Diy Wedding Flowers
DIY Wedding Flowers: Homemade Boutonnieres
Leave the tough stuff to your professional florist, but if you want to add a handcrafted touch, try making the groom's boutonniere.
We suggest using a hardy flower with a big head such as a rose or miniature calla lily; they can survive being handled. You can make a boutonniere the day before the wedding, and be sure to get extra flowers for practice. Here's a step-by-step guide on do-it-yourself boutonnieres.
Step 1: Selecting & Preparing the Bundles of Blooms
- Pick your bundles of bouquets.
- Remove excess foliage and thorns, and pull off damaged petals.
- Fill a sink or bucket with water, and holding the stems underwater, use the stem cutter or knife to cut the stems at an angle about two inches from the bottom.
- Allow the flowers to drink for a few seconds with the stem ends underwater, then place the stems in a bucket filled halfway with cool water until you are
- ready to use them.
- Knot Note: If you are working with roses and the heads aren't open yet, you can force the blooms open by placing the stems in a bucket of hot water; do this only for a couple of minutes just before you are going to use the roses, otherwise you might kill them.
Step 2: Choosing & Preparing Particular Flowers
- Choose a particular stem and/or flower for the boutonniere.
- Use a stem cutter or sharp knife to cut the stem to a length of approximately three inches.
- Create a bed for the flower: Take an ivy leaf, fern frond, or other bit of greenery and place it behind the flower.
- Knot Note: The bed should not extend much beyond the top of the flower, and it should be visible from the sides.
- Place a six-inch piece of wire behind the stems.
STEP 3: Crafting the Boutonniere
- Prepare the stems: Starting from the top of the stems, begin to wrap floral tape down the stems in a spiral to secure them together; wrap until about 3/4 of an inch is covered.
- Trim away the excess stem and continue to wrap floral tape around the wire about three inches down, and then wrap the tape back up toward the flower head.
- Once you're back at the top, wrap tape around several times to be sure it's secure.
- Trim the excess tape.
STEP 4: Securing the Boutonniere
- Finish the boutonniere stem: Trim the wired and wrapped stem so the total length is about 1 1/2 inches.
- Curl the end around a pencil point and pinch the tip to finish it.
- Attach a ribbon bow (if you like).
- Depending on the weight of the boutonniere, insert one or two pearl-tipped pins into the stem to use later for attaching it to the lapel.
- The boutonniere is now complete! Mist it with water and place it in a resealable plastic sandwich bag (blow a puff of breath into the bag before you seal it to provide airspace around the boutonniere). You can place up to two boutonnieres in the same bag.
