How to Make a Wedding Bouquet For the Bride

Wedding flowers are a significant expense, so it’s hardly surprising that many brides are looking for ways to economise. Where once only a ’ florist made’ bouquet would do, many brides are saving money by creating their own bouquets or asking friends to help.

Modern brides bouquets vary from informal bunches of garden flowers to elaborate wired cascades. They may be made from flowers, ribbon, feathers, seashells and even vintage jewelry. Twenty first century brides are looking for something truly personal; it’s not just a question of economy. Many brides choose a ‘home made’ bouquet because it means more.

When I saw a beautiful bouquet made from hyacinth bells and lily of the valley, I fell in love with it, cut out the picture and took it to my florist who shook her head and told me it was a bad idea. When I couldn’t be persuaded she simply quoted me an outrageous price and my dream bouquet became just that, a dream. My colors were blue and white, I wanted a genuine blue flower, but all the florist could offer me was something dyed or painted. Making my own bouquet was my Mother’s suggestion. We used silk flowers and worked carefully. I got my dream bouquet at a fraction of the quoted cost, and since we mixed the flowers with real foliage, no one even guessed that they weren’t real.

Since then I’ve been convinced that it is perfectly possible to make your own bouquet, and now that everyone can shop for the tools the professionals use, home made bouquets are perfectly possible. Add the fact that you can see how it’s done on a youtube video, and you’ll see what I mean. Going to a florist is a choice, it’s no longer a necessity.

Before you try making a bouquet, have a good look through the wedding magazines. There are many shapes for a bride's bouquet, but really your decision is between these three types:

1. Single flower, single color.

These bouquets are often posies incorporating roses, orchids or for a more old fashioned look, carnations. You'll find many of the wholesale flower supply companies provide 'packs' of roses or orchids in a single color. Buy a couple of rose 'bundles' from your local supermarket in order to try out the design, all you need is a bouquet holder, cut the stems of your flowers very short, and set them in the foam. Once you know what you're doing you can order your flowers from one of the online wholesale companies. If you want to add a touch of foliage you'll find foliage packs, but these can be expensive. I bought a couple of fern pot plants and cut off what I needed for my bouquet. My favorite of all these bouquets is the peony bouquet, but beware, it's very seasonal and can be outrageously expensive, in which case, consider some of the real touch silk peony bouquets available from websites like afloral or G and G webstore

2. Multi-color, multi-flower. Just like the bouquet at the top of the page, these bouquets have the most variety. You'll use large headed flowers or frilly flowers for the body of the bouquet, and others, like orchid stems, for the trailing stems. These bouquets can be a problem because wholesalers don't tend to sell flower mixtures. The solution is to look for a wholesaler that does provide mixed packs, buy the stems you want from your local florist, or make your own table-centers from the same flower mixture, hence making it economical to buy the different packs from the wholesaler.

If you can't get hold of the right sort of flower to provide trailing stems, look at some of the smithers oasis videos on youtube and see how the designers use trails of colored wire, or beaded wire instead.

3. Single flower type, multi-color bouquets, such as bouquets of blue and white hydrangeas, pink and white roses, cream and rust orchids. Again, these can be more expensive, but shop around for a mixed pack of flowers, especially from wholesalers who sell 'color' packs. Blue hydrangeas are always in demand for brides with blue and lilac color schemes. The most beautiful flowers are the 'antique' colors where each huge flower head has many different color shades. If you can't find what you want, buy white flowers and add the colored accents in the form of ornaments, like butterflies, ribbon, or exotic wire. You can dye white flowers, and this is fine if it's the effect you want, but don't expect it to look natural.

• Flowers (usually 25 or so, but if you are working on a large design, you could use up to 50) Don't forget to include filler flowers and foliage.
• Buckets
• Water
• Flower food
• Bouquet holder (and stand) - wine bottle filled with water will work.
• Ribbon
• Pins
• Accents/accessories e.g. colored or metallic wire

When budget is a serious problem, the simplest solution is to carry a posy of garden flowers, but what if that's not possible? What if you hate garden flowers, or you're getting married in the depth of winter?

Believe it or not, expensive flowers can be the solution. You pay a lot per stem, but use only a small number of stems and create either a wand style bouquet or an overarm bouquet, the sort that ballerinas and opera signers receive at the end of a performance. They rely on long, graceful stems and foliage, and are far easier to make than you may think. Use any flower with a long stem, orchids and full size calla lilies are ideal, and don't forget to add foliage. Some of the most interesting bouquets rely on red, mottled or striped leaves for their color, while others use delicate ferns to add a contrast of texture.

Here's a video from Leanne at the flower school, showing how to make a bouquet from one of the most popular wedding flowers, tulips. You could also make the same design using calla lilies. As you can see she uses a small number of stems plus some beautiful foliage. The result is beautiful and sophisticated, and best of all, it wont break the bank.

Traditional bouquets were taped and wired, and you can learn to do that, but if you're not used to handling flowers and you want a fresh flower bouquet, there are styles which are simple to make and, if you use the right tools, very dramatic.

A bouquet holder makes the creation of a posy fairly easy, and you can buy these from amazon as well as from specialist floral supply shops.

A modern bouquet holder, like Smithers Oasis new European style bouquet holder, makes bouquet creation quick and simple. There are two holders in the range, one round and one square (yes, you can make a square bouquet) and the idea is simply to cut the stems of your flowers short and place them in the foam. I recommend that you try this out before your wedding day, but really, it's not rocket science.

Here's Leanne from the flower school once again, showing how simple and how beautiful one of these new European style bouquets can be.