Designing + Planning Orange Wedding Bouquets and Centerpieces

I'm at it again!  Some of our good friends are getting married this weekend, and they asked me to be their florist!

I love having the house full of flowers, helping friends save a little cash, and most of all, making them something beautiful that's a part of their wedding day (and about a thousand photos).  The stressful part?  Making them something beautiful that's a part of their wedding day and about a thousand photos!!!

I love their ideas for their wedding - hints of a baseball theme (they did get engaged at a baseball game after all!), casual outdoor feel, and bright colors of royal blue and true orange.  I'm also quite impressed with all the projects the bride has been working on!  Maybe she'll let me write a post about all her hard work...

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So all that aside, I wanted to share with you what I've been doing to plan for this DIY floral experience. 

First, I started with the bride.

What's the budget?  As reasonable as possible but I still want everything to look pretty.

What do you want the flowers to look like?  True orange, with some blue for mine.  No lilies (a bridesmaid is allergic). 

Aw man, because I was kind of hoping to try these...

We browsed through a number of photos on pinterest and found that she prefers a rounded shape, not too big or too small, avoid the wildflower look, and no flowers that are too crazy.

1,2,3

We also took a trip to the flower wholesaler, but the day we went they were severely lacking in orange flowers!  I hadn't been planning to order ahead for this wedding, but after the selection that day, I decided it would be a better idea.

The following flowers come in orange.  I'm sure there's more, but this is what my flower guy suggested.  I bolded the ones I ultimately chose, and gave reasons why the others wouldn't work

Alstroemeria - too generic
Asiatic Lily - bridesmaid is allergic
Calla Lily - too expensive
Carnations
Celosia - too weird
Cockscomb
Dahlia
Freesia
Gerbera Daisy
Gladiola -not the right shape
Hydrangea - Royal blue for the bride
Hypericum - too expensive
Orchid - too expensive
Proteus - too weird
Roses
Spray Roses
Sunflower
Snapdragon - tips are green, not the right shape
Tulip - not available
Zinnia - not available


By studying the inspiration photos, I got a good idea of how many stems I'd want for each type of arrangement.  The bridal bouquet is of course larger than the bridesmaid bouquets, and the centerpieces don't need as many stems because they can be spread out.

To save money, my bride had the great idea to use the bouquets as centerpieces at the reception.  She's having 15 tables, but I only have to make 8 centerpieces because 7 are covered by the bouquets.  This is awesome, and essentially saved her 30% on the cost of her florals.  I plan to poke some greenery in around the bouquets so everything looks as cohesive as possible on the tables.

Here's the breakdown!

I went with fewer stems than planned for the bridal bouquet since three of them are large hydrangeas.

Also, flowers have to be ordered in bunches, not individually, so I tweaked the counts until I got even numbers for bunches.  Where you see 1.5's in the table, that just means half the bouquets get one flower and half get two.

So how much do flowers cost, anyways?  Carnations are the bargain of the bunch (har har) at less than 50 cents each.  The most expensive thing on my list, aside from the hydrangeas where cost can vary wildly, was the cockscomb at $1.80 each.  Everything else comes in between $1.00 - $1.50 per flower.

It's also helpful to consider the size of a flower.  Sunflowers, gerbera daisies, and dahlias take up a lot of square footage in a bouquet - so even if they're more expensive, you get more bang for your buck. 

My grand estimate for the flower order came to $450.  Y'all, this a BARGAIN for an entire wedding of flowers.  For my wedding, I got estimates of $700 - $1000 for bouquets only (and subsequently told the florists no thanks).

To make myself feel a little more confident in choice of flowers, I threw together some photos to make sure everything would play well together.  Thankfully, they do!

I've also been considering the schedule for the work.  The wedding is Sunday.  Friday I'll pick up the order and "process" the flowers.  Saturday I'll put most of the bouquets and centerpieces together.  Sunday I'll finish any centerpieces, prep the vases for the bouquets, and make the corsages.  I get to have fun in there too - they've planned a bachelorette dinner tonight, a group outing to a Nationals game Friday, and the rehearsal dinner Saturday.  Plus some of our BFFs who are also in the wedding are staying with us all weekend, so I'll have helpers this time around!

I'm super excited to pick up the order tomorrow and get to work!  I love having a house full of friends and flowers :)



You might also be interested in these posts:
Prepping Flowers for DIY Bouquets
DIY Fake Peony and Hydrangea Bouquets
Elegant White and Green Bouquets
Autumn Bouquets and Boutonnieres

Bonnie Projects

Wedding in Review: All the Projects

To wrap up the Wedding Wednesdays, I wanted to provide a wrap-up post of all the projects!  I hope they've inspired you to DIY a few elements of your own wedding, whether it be to personalize, save money, or just to have something to do with friends!

PS: Friends, I still have most of this stuff, so if you'd like to borrow it for your own wedding, just ask!


The DRESS - designed by us and handmade by my Mom

My dress was a hand-beaded, Chantilly lace fit-and-flare gown with a strapless sweetheart neckline and rows and rows of flounces.  It also featured a button-off removable train and beaded belt.

Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses

Personalized Bridesmaid Robes

Personalized Jewelry for Bridesmaids and Flower Girls

Flower Girl Dresses

American Girl Dresses to Match the Flower Girls

Flower Girl Baskets

Ring Bearer Pillow (made from leftover dress fabric)

Invitation Suite

Thank You Notes

RSVP Map

Will You Be My Bridesmaid Paper Doll Cards

Wreaths for the Chapel

Hydrangea Bouquets

Peony Bouquet and Ranunculus Boutonnieres

Ribbon Wands

Pennants

Pennant Cake Topper

Chair Ribbons

Ribbon Table Runners

Coastal Centerpieces Made From Lantern, Chrome Shells, and Coral

Chrome Coral Table Number Holders

Name Buttons

Photo Guest Book 

Cloth Napkins for Favors

Save-A-Guest Kit

Dancing Shoes

Bonnie Projects

Elegant White and Green Wedding Bouquets and Boutonnieres

The weekend after Christmas, I had my fifth stint as a florist!  I made the bouquets and boutonnieres for my sister-in-law's wedding.  This was also the first time I was a bridesmaid!

She had a classic and elegant winter wedding at her grandparent's country club.  She didn't want it to feel Christmasy, but also didn't want to lose sight of the fact that it's winter.  There was lots of lace and candlelight, with a good mix of drinking and dancing, and had fun touches like Christmas ornaments for favors and even a hot chocolate bar!

To avoid clashing with the church decor, and to keep things elegant and classic, she chose white and green bouquets made from tibet roses, freesia, and greenery.  Here are the inspiration photos I was working from.

What do tibet roses, freesia, hypericum, and ruscus look like?  See below.

I prepped the flowers on the Thursday before the wedding.  Friday I made the bouquets, and Saturday morning I made the boutonnieres.

Using the inspiration photos, I estimated how many of each flower should be the in bouquets.  This way, you can make sure you have enough of everything.  Looking back, we could have had 10% fewer roses and freesia, and about 50% less greenery.  Live and learn.

I portioned out the flowers into individual vases so all bridesmaids would have equal amounts, and of course the bride gets lots more!

I like to do a few bridesmaids bouquets to get in the swing of things, then do the bride, and finish with the remainder of the bridesmaids.  To start a bouquet, take 2-4 of the best-looking flowers and arrange them so they look nice.  Wrap them together with floral tape, about halfway down the stem.

Add one or a few more stems, and secure them with more floral tape.  Be sure to mix up the type of flowers, and add greenery now and then.

Keep adding flowers like this until you've used them all up (or you're happy with the size).

I added a few stems of Italian ruscus last to make the white flowers really pop against backgrounds.

Wrap all the stems tightly with more floral tape until you've covered the part of the bouquet where you want the ribbon to go.  I usually wrap about five inches of the stems, from as close to the flowers as possible downwards.

Cut off the long stems, leaving about 1.5" showing below the floral tape.  This is a personal choice, but I like the handles of the bouquets to be on the short side - it make them easier to carry.  You can leave more of the stems showing if you'd like.  If you leave less, you run the risk of the ribbon getting wet when you put the bouquets in water.

Finish the bouquet by wrapping 1" satin ribbon around the handle, covering the floral tape.  I start at the top, wrap to the bottom, then wrap all the way back up.  I secure the top with a corsage pin.  If you don't want it to show, just use a tiny shirt pin to secure the ribbon.  Add as many corsage pins as you like, if you prefer the look of more!

My SIL wanted lace around the bouquets, so after I did the satin ribbon, I added a layer of lace ribbon.  I had just enough, so I only wrapped them from bottom to top.  It came undone on some of the bridesmaids bouquets, so I would highly recommend using pins at the bottom and top if you're only doing one pass of ribbon!

Put about an inch of fresh water in a cylinder vase (I get mine at the dollar store), and add the bouquet.  This keeps them fresh, and keeps the flowers from getting crushed.

For transport, I secure the vases in a large shallow box with newspaper.

The seven bridesmaid bouquets and one bridal bouquet took about four hours to assemble.  I love the way they came out - so similar to the inspiration photos!  The guests loved them, and most importantly, so did the bride.

inspiration

reality
 

I like to do boutonnieres and corsages the morning of the wedding so they're as fresh as possible.  I was so nervous for this wedding (so much different than our wedding where I was completely calm), and couldn't sleep, so I did most them between 4am and 6am (the hubs was sleeping, thus no photos, sorry).

For the boutonnieres, I start with a tightly closed rose.  I pick off any ugly petals.  You can pull off lots of petals before ruining the rose, so don't be scared.

It's tempting to secure all the stems together at once.  Don't.  They get all wonky once you start wrapping the floral tape around them.

I start with the background greenery, in this case, two tips of Italian ruscus.  I put it behind the rose and secure it with floral tape.

Then I add hypericum in front of the rose, about 6 berries in all, and secure that with floral tape.

To finish it off, I wrap about 1.5" of the stems with floral tape, and snip the stems about half an inch below the tape.  I wrap everything in half-inch satin ribbon, starting at the top, going to the bottom, and coming back up.  I secure the ribbon with a small shirt pin, in the back where it won't be seen.  I've tried glue and tying knots, but neither of those turned out well.  I was really happy with the results using tiny pins.

I don't put them in water, just rest them in a large flat box for safekeeping.  I like to identify the prettiest ones as being for the groom and the Dads, since they'll be in so many photos.

I used the same method for the corsages, except I used a more opened rose and added an opened stem of freesia.

I made 28 boutonnieres and corsages, taking about four hours altogether.  They worked really well on men, but many of the women had trouble pinning them to their dresses, and took them off after the ceremony.  If you're DIYing them, these are inexpensive ($2-$3), but if you're buying them at $10-$20 each I would definitely consider whether you really need them for your entire list of honored guests.

Let's see how everything came out!

the beautiful and happy bride and groom!

elegant white bridal bouquet

white rose boutonniere

me and my sister-in-law!

our bouquets (notice how pretty the lace turned out)

The bridal party

me and my hubs, walking down the aisle twice in 2012!

Thanks for letting me share my latest floral design with you!  It was really special to make these for my sister-in-law and my brand new brother-in-law!