How to Make Your Own Bridal Bouquet with Real Flowers

One way to help balance your wedding budget is to make your own bridal and bridesmaid bouquets. There’s no doubt that real flowers are expensive, but when you consider the cost of hired labor in the creation of wedding bouquets, making your own can save you money.

When you create a DIY wedding bouquet, you will feel proud that you contributed to an important feature of your wedding. A DIY bouquet may seem like a daunting task, but if you follow step-by-step directions, it’s really quite easy.

You will make your bouquets the day before the wedding, so it’s a good idea to practice once or twice ahead of time using inexpensive or artificial flowers.

Choosing your flowers and bouquet style

Do your research by looking through magazines and floral shops to make decisions about what size and style of bouquet you want.

Consider your body type, style and colors of your wedding gown, and the theme colors of your wedding. You will save money by choosing flowers that are in season. Keep in mind, though, that many flowers are grown in greenhouses and are available all year long.

Think about the colors you want. Flowers like roses and hydrangeas come in many colors. There are many options for purchasing fresh flowers such as online wholesale stores, local flower marts, Costco, or a nearby grocery store.

Just look for fresh and sturdy flowers. Don’t forget to purchase greenery and small accent flowers.

Gather supplies and flowers

You will need floral snips, floral shears, wire cutters, a sharp knife, pearl straight pins, wire, floral tape and two-sided satin ribbon.

Place your flowers in buckets of water until ready to use. Some suggested flowers to use are roses, peonies, hydrangeas, and calla lilies.

Stephanotis and snowdrops are good for accent flowers. Choose greenery that is vibrant. Israeli ruckus, Italian ruckus or Aspidistra are good choices.

Prepare your flowers

Strip all the foliage and thorns off the stems of the flowers. Do the same with your greenery. Take off the outer pedals of the flowers and any other discolored ones.

If you are using any small delicate flower like stephanotis or snowdrops, take your pearl topped pin and push into the center of the flower. This adds elegance.

Making the bouquet

Take your larger flowers like hydrangeas and hold the stem with your index finger and your thumb. Add more flowers with stems angled and evenly distributed.

Add roses, inserting an odd number evenly among the hydrangeas. Then insert one or two varieties of greenery keeping stems at an angle.

Final touches to the bouquet

In order to keep your bouquet tightly together, wind some stretchy corsage or stem tape tightly around the stems. Next, wind double- sided satin ribbon starting at the bottom and going up.

Be sure to cover the tape. With the extra ribbon at the top, tie it off and tuck the end into the ribbon. Trim the stems at the end.

How to store until the wedding

To keep your bouquet hydrated and fresh for the following day, put about ½ inch of water into a vase with some paper towels. Store the bouquet in the refrigerator. The next day, trim off stems that are showing at the bottom.

If you practice a couple of times before making the final bouquet, your wedding bouquet will turn out beautiful and you will be proud of yourself.

Simply follow the step-by-step instructions and you will carry a professional looking bouquet at your wedding.

And don’t stop with your bridal bouquet. You can follow the same basic steps for making your own bridesmaid bouquets, too!

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