Dream (re: expensive) Bridal Bouquets
These are my dream (read: expensive) Bridal Bouquet‘s…I love the colors and the elegance of them. I am going to try to make mine along these lines (w/o all the different flowers, sadly)...we'll see how it turns out.
A Touch Of Gold...
No matter what I end up doing with my bouquet, I plan on incorporating this gold rose into the center of it.
For our first Valentines Day when we were 14, Chuck saw an add online for a site that made 24 karat gold covered roses, and his heart was set on buying me one. He saved up for weeks, and presented it to me…I was in complete disbelief. Even now, it’s one of my favorite presents I have ever been given. Later on that day, I told him that I was going to use in in our wedding bouquet - and he loved the idea, saying it made him feel really special.
For our first Valentines Day when we were 14, Chuck saw an add online for a site that made 24 karat gold covered roses, and his heart was set on buying me one. He saved up for weeks, and presented it to me…I was in complete disbelief. Even now, it’s one of my favorite presents I have ever been given. Later on that day, I told him that I was going to use in in our wedding bouquet - and he loved the idea, saying it made him feel really special.
Bouquet Attempt: 1
So...after looking into prices of flowers, I decided to go the silk route. I hated it, but I wasn't gonna actually admit it, because hell - it's just flowers. And thus this is what I came up with...a hand tied bouquet of silk flowers. I love the ribbon I found (cream and brown damask) but hated how...well...tacky...it looked.
So now I've got to figure something else out....
So now I've got to figure something else out....
So, this is my finished bouquet. I went to JoAnn Designs and bought a bouquet holder (so now it's a nosegay bouquet), which had a Styrofoam ball and an acrylic handle, along with glue made especially for silk flowers. I used the rannaculous from my first attempt along the bottom of the boquet, and bought reddish/purple hydrangea, mauve roses and one stem of mauve hydrangea, along with a few stems of plum colored feathers. I put the mauve hydrangea at the top of the bouquet, and put a single rose in the center of that. I then alternated between the reddish hydrangea and the roses throughout the side, adding feathers to places where it looked a little sparse. And then at the bottom, to cover up the rest of the foam, I put the rannuncalus and feathers. I then covered the acrylic handle with brown velvet ribbon and a piece of lace, and held it together with pearl tipped pins.
I think it turned out very well, considering.
I think it turned out very well, considering.
Throw Bouquet
Another one of my bouquet failures, that I decided to keep around and use as my throw bouquet. It's just a simple bouquet of anemones.
Bridesmaid Bouquets
So, after much deliberation and headaches, I went ahead and decided to go an *ahem* different route with our bridesmaid bouquets.
The original plan was to go the supermarket the day before the wedding and pick up whatever we could find there to use…however, the last few times I’ve stopped by there, they have a smaller and smaller selection, so I was nervous they weren’t going to have enough of anything for 3 bouquets in a month.
Thus, I began searching online for inexpensive flowers or different ideas, and wasn’t having much luck - until I came across this idea.
Crystal bouquets.
I first glance, they look a little tacky. Even a little ugly. But the more I looked at them, the more I liked them. And when I began to realize that our wedding is full of crystal, metallic and leaf accents, and hardly any flowers, well…I decided to take a trip to the craft store.
They didn’t have enough of one style to make all three bouquets, so I decided to make three different ones (hey, the girls already have different color/style dresses - why not??). To tie them all together and to make it look like 'twiggy', I went ahead and added an ivory rose to the center of each.
One is branches full of dark red and brown leaves, with a little bit of copper metallic glitter on the brown ones. It has faucet crystals in brown, amber and champagne, and a few acorns around the base.
The second style is full of orange/brown leaves, with the same colored faceted beads. The stems are a little lighter brown, almost a tan color.
And the third is full of both colored leaves, but has cabochon crystals in amber, brown, champagne and sage green.
It’s a different look, for sure - but since I have a metallic gold rose in my bridal bouquet, I figured it compliments mine without being over-the-top weird. Plus, it’s a pretty inexpensive trend - I got all 24 stems, plus the ribbons and roses, for under 20 dollars. Sweet.
To tie in with the vintage look, I am enclosing a silver locket on the stem of each girls bouquet. I’m either going to put a picture of the girl and I in there, put their name in there, or see if I can enclose a little note or something.
The original plan was to go the supermarket the day before the wedding and pick up whatever we could find there to use…however, the last few times I’ve stopped by there, they have a smaller and smaller selection, so I was nervous they weren’t going to have enough of anything for 3 bouquets in a month.
Thus, I began searching online for inexpensive flowers or different ideas, and wasn’t having much luck - until I came across this idea.
Crystal bouquets.
I first glance, they look a little tacky. Even a little ugly. But the more I looked at them, the more I liked them. And when I began to realize that our wedding is full of crystal, metallic and leaf accents, and hardly any flowers, well…I decided to take a trip to the craft store.
They didn’t have enough of one style to make all three bouquets, so I decided to make three different ones (hey, the girls already have different color/style dresses - why not??). To tie them all together and to make it look like 'twiggy', I went ahead and added an ivory rose to the center of each.
One is branches full of dark red and brown leaves, with a little bit of copper metallic glitter on the brown ones. It has faucet crystals in brown, amber and champagne, and a few acorns around the base.
The second style is full of orange/brown leaves, with the same colored faceted beads. The stems are a little lighter brown, almost a tan color.
And the third is full of both colored leaves, but has cabochon crystals in amber, brown, champagne and sage green.
It’s a different look, for sure - but since I have a metallic gold rose in my bridal bouquet, I figured it compliments mine without being over-the-top weird. Plus, it’s a pretty inexpensive trend - I got all 24 stems, plus the ribbons and roses, for under 20 dollars. Sweet.
To tie in with the vintage look, I am enclosing a silver locket on the stem of each girls bouquet. I’m either going to put a picture of the girl and I in there, put their name in there, or see if I can enclose a little note or something.
Corsages are SO last year...
For the moms, grandmothers and my FSIL (who is a reader) we are giving them these brooches instead of the typical flowers, which remind me too much of prom. I found the seller (Junebug on Etsy) through another knottie, and immediately knew that her products were perfect. She freeze dries leaves until just the veins are left, then dips them in copper/gold/silver. I’m giving all of the grandmothers a gold one, our moms will receive silver ones, and my FSIL will receive a copper one. This way, they have a piece of jewelry to remember us by, and a nifty piece at that.