How to Make a Beautiful Flower Bouquet

Beautiful bouquets do so much to lift our spirits and warm our hearts. Whether you want to create a centerpiece for your table, or a beautiful bouquet to carry down the aisle, the principles are the same. Here are some easy steps to follow to make bouquets of dried or artificial flowers, flowers you've cut from your garden, or those that you find in the produce section of your local grocery store.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Flowers
• Scissors
• Vase or other decorative container
• Ribbon

1. Decide which type of bouquet you want to assemble--a centerpiece or a hand-held bouquet.

2. Keeping in mind the colors that best suit either the decor or the dress, select the flowers you will use for the crown of the bouquet. The center crown of the bouquet will contain the greatest concentration of the color you want, as well as the flowers that assume the greatest surface area of the piece. Flowers with the largest blooms are best suited to the center of the piece.

3. Use medium-sized blooms to frame the larger blooms of the center flowers. A contrasting color of blooms or even a mixture of colors adds drama to the appearance of the bouquet, and gives the central blooms a more brilliant presentation.

4. Apply the smallest blooms to the most exterior portion of the bouquet. Baby's Breath is a beautifully delicate flower that adds an ethereal appearance to your bouquet, no matter whether it will be carried or presented in a vase.

5. Trim the stems. If you are planning to carry your bouquet, you will want the stems to be reasonably short. For a bouquet centerpiece, cut the stems in accordance with the height of the container you plan to use.

6. Complete the bouquet with coordinating ribbons. If the bouquet will be carried, wrap the stems in several different lengths of ribbon to hold the flowers in place and also to create a cascading accent to the bottom of the piece. Ribbons can also be applied to the vase or container of your centerpiece to keep the flowers as you've arranged them, and further add color and beauty to your creation.

Tips & Warnings

• When using fresh flowers, select the ones that are in season.
• Consider adding some delicate herbs to your bouquet to increase the beauty of the presentation, and add fragrance.
• Beware choosing a flower simply on the basis of color. For example, red geraniums are beautiful but they tend not to smell very pleasant.
• If using flowers from your garden, be mindful of stowaway insects. For example, peonies require the presence of ants in order to bloom; hence the blooms often contain a significant number of ants.
• When using dried flowers in a hand-held bouquet, be careful not to include any flowers with sharp or prickly leaves and stems.
• Be careful to wrap the wires of the silk flowers to avoid damaging floral containers or scraping the skin when used in a hand-held bouquet.