How to Hand Wrap a Bouquet

Your wedding day will be a highlight in your life, and you no doubt want it to be as special as possible. However, you may not have thousands of dollars to spend. But there are many things that can help keep your wedding on budget yet beautiful, and this includes having a friend or family member prepare your wedding flowers. Hand-wrapped bouquets are the easiest way to prepare flowers for the bridal party.

Things You'll Need

• Flowers
• Rubber bands or floral tape
• Satin Ribbon
• Clippers
• Straight pins

Instructions

1. Choose and purchase your bridal-party flowers. You most likely chose your wedding colors, so now you just have to choose the flowers that coordinate, and determine how many you need. You will need to purchase between 20 and 40 flower stems for each bridesmaid bouquet, and between 30 and 60 stems for your bridal bouquet. The bride's traditional bouquet is primarily white or off-white with, perhaps, a dash of color. Unless you have a flower warehouse or emporium in your city, you will have to order your flowers from a local florist.

2. Prepare the flowers when you first get them. Strip off excess leaves or thorns, and pull off flower petals that are damaged or brown.

3. Cut off approximately an inch at the bottom of the stems, and place them upright in cool water. If possible, refrigerate them until you are ready to begin crafting the bouquets.

4. Create a dome shape, starting in the middle of the bouquet. Leave the stems long, for the moment. Starting at the center, work around the center, adding stems, until the bouquet reaches about eight inches in diameter.

5. Bind the bouquet with a rubber band placed approximately 3 inches below the bottom of the flower heads. Continue binding down the stem for approximately 6 inches. Place the stems of the bound bouquet in water while you finish the remaining bouquets.

6. Create each bouquet following steps 4 and 5, placing each one in water (stems only) as you finish it.

7. Remove one bouquet from the water, and dry the stems with a towel. Wrap satin ribbon around the rubber-band binding, starting at the bottom of the 6-inch length, and tuck in the ribbon end. When you reach the top of the ribbon, tuck in the cut edge of the ribbon. Secure the ribbon by inserting one or two straight pins through the ribbon and into the flower stems.

8. Make a bow, if preferred, by cutting a separate piece of satin ribbon, and tying it around the wrapped bouquet. Secure the bow in place with straight pins, and then cut the stems to the length you prefer.

9. Wrap each bouquet in tissue paper, and then store them in a box in the refrigerator.

Tips & Warnings

• Order the flowers as early as possible, but have them delivered as close to your wedding day as possible, so they will be fresh. However, make sure you give yourself enough time to make the bouquets. You can use floral tape rather than rubber bands to bind the stems.

References

• The Knot