Flowers by Moi: Do-It-Yourself Tips

If youre planning the wedding on a limited budget–or you simply love getting your hands dirty–consider doing the flowers yourself. With fresh flowers plucked from your garden, bought at the local farmers’ market, or ordered direct from a grower, you can create bouquets, centerpieces, and ceremony accents for a fraction of what a florist would charge.

The main balancing act of DIY flowers is getting arrangements made ahead of time without suffering a stress-induced meltdown or letting the blooms wilt. Call on friends and family for this one–youll need a lot of hands, not to mention plenty of buckets, table room, scissors, and spray bottles to keep everything fresh.

Wire, ribbon, and cutting tools are the basic requirements for arranging simple bouquets. Consider whether you want to clutch or cradle the flowers as you walk down the aisle. Trimmed monochromatic or multihued flowers with the same length of stem work well for the first option; long-stemmed blooms bound together work well for the second. Another alternative is to carry a single beautiful flower in one hand, supported with thin wire, if necessary, and tied with a simple ribbon.

Reception and ceremony flowers can be displayed in oversized vases or broad bowls–often available at thrift stores for a song. Look for a mix of tall and short stems, and dont forget some greenery to fill out the arrangement. For centerpieces, try an array of short stems in tiny vases or float a few blooms in a clear or colored glass dish for an easy but memorable effect.

If DIY flowers for the entire wedding seem overwhelming, remember you can also DIPY–do-it-partially-yourself. If you want a perfect, magazine-like bouquet and boutonnieres, order them. Then supplement with reception arrangements of your own. Flowers are so naturally winning, it’s hard to fall short. And no one will stop to scrutinize to exact cut of the stems–they’ll be too busy appreciating nature’s inherent beauty.

– Emily Bedard, Amazon.com Wedding Expert

Tags: Florist, Wedding