Bridal bouquet

Will you have a wedding? Congratulations on the happy event! Do you think through the whole event from dress and shoes to invitations, and decide to make a bouquet of the bride yourself? Perhaps a brief instruction on how to do this will help you.

How to make a bouquet of fresh flowers

1. First, that we need to understand how a wedding bouquet differs from any other, for example, from a bouquet by September 1, anniversary or March 8.
2. Secondly, to think over the combination of the bouquet with the general image of the main character.

Main forms and their features

• Classic round - compact, full-size bouquet (diameter 20-30 cm), creating the effect of elegance and symmetry.
• Cascade or "waterfall" - with a falling composition, gives dynamics and perfectly combines with dresses with a train.
• The teardrop shape is a variation of the cascade, but more refined and elegant.

When choosing a shape, it is important to take into account the convenience of holding: the bouquet should be balanced in weight and not hide the freedom of hand movements.

Round, the simplest is a compact hemisphere , the average diameter is 20-30 cm. Why geometry? A larger bouquet will draw attention to itself, and a smaller one looks too frivolous.

In addition, all stems of flowers and leaves of the wedding bouquet must be carefully collected and wrapped in floristic or satin ribbon - it has no right to crumble in your hands at a crucial moment!

The wedding bouquet, in a laconic style in one color scheme without bright colors, will emphasize the thoughtfulness of the dress. A unique bouquet with an original combination of flowers and leaves, on the contrary, will favorably shade a simple dress.

Please note that you will hold the bouquet with both hands, at some moments lower your hands down just below the waist line. So when trying on a dress, figure out what it might look like - this will help you determine the size and shape of the wedding bouquet.

What you need to make a wedding bouquet

You will need:

• fresh flowers
• sharp scissors
• floristic tape (tape tape)
• thermogun
• bouquet decoration tape (satin or lace)
• floristic mesh or organza

Tape tape is a tape, 13 mm wide, of various shades, with a slight adhesive effect with which the petioles of cut leaves and peduncles of cut flowers are fixed. It is needed in order to strengthen the part of the plants that is most fragile. In addition, floral tape allows you to isolate (tape) sections of stems and leaves, preventing evaporation of moisture and rapid wilting. A ribbon of various colors is on sale, but white or green is suitable for a wedding bouquet.

If you are going to repeatedly make bouquets, then floral ribbon is the material worth spending money on. If your city does not sell tape tape, and there is no way to buy it through an online store, then the easiest way out is a plumbing tape for sealing pipes. It is about the same width, stretches well, easy to lie down. But she is always white, which is quite appropriate in a wedding bouquet.

Floristic wire will be necessary if you want to use succulents in a bouquet, for example, echiveria rosettes, young - they do not have a long stem, so you will have to fix them by stringing the fleshy center of the outlet on the wire and decorating with floristic tape.

What flowers to use in the bride's bouquet

The choice of colors is huge, most of all, of course, flowers of the most delicate shades are suitable: white, pink, cream, light lilac.

• Alstroemeria
• Anemones
• Astilbes
• Veronika
• Gerberas
• Gypsophila
• Hyacinths
• Hypericum
• Gladiolus white
• Hydrangea (especially white)
• Carnations
• Dahlias
• Delphinium
• Gensiana
• Irises
• Callas (white, burgundy, cream, lemon, soft purple, orange, pink)
• Lilies of the valley
• Lisianthus (white, pink, blue, lilac, purple)
• Lilies
• Muscari
• Ornithogalum
• Orchids (any, most affordable - phalaenopsis)
• Wildflowers
• Peonies (white, pink, burgundy)
• Protea
• Ranunculus (white, yellow, red, orange, cyclamen)
• Scabiosa
• Static
• Stephanotis
• Trachelium
• Tulips (white, pink or cream)
• Freesia (white, yellow, red, lilac, purple, cyclamen)
• Chamelacium
• Chrysanthemums (white, yellow, pink, green)
• Eustoma
• Eugaris

In addition to flowers, the bouquet can use greens (twigs and leaves) of both garden and indoor flowers:

• Bromeliads, e.g. leaves of vriesia or echmea
• Caladium - leaves of any colors, traditionally silver or red
• Croton - variegated leaves
• Fern - green leaves, best of all davallia (you can adenium (venereal hair), but its branches are short-lived)
• Ruscus - sprigs with green leaves
• Succulents - echiveria rosettes, aeonium, sempervivum (young) kalanchoe twigs, etc.
• Trachelium - green leaves
• Ficus benjamina - especially variegated varieties
• Hosta - leaves
• Horsetail - twigs
• Cineraria - silvery leaves
• Eucalyptus - silvery leaves

To do this, all freshly cut flowers, or purchased and brought from the store, need to be prepared. Lower the petioles of flowers and leaves into the water, and cut off about 1 cm of the bottom under water. We cut them off under water so that air does not penetrate the stems. And taking out, immediately put in a vase with fresh water.

Next, you need to prevent decay and nourish the flowers. You may be surprised, but in ordinary flower shops, even the most expensive ones, they often save on special preservatives (they contain a disinfectant to prevent the reproduction of bacteria) and drip ordinary whiteness or a similar product into a vase with flowers (Domestos, etc.).

You can do the same, drop 1 drop of whiteness on 1 vase - this is enough so that the water does not deteriorate for several days.

In addition, fertilizers for flowers are added to the cutting water. There are special means, for example, from Bona Forte (2 caps for 1.5 liters of water) "Concentrate for cut flowers." It includes:

• Sucrose hydrolysate
• Alumina alum
• Boric acid
• Water

A very good remedy used by florists - Chrysal clear Chrysal - as a top dressing for cut flowers, allows you to keep them fresh for 1.5-2 weeks. Greenworld A tool to keep cut flowers fresh also slows down the wilting process.

Using similar means for cutting and preservatives, you can prepare yourself or a friend a bouquet for a wedding a day or two before the most fussy and troublesome fees. But while the bouquet is waiting for the celebration, it is advisable to keep it cool (12-15 degrees).

DIY wedding bouquet

Composing a round (hemisphere-shaped) bouquet is not difficult.

We wrap each individual flower stalk with a floristic tape, retreating from the flower calyx about 2-2.5 cm. If the flowers are small, on thin pedicels, then you can wrap them, collecting three pieces together.

If the stems of the flowers are too thin, then you can strengthen the base of the bouquet with wire. Insert it in the center between the stems of flowers already wrapped in floral ribbon.

If there are few flowers, the bouquet is small, then before forming the base of the bouquet, you can wrap a floristic net (web-web), organza around the flowers, laying folds and picking up material. You can pack a bouquet in white lace.

Now you can start wrapping with decorative tape. Using a thermal gun, apply glue to the end of the petioles, glue the tip of the tape and start spirally wrapping the tape around the bottom of the stems and along the entire length from bottom to top. Attach the tip of the tape using a glue gun (cut off the extra ends of the tape).

Also read Bridal Bouquet of Indoor Flowers

Drawbacks of live flower wedding bouquets

The main drawback is the fragility of the bouquet. You can make it from freshly cut flowers two days before the celebration, and it will last another week, provided that the flowers in the vase were stored in a solution with preservative and fertilizer, and during the ceremony the bouquet was not too often placed on a horizontal surface.

The sloppy cut ends of the petioles spoil the entire species.

Irregularly collected flower heads violate the round proportion of the bouquet.

Without the floristic ribbon and the correct fixation of the bouquet, it begins to fall apart and wither right at the wedding ceremony.

And this bouquet can hardly be called a wedding bouquet, sunflowers are more likely to be suitable for a bouquet by September 1, first-grader.

The use of a floristic ribbon certainly helps to maintain a strong structure, allows you to throw a bouquet of the bride, according to tradition, far into the crowd of bridesmaids, but in order to save at least some memory from it, you will have to cut off a couple of flowers and make them a herbarium between the pages of a family album.

Warning: If you don't have a floral ribbon, pack a bouquet on the eve of your wedding day. Leave flowers in fresh water with the addition of an aspirin tablet or regular fertilizer for indoor flowers (it is better to use fertilizer for orchids). When compiling a bouquet, wrap its base with cling film, then satin tape on top. Carefully cut off the petioles of the leaves and keep the bouquet in a vase of water until you leave the house, so that the ends of the stems fall into the water by 1-1.5 cm no more.

Additional ideas and tips

• Add an unexpected texture: lunaria fringe, dried flowers, hypericum berries, or mini drops of dew on the leaves.
• Personalize the bouquet: pins with family decorations, name/date on a ribbon, mini photo frames.
• Day of "artistic piece": create a separate bouquet-garsonnier for the groom - in the style of the bride's bouquet.

Pre-assembly checklist