Snapper Rewedding: Nosegays Galore

Bottom bouquet for me, top one gets tossed.

A few weeks ago I did a web search for silk flower bouquets for sale.  I didn't find anything I really loved.  I also found that the prices, while appropriate for materials and labor, were not what I wanted to pay.  I'm far too crafty to spend $125 for a bouquet that's not as custom as I deserve.  I decided to make my own bouquet.  While I was at it, I made corsages and boutonnieres as well.

I used this site as a guide for my bouquet.  The basic technique is the same for everything I made.  You clip all the stems to one length and use floral tape to build around a center grouping.  Once the bouquet is big enough, you wrap the stems of the bundle with floral tape then wrap the floral tape with ribbon.  I used craft glue on the bouquet then realized it would take forever for the glue to dry so I started using hot glue.

Wrapped in single-sided satin ribbon.

I'm keeping the big, fancy bouquet.  I made a small toss bouquet to throw into the audience.  I used the same technique and a smaller bundle of flowers.  My bridesmaids will all make their own bouquets in the same method.  (I don't want them to feel completely left out of the pre-production fun.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buster rolled around on the shooting surface before the shot.

The boutonnieres are like tiny bouquets that need room for a pin.  I considered making them larger when Andrew said, "It is a burlesque wedding."  Then I held the XL version against his shirt and we agreed it was too much.  Half of the boutonnieres can accommodate pins, and half have pin curl clips attached to the back.  Some of the groomsmen will be wearing outfits that won't work with pins.

 

 

 

 

 

Spy Kitten's corsage

I used this site as a guide for the corsages.  Again, these are like tiny bouquets.  I used the wires in the silk flowers to shape the bundles so they could ride on wrists instead of in fists.  Some instructions recommend cutting a hole in ribbon to feed the stems through, then tying the ribbon on the wrist. I don't want to risk them falling off, but they have to fit wrists for which I don't have measurements.  I hot glued them to lingerie elastic.  I was going to stitch them to the elastic, but I didn't want to worry about them shifting around inside the stitches.  Hot glue formed a nice bond so I didn't follow up with reinforcement stitches.

Lili vonSchtupp's corsage

I spent about $140 on flowers, floral tape, butterflies and ribbon.  I had the pin curl clips and lingerie elastic in stock at home.  I made one large bouquet, one toss bouquet, two corsages, six boutonnieres, and had enough leftover flowers for three bridesmaids' bouquets.  It helped that some of my blooms were on sale as seasonal (spring) flowers.