DIY’ing Wedding Flowers - Top Tips
You want to design your own Wedding Flowers
Here are some of our top tips when deciding to DIY your own or a family members wedding flowers
But be prepared for the unseen hours wedding florists spend preparing & designing flowers for weddings.
Have you the time in the week & on the day of your wedding to ……………………
Drive to the Floral Wholesalers, Load the flowers into the van carefully protecting all the stems for transportation. Driving back to the shop (your home) & Unloading the flowers. Conditioning each stem by carefully removing excess foliage , thorns, guard and damaged petals ( no mater how careful we are some flowers always get damaged make sure to buy extra) cutting the end of the stems before placing them into their individual buckets of fresh water that have previously been bleached and scrubbed prior to your trip to the wholesalers. Breaking and packing all the excess cardboard and paper in order to be brought to the recycling at a later time.
Then when its time to start arranging and creating the flower designs for the wedding, then packing all the arrangements and designs into boxes for transportation to the your venue. When you drive to the venue and then the unloading begins, sometimes having to sit outside waiting for funeral to leave the church or the florist from the wedding the day before to break down the flowers from the previous day. Once the wedding is over, racing to move the flowers from the ceremony venue to the reception venue. At the end of the night or early the next morning back to the venue to remove all the flowers, bring back to the studio and break down, if they hadn’t time yesterday they may need now to clean the studio and dispose of all the waste stems, leaves and foliage, there is loads
Now if you or some of your amazing family and friends have all this time in the week coming up to your wedding………… keep reading…………….
Now about the flowers
Not every flower you see in photos is suitable for all wedding designs, a typical example being certain varieties of hydrangea, which are so temperamental and can wilt so easily out of water. Knowing how flowers react in different environments is key to designing, so make sure to research this well. Whilst researching check out your wholesalers options as not all will sell to non trade, but if your sure you are knowledgeable regarding flowers and ability to source them, the keep on reading.
Have you guys got the skills ?
Most of the wedding arrangements and designs that you see on pinterest have been designed by professional florist, with lots being for staged photo shoots, however like any other skill, floral design takes training and practice. If you or any of your enthusiastic flower loving friends has taken the time to learn the fundamentals of floral design, that’s incredible! Learning and practicing floral design is such a fun and rewarding investment. But without gaining any prior knowledge, you may find that the hashtag #pinterestfail may apply to your centerpieces. No one wants that now do they ?
Are you prepared for the behind the scenes?
During the weeks prior to the wedding invest in a ridiculous amounts of buckets. We estimate 1 bucket for every 2 to 3 bunches of flowers that you are planning to purchase. You will need these buckets to place your flowers in while you’re designing. Make sure to purchase various sizes to suit the different flower varieties you’re using. The likes of spray roses & astilbe & Peonies tend to have shorter stems so need low buckets whereas standard roses, lillies & Lissianthus tend to have longer stems so need taller buckers. If you place short-stemmed flowers in tall buckets, the heads of the flowers will get squished. However, if you place them in shorter 3shorter 3 gallon buckets, they'll have room to spread out.
Here are some essential tools that most floral designers will use regularly.
Floral Bunch Cutters: For those tougher/woody stems.
Florist Scissors: For cutting softer stems.
Florist Knife for getting that sharp angle
TOP DO NOT; Do not rely on your old “kitchen scissors” for doing your wedding flowers. It will take you twice as long, you will have welts in your fingers, & your hands will start cramping in Dull no time. Non Florist scissors can pinch stems thus restricting their ability to drink water, this can cause your flowers to wilt very quickly. Invest in a good florist scissors and a decent floral bunch cutter to make life so much easier.
26 Gauge Wire: For making buttonholes and corsages
Wire Cutters: For cutting your wire, naturally. Don't use your scissors it will blunt them in no time
Fabric Scissors: For trimming ribbon and removing raw edges
Florist Tape: To securely wrap stems tightly together.
Ribbon: To hide your mechanics
Oasis U-Glue Dashes: To stick ribbon to itself on handles of bouquets and buttonholes
Clear an area to work in
When you are creating floral designs and preparing flowers for designing and indeed storing your designs, this will take up oodles of space, It can also be quite messy. But imagine a fabulous smelling flowers and foliage drifting from or into your kitchen, living room or garage. As a guide you will need several long trestle tables or counter space to work Ideally this place should be cool to keep the designs looking their best while waiting to show off at the wedding. If others and planning on using any of this space in the run up too the big day , give them a fair warning that it will be taken up by flowers the week of your wedding.
Organise Your Transportation
You’ll need boxes, shelving, Styrofoam to pack the flowers into so that they are secure for their journey to the wedding venue. If you’re getting flowers from a floral wholesaler, request that your flowers are dry packed in boxes so that you can re-use those on the day of the wedding. You’ll need a large van or two to pack your flowers in. Ensure whoever is helping in the lifting and placing of your designs has had manual handling training, mis-lifting can be a real pain in the back. Talking of lifting Flowers get heavy with all of the foam, water, vases and containers. You will need some strong people to help out with the loading & unloading and the setting up of the flowers on your wedding day. Book your personal trainer now …lots of squats is recommended
Who is your floral trooper?
Last top tip of DIY’ing your own wedding flowers – designate your flower trooper, this is the person who will stay sober enough to clean up and dismantle all the flowers at the end of the night, load them back into the van and drive them back to kitchen studio. Or their next destination, be sure they have a sweeping brush and dustpan in the van for cleaning up any flower mess left at the venue.
So are you ready to design, have you the time, the skills, the tools, the space and the help needed to DIY your wedding flowers? If you do, You are so lucky and happy designing… go for it!!!! If not, don’t worry. Reach out to your friendly, local wedding florist and consult with them and tell them your ideas.
Floral Designers and Florists love doing this type of work.
