Category Archive for: ‘Flowers’
DIY Retro Straw Vase Centrepiece for Under $20
While browsing for centerpiece ideas on Pinterest recently, I came upon a pin which really caught my attention. It was a cute idea to make festive vases using red striped candy canes to decorate a plain vase or jar. One thing which I had been searching for was a unique yet relatively cheap way to add some color and focus to our table arrangements without having to expand on our flower order. So, I had a play around with the concept and looked to make this candy cane idea a little less seasonal yet just as simple to do. So here for you to copy is my short, and incredibly easy tutorial to make your very own “Retro Straw Vase.”
Materials:
- 1 small glass vase or jar (washed and cleaned) – a cylindrical vase or jar about 7” in height works well
- 2 small rubber bands
- 2 packs of retro striped paper straws (1 pack = 25 straws)*
- 1 length of ribbon
- 1 pack of tissue paper
Using a clean jar or vase, arrange your straws around and secure with a rubber band
Directions:
- Get the vase or jar and stretch one band over the top of the vase and one at the bottom, each about 1 1/2 inch from the edge.
- Feed the straws between the rubber band and vase until it is completely covered all the way around.
- Gently re-position the top band towards the center of the vase and remove the bottom band.
When the vase or jar is completely surrounded by straws, cover the band with a decorative ribbon
- Get your length of ribbon and tie around the center of the straw covered vase on top of the rubber band.
- Ensure your ribbon is tied securely and carefully trim any excess length.
Make the tissue flower by folding into a fan, tying the band at one end and carefully separating the sheets to create your bloom
- To make the tissue paper flower, take your tissue paper and place 3-4 sheets on top of one another.
- Fold the tissue paper layers in half, then fold to make a fan with the folded edge along the bottom.
- Using your spare rubber band, tie the band at one end about 1 inch from the bottom.
- Holding the tissue fan, gently separate the sheets of tissue paper layers (as you would do to make a tissue Pom Pom) creating a half sphere.
- Arrange the tissue layers to resemble a large flower bloom and simply set in the vase.
Of course, you can go ahead and fill your new vase with real flowers if you so choose, or even use it to house the weight for a balloon centerpiece Or, if you’re after a more rustic looking centerpiece, you could substitute the straws for small twigs cut to about 8-inch lengths.
{Guest Post} A DIY Wedding Flower Story
How does a bride who has never worked with flowers decide to design and create her own wedding arrangements? This is the story of Erin Watson, a DIY bride-to-be who took on that challenge, and found that the winning combination for doing your own flowers is to keep it simple and get a little help from your friends.
Researching the Flowers
Erin spent time educating herself on flower types and looked at over 200 varieties on FiftyFlowers.com to find the perfect blooms for her navy, white and yellow wedding theme. This process was time consuming and she quickly realized there are not many natural blue flowers to choose from. So Erin opted for white as the focal flower and chose anemones with a navy center. Erin also selected ranunculus for their soft, open look and paired both with yellow and blue accent flowers. Here is a complete list of varieties used on her wedding day:
- White Anemones with Dark Center
- White Carnations
- White Ranunculus
- Veronica Periwinkle Lavender
- Yellow Tinted Million Star Baby’s Breath
Designing the Flowers
Erin’s simple vision for the centerpieces was to place the flowers in an eclectic mix of glass bud vases and jars. The head table arrangements would be mounds of white carnations and the personal flowers would be rustic, hand-tied clusters. Erin worked closely with one of our wedding flower consultants to determine what quantity she needed of each variety including plenty of extras. Below is a complete list of items Erin planned to make:
- 1 bridal bouquet
- 4 bridesmaid bouquets
- 3 corsages (Moms and Grandma)
- Flower girl basket
- 8 boutonnieres
- 12 reception table centerpieces
- Head table arrangements (2 centerpieces)
- 5 Cocktail tables
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Ordering the Flowers
Erin placed the order online about three months before the big day. Customer service called to confirm the order and advised that based on the weather this year and it being the end of the season that availability could potentially be limited for anemones. Erin was faced with a reality that professional florists deal with every day, Mother Nature. Erin had already decided that anemones were the focal flower of her wedding day and she absolutely had to have them! The customer service team was hopeful that there would still be quality anemones to ship for Erin’s big day and promised to keep in close contact with the farms. Erin made a decision not to worry about it. After all, she was marrying the man of her dreams and if a flower substitution had to happen she was not going to let it ruin her day.
The Plan
Based on her conversations with other DIY brides Erin felt strongly about not preparing the flowers on the actual wedding day. She planned to get it all done in advance and envisioned that she, her mom and her bridesmaids would get together the day before to make the flowers and store them in the extra fridge in their garage. On the wedding day her dad would deliver the arrangements to the venue. A friend who also does event planning had volunteered to be her “day-of” coordinator and would make sure that everything was put into place. It was a seamless plan which would allow Erin to relax and enjoy her wedding day.
Preparing the Flowers
Erin received a phone from customer service the day before the flowers arrived to let her know that everything was on schedule but the anemones would be shipping a day late; they needed to be held at the farm for an extra day so they wouldn’t mold in the box during shipping but they were coming! The next day Erin and her friend, Sharon, were ready with floral shears, flower food, and buckets of water. They proceeded to joyfully open boxes of flowers, cut the stems with a sharp knife and place in buckets to hydrate.
Making the Flowers
Several weeks before the wedding Erin received an incredible surprise! Two of her co-workers offered to take charge and make the flowers on her wedding day. Erin was floored and grateful for this wedding gift. Even though she knew she and her team could have done it, this kind gesture would give her even more time to herself. According to Claudia and Lauren, the two co-workers who made the arrangements, it took them three hours in the employee break room, working with flowers that had been processed several days prior, to make everything plus the clean-up and delivery time to the site.
Erin, now happily Mrs. McKeeby, is a determined DIY-er who learned how to design and make her own wedding flowers. With beautiful blooms and a plan to keep the arrangements simple anyone can create pretty, floral accents for a wedding. And according to Erin, there was wonderful satisfaction in having her own creative spin on their wedding day flowers. Would she do it again? Absolutely!
To schedule your complimentary DIY wedding flower design session email cservice@FiftyFlowers.com
Download the wedding flowers worksheet.
Vendors:
Photography: Scott Watt www.scottwatt.com
Day Of Coordinator: Good Life Travel and Events www.facebook.com/GoodLifeTravelandEvents
Caterer: Puff ‘n Stuff www.puffnstuff.com
Cake: The Sugar Suite www.thesugarsuite.com
Cupcakes: Yum Yum Cupcake Truck www.theyumyumcupcaketruck.com
Cocktail Entertainment: Dueling Pianos
Ceremony Music: Our DJ Rocks www.ourdjrocks.net
Cinematographers: Imprint Cinema www.imprintcinema.com
Officiant: Rob Duford www.orlandonorth.com
Wholesale Flowers: FiftyFlowers.com www.fiftyflowers.com
Make-Up: Faces by Shannon www.facedbyshannon.info
Hair: Erin Geluso Designs www.lushlash.net
Venue: Orlando Science Center www.osc.org
Photography (flower processing only) Chris Gillyard www.chrisgillyardphoto.com
About the Author: Liza Roeser Atwood
Liza is founder and CEO of FiftyFlowers.com, the leading provider of farm direct flowers devoted exclusively to weddings and events. FiftyFlowers.com offers exceptional customer service and seamless ordering of flowers online. Ten years ago, Liza launched her career on an Ecuadorian flower farm following a service tour in the Peace Corps. Today Liza is the foremost expert in global flower sourcing and devoted to providing DIY Brides with fresh flowers shipped directly from the farm.
Double-Duty Floral Decorations
If you are trying to save a little money to stay on track for your budget consider having decorations and items for the wedding do double duty. Instead of purchasing additional centerpieces for the reception, utilize the bridesmaid’s bouquets. They can carry them during the ceremony and then showcase the beautiful arrangements on the reception tables. If you figure a basic floral arrangement starts at about $25, and most cost a lot more, you are saving $25 or more for every bouquet you reuse.
Photo Credit: Menifee Lakes Country Club
If you’re going to have ceremony flowers consider utilizing them for decoration during the reception as well. Again, depending on the size and flowers in the arrangement, you are going save a minimum or $25, or upwards of $49 for something similar to the photos below for every arrangement you reuse.
Photo Credit: Tracy Dodson Photography
Talk to your florist and ask if they will hang around to help move any ceremony flowers to the reception. If not, ask an onsite coordinator or even a server or banquet captain many will help move items with out a fee. The florist for this event not only set up all the flowers but stuck around and helped moved all the arrangements from the ceremony to the reception tables. Making it a quick and easy move that saved the bride over $195 for the four arrangements that were reused.
{Sponsored DIY Project} Ombre Rose Bouquet
I think we can safely say that 2012 was the year of ombre. It was everywhere from fingernail polish to hair color to cake frosting — and we loved every bit of it! Since we’re not quite ready to let it go – and we know you love it as much as we do – so we’re kicking off 2013′s first floral project with something scrumptious: an ombre bridal bouquet. Our friends at Bella Wedding Flowers provided us with a great big box of beautiful garden roses to test out their bulk flower delivery service. The boxes arrived Thursday morning with flowers well-packaged, fresh, and oh-so-pretty. You can see the unboxing over at our Instagram account. 
Supplies Needed
- 30 roses; 5 each of 6 different shades of roses. We used roses in colors from white to fuchsia.
- Buckets or vases with water
- Floral sheers
- Floral pins
- Floral tape
- 5 feet of 1.5″ satin ribbon
- All the gear needed for this project.
Instructions
The first -and most important step – is to make sure your roses are properly hydrated before you begin. If you’ve ordered your flowers from Bella Wedding Flowers or another provider, they’ll likely be a little droopy and thirsty after their voyage. They’ll need to be placed in water as soon as you pluck them off of your doorstep. Hydration can take 4 hours or more so plan well ahead of assembly time!- Step #2 Once your flowers are perky and at the stage of bloom you desire, it’s time to get started on creating the bouquet. (Note: I wanted to showcase how delicate and lush garden roses are at full bloom so I waited a couple of days while the roses opened to get max effect. While they were gorgeous at this stage, they were also beginning to become very fragile when handled. There’s a trade-off and, if I were to do it again, I’d probably not wait as long to do the bouquets.) To get started, you’ll need to remove the thorns and leaves from the roses’ stems and trim the stems down to approximate size. This, for me, was the hardest part of the whole process and the step that took the longest. Stripping 30 roses took over an hour.
- Step #3 After you remove the leaves and stems, cut about 1 inch of the stem off at a 45 degree angle. This cut maximizes the surface area that the rose can absorb water through and will help keep the rose hydrated while you continue to work. Hydrated flowers are happy flowers! Place the stripped roses in a bucket of clean lukewarm water (a clean kitchen sink will do in a pinch) so they stay hydrated and perky.
- Flowers taking a bath, getting all hydrated while they await their turn to be bundled.
- Step #4 The next step is to assemble to roses into mini bouquets. Working by colors, arrange all 5 flowers from a single shade in your hand and bundle them together using floral tape. (For example: start with the white flowers then move on to the lightest pink then do the mid-pink flowers, etc.) Place the bundle back in water. Repeat for the remaining roses colors.
- Step #5 When all of your bundles are finished, it’s time to bind them together in order of lightest to darkest colors.I found that the bouquet was a little lopsided at this stage so I filled in gaps with extra flowers and taped them in when things started looking more balanced.
- Bundling the bundles together. Will need some more roses to fill in gaps.
- Step #6 The last step is to wrap the bouquet stems with pretty ribbon. Cut approximate 5 feet of ribbon from the spool. Beginning about 1 inch from the bottom of the blooms, wrap the ribbon around the bouquet stems, covering the floral tape. Wrap the ribbon on a downward diagonal from the top and work your way down. When you reach your desired bouquet sleeve bottom, wrap upward once or twice and secure the ribbon with corsage/floral pins. Be sure to place the pins at a diagonal so that they don’t poke through the flowers. Ouch!
- The bouquet wrap. This is secured with corsage/floral pins to keep it in place.
Assembly Time: 2.5 hours
Approximate Cost: $150 for 30 garden roses, floral tape and 2 yards ribbon.
Tips & Hints:
- The folks at Bella Wedding Flowers have clear instructions on how to their blooms on their website for handy reference. Always check flower care instructions before you buy so that you can ensure you have enough time and supplies to help make your flower project a success.
- White and other light-colored roses are notoriously easy to bruise and brown. Pro tip: simply pluck off damaged petals.
Disclosure: DIY Bride has a financial relationship with Bella Wedding Flowers, meaning we may have received compensation for this content and/or related content . We firmly stand behind our review and recommendation, and are committed to promoting only those companies we feel offer our community excellent products, ethical business practices, and outstanding customer service.
How to make a felt pomander for flower girls
For my wedding I decided against real flowers and opted for something a little different instead. Felt pomanders are a great alternative to having flower girls throw petals, they help keep little hands busy and, best of all, they’re nearly indestructible. The night of our rehearsal, one flower girl was batting hers like a tetherball, and, the day of our ceremony, another decided that it would make the perfect foot rest as her feet didn’t quite reach the ground. Both pomanders survived and still looked great afterwards. If you’re planning a destination wedding these pomanders are light and won’t get crushed along the way. So, now that you know how awesome they are, let’s get started!
What you’ll need:
- 4 inch styrofoam ball
- Ribbon
- Colored felt (any colors; I used 3 shades of blue felt)
- Corsage pins
- Glue gun and glue sticks
- Scissor
- Circular object to trace
Directions:
Step 1: To start this project, trace circles onto the felt and cut them out.
Step 2: Cut a spiral shape into the circle using a scissor.
Step 3: Using the glue gun, create the rose by gluing the center down and continuing to glue around until the spiral is used up. Continue steps 1-3 until you have the desired amount of flowers. Note: I used eight 9 x 12-in. felt pieces to complete one pomander.
Step 3
Step 4: Insert a pen or pencil into the styrofoam ball to create a small hole. Use a marker and divide the styrofoam ball into fourths. Cut a length of ribbon, fill the hole with glue and insert the ribbon into the glue to make the handle.
Step 4
Step 5: Now, it’s time to attach the flowers. Use the corsage pins to attach the felt flowers (Note: the flowers can also be hot glued on if you’d like to have a button or sequin center instead). I found it best to first attach the flowers along the lines and then fill-in from there.
Step 6: Continue attaching flowers until you have a nice full pomander.
Felt Pomander Done!
Multi-color felt pomander from Amanda’s wedding
We’d love to know what you think of this project? Do you have any ideas for embellishments?
Wedding photo by Jeff Sampson Photography
Romantic bouquet with satin and lace flowers
What you’ll need:
- 2 spools of 5/8′ satin ribbon
- 1 roll decorative lace trim (9 feet)
- Bouquet holder with round styrofoam top
- Pearlized round or corsage pins
- Glue gun and glue sticks
- Pearl necklaces or old chain (optional)
Estimated cost: $30
Directions:
Step 1: The first thing you’ll want to do is decorate the handle and underpart of the bouquet holder. I started by wrapping them with ribbon and then adding the lace so the white of the holder wouldn’t show through.
Step 2: If you’d like to add the necklace embellishments to your bouquet, now would be the time. To do so, remove the styrofoam top of the holder and thread the necklaces through the holes. Once you’ve got them where you’d like, put a little glue on to hold them in place.
Step 3: Next, the ribbon and lace flowers need to be made. To create the ribbon flowers, cut a length of ribbon (approximately 9 inches for small and 18 inches for large roses), and tie a knot on one end. Put a spot of glue on knot, twist the ribbon, and place it in the glue. Continue to twist and wrap the ribbon around until there is only a small end remaining, tuck that tail under the rosette and glue it in place.
Step 4: For the lace flowers, cut a length a lace (approximately 12 inches for small and 24 inches for large flowers). Take one end of the lace and fold it over, then glue it in place. Next, make a star-like shape around the glued end, glue it in place, and let the glue dry. Wrap the the remaining lace around the shape until you’re happy with the flower you’ve created.
Step 5: Use the pins to attach your flowers. For the bouquet I created, each large flower had three pins and each small flower had one. I organized the flowers in an alternating pattern, using the ribbon and lace flowers. Simply push the pins through the flowers and into the styrofoam, but not all the way in, and create a round shape. If you find that the flowers seem loose, simply add some glue at the base of the pins to keep them in place. Continue to add flowers until your bouquet is nice and full.
Step 6: Enjoy your hard work!
We think the combination of pink, ivory, and white satin and lace, and the extra embellishments with pearls make this bouquet very romantic with a bit of vintage flair. Tell us what you think!
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