Wedding flowers

On Saturday, Rob and I attended the sweetest wedding ceremony! My co-worker and friend Oliver and his lovely new wife, Hilary, had a short and sweet ceremony followed by some fun signature drinks, delicious dinner, and lost of dancing! (okay, we didn't dance very much because we overdid it on the drinks earlier in the evening...) It really was one of the nicest events we've ever been a part of. Weddings are so affirming, you know? Of the love of the new couple, but also of your own. We held hands and beamed through the entire thing.

Oliver and Hilary did everything on a very tight budget, and so they called on a lot of their friends to help out. I happily volunteered to do fabric flowers for the couple, without really knowing what I was getting into (!) We chose to use the same Radiance cotton/silk blend I used for this wedding dress, though went with pure white for the bride and a lovely rust for everyone else, as this was a fall wedding.

For the bridesmaid bouquets, I followed this Martha tutorial, which was super easy! I also made five pinnable corsages for moms and special wedding assistants using the same method.

I had some trouble with the stems being sticky once I wrapped them in floral tape. I did some Googling and ended up testing the baby powder method, and it worked! Thanks, internet! Still, I wrapped a little ribbon around the bouquets to bulk them up a bit and give the girls something to hold on to.

Hilary's bouquet was a bit more challenging. She had seen a similar large bloom bouquet online and requested something like that. For the most part, I did the same thing as for the smaller flowers, but with many more layers and varied sizes. The problem was, the flower kept wanting to collapse on itself. After a bit of experimentation, I made a subtle cone out of a heavy interfacing and then sandwiched it in between the two outermost layers, which I tacked together at the top of the petals so the support would be invisible.

Figuring out how to make the stem was possibly the hardest part! I had stitched the petals onto four floral wires folded in the center (so it was eight wires thick), but that created a hinge at the top and made it easy for the flower to flop over. The solution? A skinny PVC pipe, which I glued to the flower at the very top, and then a 8" piece of a large-diameter hose over top of everything. I then wrapped that in more floral tape, then added some pretty ribbon and bits of vintage lace.

For the boutonnieres, I also went with Martha. We used a lovely wool suiting, but it was a bit ravel-y when cut on the bias, so I used fusible web just around the outside to make them behave. We needed some color, so I made a little tube of fabric, inserted some floral wire, and made a little twist. Then I wrapped it all up with some brown ribbon to match the bouquets.

I was ridiculously excited on Saturday when we got to the venue and I saw the groom's dad walking around with his boutonniere on! They looked SO good on all the guys. Hilary and Oliver were lovely and glowing with happiness, and that bouquet when they walked down the aisle...gorgeous! All told, supplies for all of these flowers was under $50. I was reimbursed for materials, and also gifted the most amazing bottle of tequila as a thank you. It really was my pleasure; coming up with solutions to those crafty problems was just a bonus. Congratulations, Oliver and Hilary! I am so thankful I could be a part of your day!