How to make your own Bridal Party Wedding Bouquets

It is easy to make a bridal bouquet out of silk flowers and by using silk you can work on it way in advance of the wedding date.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Silk flowers
• Greenery filler
• Bridal bouquet collar
• Ribbon
• Hot glue gun
• Tulle netting and/or lace.

1. 
   Large Bouquet made fwith silk flowers for a Bride

   Purchase your silk flowers, fillers, flower collar, tulle and/or lace and ribbon from a local department or craft store. If you give yourself plenty of time to shop around before the wedding date you can keep checking back with the store to get the silk flowers on sale. Depending upon the number of flowers you are going to buy you could save lots of cash by waiting for the sales. Places like AC Moore and Joann Fabric have sales constantly on flowers and if you are a savvy shopper you can usually get what you want at anywhere from thirty to fifty percent off or more.
   
   Don't forget to go with only a two or three colors to make it more appealing visually and buy different size ribbons in coordinating colors.

2. Once you have your flowers, filler, collar and tulle or lace and ribbon, lay them out on your work surface, separating each out into categories to make it easier to pull what you want as you work and plug in your glue gun and keep it handy.

3. Start by placing a sample of each of the flowers and filler you have purchased in a bouquet in your hand. Then you can move things around as you hold them and picture what it will look like when completed. Experimenting with your look by just holding the flowers together before putting them in the collar will help you figure out what combintaion you like best before inserting them into the collar because once in the collar they can be difficult to remove.

4. When you have the general look of the arrangement you can begin by inserting them into the collar. Arrange them in the collar and be sure to have them the length you want before you cut off the excess stem. Start with the filler greenery first then add the smaller filler flowers then work up to the larger main flowers. You can add ivy to dangle down or to entwine around the flowers at any time to give your flowers a distinctive look.

5. Fill the collar completely or if going for a minimal look then you will need to hot glue the flowers to the INSIDE of the collar to keep them in place. If you have any odd holes in the arrangement you can fill in with extra flowers or greenery or filler flowers as necessary and hot glue them into place. Cut all the stems to an even length on the bottom. The length will be determined by how you or the bridal party will be holding them. Leave approximately 2" or more below where the hands will hold them for a comfortable fit.

6. Use wide ribbon to encircle the stems completely to hide them. Start at the top with a little hot glue to hold the ribbon in place and twist around the stems with a candy cane type effect. You can do this with one or more colors. Glue the end up and around the ends of the stems for a neat and professional look. You can then use the smaller gauge ribbon(s) to again candy cane style around the stems until you get the look you want. The ribbons can trail down any length you are comfortable with.

7. 
   Bride and Bridesmaids silk flower bouquets.

   You can add tulle or lace around the collar or tuck pieces inside the flowers and glue in place for an added touch. To make a tulle bow just simply use a long piece of tulle and tie it shoestring bow style around the flower stems up near the collar, leaving as little or as much hanging down. You can cut the ends in a 'V' shap or diagonal or cut straight across. If you fear it will not stay, put a drop of hot glue under the section that is tyed to the stems to help keep it in place.

8. Arrangement can be made the same way without a collar you just need to hold in place while wrapping the stems with floral tape, lashing them all together before adding your ribbon. By using floral tape it enables the stems to hold together so you can add the ribbons without the worry of them falling apart.

Tips & Warnings

• Stems of the flowers can be covered with floral tape individually if you are going to let them show or even if you are going to let just a peek of the stems to show through the ribbon coverings. I've seen floral tape in white and green.
• Be careful if you use the hot glue gun on the plastic parts of the flowers and stems as it can cause it to melt and burn your fingers, but with a little patience and fast working fingers the lightweight plastic parts can be glued in place before they melt from the heat of the glue.

[bookmom]

on 4/30/2008 Nice article! It would make a lovely souvenir for the bridal party as well.

[Haunted]

on 3/21/2008 Very pretty and you can keep them forever without worrying about them dying!