DIY Kate Middleton's Bouquet On A Budget
Just after the wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William, we ran a breakdown of materials and an estimate of what it’d cost to recreate Kate’s ultra-lovely monochromatic bouquet. Our verdict: about $1200. A number of professional florists wrote in to tell us our estimated number of flowers, especially the lily of the valley, was a bit off. We were being too conservative, they said. Yikes!
We loved Kate’s bouquet and, from your letters, so do you. However, that $1200+ price tag is simply way out of reach of most of us. We contacted our friends at FiftyFlowers.com to see what we could put together for a DIY Bride version that wouldn’t break the bank. They’ve released a Kate-inspired combination box that brings together some of same elements of the princess’ bouquet but at a price that’s made for us commoners. We got our hands on one of the boxes and made our own Kate bouquet for about $200.
Have you ordered from FiftyFlowers before? Here’s what to expect when you buy their wholesale flowers:
1. The box arrives on your doorstep. You’ll need to get it in your house and get those flowers hydrating ASAP after their journey. When you open the box, you’ll see the flowers in bundles. They’re wrapped in paper during transportation.
2. The flowers are packed very well! The lily of the valley are in a separate box (left). The other bunches of flowers are on the right, stabilized in the box by the pieces of wood. The wood is stapled to the box. Have a screwdriver on hand to remove them or a box cutter to cut around them to get the flowers out without damaging the stems.
3. Oddly, the first thing you notice about the lily of the valley won’t be the extra paper and packaging. It’ll be the scent. It is HEAVENLY.
4. The unpacking shots aren’t the most exciting, I know. I wanted to show you a bit about what to expect. So, let’s get on with making this beautiful bouquet!
Carefully pull the flowers from the box and gently unwrap them from the paper. Please have buckets (or large vases) of water on hand and ready to go when your flowers arrive. They’ll be very thirsty after their journey and may look wilty and tired. A good drink of water rehydrate them. (FiftyFlowers has excellent flower care instructions on each of the flower’s pages. Do read up before you buy! Some flowers require more pampering than others; have a look before hand to see if the work is within your DIY comfort zone.)
Obligatory rehydration shot. (The lily of the valley are very small!):
The stock looking is very smushed and sleepy here. This is to be expected and why the buckets of water are so important! A nice, long drink is in order for these guys. It took about 3 full hours for them to perk up enough to be usable. Plan your time accordingly! Don’t order flowers to be delivered on the day of your wedding. Ever.
It’s also worth noting that stock was substituted for hyacinth (FiftyFlowers.com now lists either/or in the description) because with real flowers, Mother Nature reigns supreme. The grower had problems with the hyacinth. Always, always be flexible in the types of flowers you’ll accept in case a grower has to make a substitution which is quite common.
5. Once your flowers have had time for a drink, it’s time to get started on creating the bouquet. We’re making, like Kate’s, a wired bouquet. What this means is that each flower stem is essentially replaced with floral wire. This serves a couple of purposes: 1.) to eliminate a lot of bulk in the handle if you’re using a lot of flowers and 2.) to allow the flowers to be positioned in less-than-natural positions – like Kate’s shield-shaped bouquet.
The first step is to cut the stem from the flower, leaving about a 1/2 inch to 1 inch from the bottom of the bloom. This remaining stem will be where you wrap wire around later. After you cut a stem, place it back in water so it stays fresh while you’re cutting the rest. (Meet Sweet William, by the way. Isn’t it pretty? There are several blooms on each stem. It’s the foundation of our bouquet.)
6. Because Sweet William has a thick stem, I used the following wiring technique:
Push length of wire (about 18″ long) through the stem, about 1/2 down the stem.
Fold wire in half, once it’s through the stem:
Then wrap one side of the wire around the stem a few times. Repeat with the other side.
Twist the remaining/overhanging wire together. Wrap floral tape around the stem, from the bottom of the bloom to the end of the stem.
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Note: GET HELP when doing this step. It takes a long, long time to cut, wire, and wrap each and every stem. I did this by myself and it took about 3.5 hours. In that time, on a moderately warm afternoon, the flowers started drooping. Get them done as quickly as possible and keep them cool. Once you you wrap the stems, there’s not much you can do to keep them hydrated. The longer you take, the more risk of having wilted flowers by the ceremony.
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Wrapping lily of the valley: Pull apart (actually the flower stems will just fall away) the flower stems from their leaves. Because lily of the valley is so delicate, it’s best to wrap them in bunches of 3 or 4 for strength and stability. With fragile or very thin stems, don’t push wire through them, just wrap the wire around them.
You’ll end up with a number of leftover lily of the valley leaves. Keep those to fill in any spots or add extra greenery later on.
7. Onceyour stems are all wrapped, it’s time to get arranging. I have to say that I agonized over this part, trying to get the arrangement just perfect. Here’s the thing about working with white flowers: the more you handle them, the more they’re going to bruise and show wear. Ideally, you need to work quickly and make placement decisions without too much fuss. Because, silly me, I was working along, I missed out on getting the exact step-by-step shots here. Basically, I put a bunch of Sweet William together, secured with rubber bands, added the other flowers in the gaps, secured with more rubber bands, bend the stems into place, bound the handle with floral tape then covered with ribbon and secured with pins.
More detailed:
I began with bringing together about 12 of the wired Sweet William stems and semi-loosely secured them with a rubber band (elastic for our international readers). I arranged them, in my hand, into a heart formation. When I got the right shape, I used another band to better secure them so that they didn’t lose the formation. This heart shape is the base for the bouquet. You’ll see lots of open gaps; that’s exactly right. In those holes, you’ll be adding the rest of the stems.
The lily of the valley and stock were dispersed throughout the bouquet. The beauty of wired stems is you can manoeuver them into a better position if you find that you’re getting too many of one flower in an area. I tried to keep the flowers fairly evenly distributed throughout so there were no obvious “clumps” of flowers showing. I used only a few sprigs of the myrtle, which is unfortunate. It’s a lovely greenery and, like the lily of the valley, smells utterly divine.
8. Here’s a shot of the wrapped stems/handle. As was Kate’s, the bouquet handle is slightly bent forward to better showcase the flowers to onlookers. It’s a very different approach than the bouquets we’ve been seeing for the last 10 years or so. I kind of dig it.
9. I wrapped the bouquet handle with 5/8″ white double-satin ribbon and secured with DIY Floral Pins, also available from FiftyFlowers.
Ready for the Big Reveal?
Total Cost: $216.98 (prices approximate)
Royal Box Combo $199.99
Pins $5.99
Wire $5.00
Ribbon $3.00
Floral Tape: $3.00
Tools needed (not included in costs): floral shears or a floral knife, buckets for water, wire cutters.
NOTES:
- Have a cool place to store your flowers while they hydrate.
- Hall your supplies ready before you begin cutting and assembly.
- This is a project NOT meant for the bride. Enlisted trusted helpers on this one! It took me, start-to-finish, about 4 solid hours (not including taking pictures) to do this bouquet by myself.
- Order more flowers than necessary or scale your project to use less than the full amount of flowers you’re receiving. Several blooms of stock did not perk up during the rehydration period and were unusable. This is natural and to be expected. Even professional florists buy a significant more than they’ll need to account for damaged buds, broken stems, wilting leaves, etc. Anything can happen during shipping – delays, extra hot (or cold) weather, exceedingly rough handlers. Be prepared.
- Work quickly and with as little handling of the flowers as possible. White flowers are very prone to bruising; they turn brown! The less you fuss, the better the end result will be. The stock was the most fragile of this bunch. The lily of the valley was surprisingly robust!
- If you have issues with highly-scented bouquets, this is NOT the one for you. Lily of the valley and myrtle have beautiful aromas but can overpower if you’re fragrant-sensitive.
- This was a small bouquet. It was maybe 6 – 7 inches across. Had the bulk of the stock not been wilty and discarded, I could have filled it out more but it still would’ve been on the petite side. If you’re a plus-size gal (like me), a small bouquet can look out of proportion with our body type. FYI on that.
- There was a ton of myrtle left over. Had I the time, I would’ve loved to have made wreaths from it. It’s gorgeous foliage. Don’t let it go to waste!
- A sharp floral knife or shears are essential for this project. They’ll make all the cutting SO much easier and faster. (See Tip #5.)
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