I used “light green”
• Rose de-thorner – I ordered mine online – circular silicon-type with little prongs all over
• Floral wire – one spool 22 weight
• Family and Friends!
• Ribbon for wrapping bouquets
• Any adornments being used in the bouquets
• Gallon-size Ziploc baggies (although the “zip” isn’t needed so regular bags would work as long as they’re heavy enough)
• About 4 paper towels per baggie
  

The Experience

When the flowers arrived around 10:00 a.m., I unpacked and cut each stem under water at an angle with sharp cutters. I don’t know if the underwater part was necessary, but I did it anyway because I was so worried about the flowers being outside for pictures through the ceremony from 3:30 p.m. until 8:00 in 95 degree and sunny weather. It probably took me 1 ½ hours and all 8 buckets. I then ran out to get the greenery, white flower accents for the bridal bouquet, and more pink flowers because I was worried about how very tightly closed the Alstroemeria were. I ended up going to 8 stores – I should have stopped after store number 3 when I had ferns, larger Alstroemeria, and the Chrysanthemums, but I was hoping to find some “special” greenery for the boutonnières (like bright green berries) and something other than Alstroemeria that was pink and cheap. I ended up cutting crepe myrtle buds for the boutonnières and didn’t need ANY more pink for the bouquets.
After the rehearsal dinner, bouquet making started at 10 p.m. It would’ve been nice if the 100 Gerbera Daisies had been wired before we started assembling, but I called in reinforcements and 3 of us had them all done within an hour and a half.

How To Wire a Gerbera Daisy

Gerbera Daisies tend to “flop” and their heads pop off without too much effort. The wire provides structure to prevent some of the “flop” and allows for some flexibility when arranging the flowers. Cut wire into 6-inch pieces. Poke the end of the wire through the base of the flower and through the center of the flower head until about one inch shows through the flower. Bend that tip like a candy cane and push it down into the flower to “lock” it in. Then, carefully wrap the wire below the flower around the stem. Take care not to pop off the flower head or break the stem.

Meanwhile, 2 “prep-people” removed all the foliage and thorns off the roses. At the same time, friend Tammy started playing with the bridesmaid bouquet concept based on what I knew the bride was dreaming of. We ended up with 8 roses first, then 7 Gerbera daisies framing the roses, then 5 Alstromeria, then 2-3 leatherleaf ferns holding up the bottom. Then the bouquet was wrapped with wire and taped. And I cut each stem while Tammy held it. We did this for all 7 bouquets. The bridal bouquet was more of a challenge because I knew the dreams were big – and included 3 picks: one was a white feather with dangling pearls, 2 wired with “jewels.” The final result was exactly what we were after – luxuriously large and pink with specks of white and the bejeweled feather! We estimated that we used about 60 stems in it! Each bouquet was “stored” in a vase filled with water.

While the bouquets were being made, boutonnière assembly was going strong. We took 2 bracts of fern, laid on a Gerbera Daisy, and then a sprig (or 2 or 3 depending on fullness) of Crepe Myrtle. The most challenging part was securing the tiny pieces with wire before wrapping the stems with tape. We left the stems about 2 inches long, but I went back the next morning and cut them all off to .75 – 1 inch and re-taped them. I also sent family out the next morning to a local florist to get 20 1.5 inch black-head boutonnière pins because I had forgotten to get them when gathering supplies and decided 1 inch was too short and 2 inches, too long. We put each boutonnière into an open container in the refrigerator as we completed it.

By 1:00 a.m., all of the bridal party bouquets were complete, most of the boutonnières were made, and Tammy left. I then made the tossing bouquet (a small version of the bridal bouquet – about the size of the attendant bouquets) and the 3 mother/grandmother bouquets (they each had a total of approximately 12 stems including ferns). We were all in bed by shortly after 2 a.m. (I think).

The next morning (well, later that morning when I arose!), I took each bouquet and carefully trimmed the ends so that they were even and flat across the bottom and tightly wrapped them with hot pink ribbon (1.5 inches wide, sheer, wired), folding a “hem” in the starting end and the finished end, and used 3 white pearl 2-inch floral pins in the bridesmaid bouquets and 4 in the bride’s bouquet. I then stuck them back in their individual vases, trying not to get the ribbon wet, but not succeeding and deciding that wet ribbons were okay. I “pinned” all the boutonnières once the pins arrived and put them back in the refrigerator. I arranged all the leftover flowers (there were probably 100 stems) in a large vase to either use in the reception or as replacements in the bouquets, whatever was needed.

Just before leaving for the wedding, I folded paper towels, put them in baggies (one per bouquet) and put enough water to thoroughly saturate the paper towel, then folded each baggie down at the top and carefully placed the bouquet on the paper towel before putting them in the coolers – Bob, Maggie and Laurel assisted with this. The tightness of the flowers in the bouquets made it so no further support was necessary. I did end up leaving the bride’s bouquet in its vase in the cooler with water because it would’ve been the most difficult to re-make should something unforeseen have happened.
The rest of the story – a new couple has been united in Christ as one and ALL the flowers held up beautifully!

Money Matters
100 stems hot pink roses - $116.18
100 stems hot pink gerbera daisies – $127.64
90 stems hot pink alstoermeria - $58.03
Sams Club Total (not including tax, S&H) = $301.85
Leatherleaf fern (25 stems), extra alstroemeria (25 stems), white chrystanthemums with green centers (20 stems) = $50
Tape, wire, rose de-thorners, bouquet pins (2 inches, pearl), boutonnière pins (1.5 inches, black) = $30.00
Grand total = $400

Photo Credits
Laurel Denham: Bride's bouquet, Bridesmaids bouquets, Maggie "testing" a bouquet
CapturedbyJen.com: the bride and groom holding "the bouquet!"