DIY Wedding Flower Tips and Tricks
Long Stems has been setting up gorgeous weddings for over 40 years. It is always a pleasure to see a bride’s flower visions come to life. With that being said we have a great deal of experience in this area and I am happy to share with you some tips and tricks to help your DIY wedding flowers go off without a hitch.
Proper Flower Processing
Great wedding flowers starts with processing your flowers properly. When we are setting up a wedding on Saturday we look to get in those flowers as early as Wednesday. We get in our flowers and recut them on an angle, then immediately plunge them in slightly warm water treated with floralife flower food. This gives them a boost of nutrients and will help them firm up and begin to open slightly. The next step would be to refrigerate the flowers so that they don’t open too much more.
We begin designing on Thursday for a Saturday wedding, starting with centerpieces or other arrangements where the flowers remain in water, outside of water most flower varieties don’t last longer than a day. Make sure that when ever your flowers come out of water they are recut before returning to water, once out of water they will begin to seal off and will not drink water without a fresh cut, this happens in as little as 5 seconds!
Floral Centerpiece Tutorial
Designing centerpieces can be tricky but selecting certain flowers can make it a lot easier, for this tutorial I will be covering low centerpieces in glass or ceramic containers. To make designing easier we start with large blooms (Hydrangea, Chrysanthemum, etc) and flowers with many branches (Lillies, Thistle, Hypericum, etc) as well as a base of sturdy greens (pittosporum, baby blue eucalyptus, lemon leaf, etc… avoid spilling greens like seeded eucalyptus, save those for the end) This base of large blooms and branching arms of flowers and greens will create a grid that you can work the remain blooms into, avoid cutting blooms to short, always aim to have the stem of every flower hit the bottom of the container (You can always cut shorter but you can never add length so I recommend making several cuts until you find the length that is just right for your look). Flowers like Roses, Ranunculus, Tulips, etc… can be added to your grid to fill in the gaps and add that perfect pop of color. Once the center of the arrangement is filled to your look we finish off the centerpiece by going around the edge of the vase and adding spilling greens and flowers (Amaranthus, seeded eucalyptus, etc…) Once the centerpiece is finished return it to refrigeration until the day of your wedding.
Bridal/Bridesmaid Bouquet Tutorial
For a Saturday wedding we would begin designing the bouquets on Friday. For hand tied bouquets you will need 1in floral tape (floral tape is available in a variety of colors, for most bouquets we use white floral tape so that the tape doesn’t show through the ribbon overlay), your preferred 1.5in ribbon (we recommend sheer chiffon because it does not discolor with water or in refrigeration), 1in-2in corsage pins, a vase to hold the bouquet, and your favorite flowers and greenery. For this tutorial I will be covering how to design a traditional upright bouquet.
To start begin with your highlight blooms (think ranunculus, roses, peonies, these flowers have strong sturdy stems and would be great to highlight in the center of your bouquet). Grab 3-5 blooms a few stems of sturdy greens (parvifolia eucalyptus, baby blue eucalyptus, etc…), you want the greens to just peak up above the flowers at this stage. Then take your floral tape and begin tightly wrapping the bouquet approximately 4 inches below the heads of the flowers and roughly long enough for you to hold it with two hands. Now that you have a base to work off of grab your remain flowers and add about 3-5 blooms and greenery before wrapping them in tape, you can always adjust your flowers position before taping to get them exactly where you want them. Once the bouquet is the size you are looking for you can add spilling greenery around the edge like seeded eucalyptus.
The next step is to wrap the bouquet in your choice of ribbon, make sure to tightly wrap the bouquet if it is too loose the ribbon can unravel. Start at the top of your bouquet just above the floral tap and wrap downwards, once you get just below your floral tape at the bottom begin to go upwards in small spirals about a half an inch each higher each rotation to create an even and uniform look (This double wrap method will ensure that the color of the ribbon shows properly). When you get to the top have your corsage pins ready, we go a few times around the top and then cut the ribbon. We fold the ribbon over itself so that the rough cut edge is not visible and apply 4-6 pins going up toward the center of the bouquet so that they don’t poke your fingers on the other side.
After all that your bouquet is ready to be cut (if you think you will be tweaking your bouquet make sure to leave extra length on the end because it will need to be recut each time it comes out of water for more than 5 seconds) we cut the bouquets approximately 2 inches below the ribbon. Have your vase ready with about 2 inches of water in the bottom, make sure to check this vase throughout the day and add more water as needed, flowers drink a lot of water! After all that you are ready to return your bouquet to refrigeration until the day of your wedding.
Boutonniere Tutorial
For a Saturday wedding we would begin working on the boutonniere either Friday evening of Saturday morning, since these flowers will be out of water you have to take special care to make sure they stay fresh. To make a boutonniere you will need 1/2in floral tape, boutonniere pins, boutonniere box, some wet paper towels, tissue, stay-fresh corsage stem, 22 gauge florist wire, some small greenery and your preferred boutonniere flower (Not every flower works well in a boutonniere, because these flowers remain out of water flowers like Dahlia will not work. The best flowers for boutonnieres are Roses, Ranunculus, Calla Lillies, Orchids, and other flowers that hold up well without water).
To start your boutonniere begin with your flower, for this tutorial I will cover how to make a Rose Boutonniere. With a rose you will cut down the stem to approximately 1in below the flower head and remove all the greens around the rose head as well as the guard petals (guard petals are the exterior petals of a rose, the petal that was exposed to the elements when the rose was opening, these tend to have water marks or other discoloration and help the rose to open better when removed) Then you should soak your stay-fresh corsage stem in water for approximately 30 seconds. Gently insert the end of the stay-fresh corsage stem into the rose (sometimes turning the rose as you insert can help, take care not to jam it in as this can break the head of the rose) Then insert your 22 gauge wire just below the flower head and out the other side, then you can twist this wire down the stem securely attaching it to the stay-fresh corsage stem. Then it is time to use your floral tape, tightly wrap the rose stem and stay-fresh corsage stem in tape. Next you can add your greenery along the back (Italian ruscus works great for this) and a few clusters in the front (parvifolia eucalyptus, seeded eucalyptus, etc…) Your boutonniere is ready to go at this point or you can add a ribbon wrap in the same way as a bouquet.
Next you are ready to package your boutonniere so that it stays fresh. First take your wet paper towel and lay it in the bottom of your boutonniere box (this will add humidity to the box and keep your rose fresh). Next lay down your tissue so that the boutonniere does not direct sit on the wet paper towel and add 2 boutonniere pins to the boutonniere (these will be used to fasten the boutonniere onto the lapel) Your boutonniere is now ready to store in refrigeration until the boys are ready to get dressed.
Sourcing Supplies and Flowers
You can find all of your flowers and supplies to DIY your wedding at Long Stems, inquire through our Wedding Inquiry Form Here and mention that you are looking to DIY your wedding flowers and we can supply you with all the flowers and hard goods that you will need to make your very own wedding flowers. Please give us as much time as possible to reserve flowers for your wedding.
