Member- michiru4ever
- 9 years ago
- Wedding: Central Park
I looked around and didn’t find any great tutorials for bouquet wraps. I’m pretty crafty, so I looked at some pictures and got an idea of what I wanted to do. So I headed to JoAnn with my coupons (they take all! Printed, email, mail flyer, app, and competitors) and bought my supplies.
I made my bouquets using silk flowers from afloral. They’ve had some bad press in the last few years, but I was really happy. I used a wide variety of flowers so that I had an organically composed from-the-garden look, using green, ivory, cream, blush, and purple. To make the bouquets I used these.
Loose Stem Bouquet Holder for Silk or Dried Flowers<br>9.5" Tall<br>GREAT FOR THE DIY WEDDING
It was really easy to use. This video shows you how to arrange a bouquet with it.
http://video.answers.com/how-to-make-a-bouquet-using-a-bouquet-arranger-27927592
This way you can arrange your bouquet without having to worry about rubber bands or having a super thick handle. If you’re just doing a dozen or 15 roses or lilies for your bouquet you probably won’t need it, but I used about 25 different flowers for my Bridesmaid or Best Man bouquets and about 40 for mine.
I decided to wrap the stems to give them a romantic, vintage feel, and to hide the ugly bottom half of the cage that you can’t use.
Supplies:
- 1 to 1.5″ Ribbon (I used 40 ft of green for 4 bouquets, and a few inches of ivory)
- Any decorative accent ribbon like lace, beading, bling, twine, accent color, etc… ( I used one yard of small trim for each Bridesmaid or Best Man bouquet and a 1/3 yard of lace trim for the bride’s bouquet)
- Jewelry findings that compliment your look ( The big pendant I used was from LA Liberi and the small ones on the Bridesmaid or Best Man bouquets are from Blue Moon)
- Hot Glue and Hot Glue Gun
- Scissor
- Time : each bouquet took about 45-60 minutes while watching TV
Step 1: Once you’ve completed arranging your bouquet you’re ready to wrap that handle. See the ugly cage thing? You can either use lots and lots of haging, droopy flowers to mask it, or you can wrap it with ribbon
Step 2. Cut some ribbon strips that will cover the length of the cage from bottom to top. Don’t worry about being precise, we’ll cover the bottom edge later. Just make sure it covers it completely. Apply hot glue to the border of your ribbon strip and apply, smoothing until it cools.
Step 3. Repeat! Keep going in one direction, overlapping slightly. Since it’s a cone the bottom edge will overlap a lot. Keep the top part side by side.
Step 4. Keep going all the way around. If any part of the ribbon isn’t smooth try to add a little bit of glue and smooth it down. Now the base is completely covered with ribbon. Much better, right?
Step 5. Now we’re going to cover that raggedy bottom edge and start wraping the stems. Add a dot of glue and wrap the ribbon twice around the knot on the handle, then start wraping it down the handle. I added one dot of glue at each complete turn. You don’t need to glue the entire ribbon down, just add dots as you go and it’ll stay put. Don’t worry about making it pretty, just get it covered.
Step 6. Now that you’ve gotten as far down as you want (I left almost an inch of stems showing) it’s time to go back up! We do the second layer to hide any bumps and smooth over any puckering. Simply wrap the base and extra time then start gluing it back up. Take your time to make the ribbon smooth, even, and pretty.
Step 7. Take your decorative trim ( I used 3 feet for each of the the Bridesmaid or Best Man bouquets) and find the center, glue it down at the top just under the base.
Step 8. Wrap the decorative ribbon in an X pattern about an inch apart, gluing down both sides of the X. I all of the Xs to secure them, half are on the front and half are on the back of the handle. Wrap the decorative ribbon around the base one last time, trying to match the pattern as best you can.
Step 9. Add a dot of hot glue where on the center of each X on the front of the bouquet and add your jewelry findings.
Step 10. And the Bridesmaid or Best Man Bouquet is done! Looks pretty good, right? You’re awesome at the DIY stuff.
*****
Now for the Bride’s bouquet! Follow steps 1-6 to wrap the bouquet in the same green ribbon, completely covering up the unsighltly bits.
Step 11. Glue a 1.5″ Ivory ribbon in the middle of the handle. I wraped mine 3 times to get a nice thick center feel. Now, attach the ivory lace trim over it. Try to match the pattern in the back as best you can so that it looks seamless. I decided I wanted to use more of the pretty lace so I added two more rows on the top and bottom of the handle right on top of the green ribbon.
Step 12. Take your jewelry finding, and if it’s large like mine bend it as best you can to curve with the bouquet. Mine was a thin metal so it was easy to bend with my hands. Just place in on the bouquet in your lap and push the sides down until it cups the handle. If your finding is too large and won’t bend then you’ll need to get a smaller one. Cut off any pearls that get in the way of the finding laying flat, then glue in place.
Step 13. Admire your work! And ice any hot glue burns you develped. It was worth it though.
