Friday, November 21, 2008

DIY Bouquet (The Good, The Bad, The Ugly)

Wanna hear something crazy? I paid $28 total for the flowers at my wedding*. How I could I accomplish a feat so magnificent? Because the bouquet you see me clutching was the only floral element present the entire day!


I was going to go with a florist, have it delivered, and make things easy. Except I couldn't find anyone that didn't want to charge me $100+ for a silly bouquet! I've always loved walking past the rows and rows of flowers at Pike's Place Market and decided to be brave and assemble my own bouquet. I made sure to pack everything I would need and have it with me at the hotel (floral tape, scissors, pins, and ribbon). Remember to bring a vase with you to store the flowers in if you decide to go the DIY route! I forgot this little detail, but of course the fantastic Hotel 1000 had one delivered right up to my room when I asked.

The evening before the wedding That Groom and I walked over to Pikes Place to pick out something. I walked up to one of the stalls, saw some white flowers (what are they, Dahlias? Mums?) and said I wanted the whole bunch of them. The girls working the flower booth even gave me a few things for free since it was closing time! I picked out a few different extra things, thinking I would incorporate a few different elements. Turns out this was a mistake since I had no idea what I was doing. If you haven't practiced, and you aren't crafty like myself, just decide to make a bouquet out of one kind of element. The flowers I ended up using really only cost me around $12!

BM Princess Jess and I put the bouquet at around 9:00 the night before the wedding. She took all of the flowers, snipped the ends, and arranged them in a vase. She lifted the arrangement out of the vase and I tied floral tape around it. We wrapped a pretty iridescent ribbon around the stem and secured it with diamond head pins. It wasn't perfect but I was tired and ready to go to bed so we threw it in the vase and called it good.


This was not the prettiest bouquet you will ever see. This shot shows perfectly how absolutely uneven it was and you can see how some of the flowers are already pointing down.

In the end this was the best choice for me because I didn't have to stress about taking care of a $100+ investment. I still loved it and carried it around like a proud mama, but when it came time to take formals like the one below, and I wanted to put my arms around my grandmothers, I simply set (okay, tossed) it on the ground in front of me.


I think it was passed around from babysitter to babysitter while I ran around direction things. That Father is the one you see holding it so nicely here.

Apparently over time I began to use it as a kind of traffic director.

"Hey you, yeah you, cousin X, get in that picture!"


"No, no no! I said bridesmaids should be standing over on that side!"


In the end, the bouquet served it's purpose. I was the bride. I had a pretty dress, a veil, a darling groom, and a bouquet. In shots like this one you can't even tell what a DIY disaster it was.

Kelli Nicole Photography

After the formal portraits at the temple I'm not sure what happened to it. It isn't in any of the bridal part shots, but someone did grab it and set it on the cake table that night. It looked really ragged by then so I gave it away to one of my little cousins. I had intended on giving it away to the oldest married couple in the room, which I think is such a wonderful tradition, but it was so bedraggled by that point I would have felt embarassed handing it over to someone as a gift!

*Although I still paid a good amount for the wedding decor in general, I saved a whole bunch by going the DIY route with non-floral decor. And I get to keep everything (for what purpose I have no idea) now that it is all over!

15 comments:

heather said...

So...what kind of flower were they? I think they are beautiful!

AmyJean {Relentless Bride®} said...

The bouquet is gorgeous and what a deal! :)

Ellen Mint said...

We went the silk route and thanks to lots of sales our flowers cost under $50 but man did we do a lot of re-trys. I had no idea what I was doing either but by playing a lot and messing around I think we made something kinda nice looking.

And that which looked really bad we used anyway *cough*unity candle*cough* because in the end it's just a wedding and it wasn't as though I was being graded on it.

JennyLee said...

I think it turned out beautifully and like you said it served it's purpose well. ;) Nervously I decided to go the silk route and much to my surprise they turned out perfect! My Future MIL is a wonder with decor and she did a fabulous job. The best part is the total cost was under $50!

Jess and Carl said...

Jenna I just love you! Your posts make me smile! Your bouquet was perfect!

Mary Michal said...

Wow! They look really great in the pictures...especially that last one.

Anonymous said...

That is a pretty awesome bouquet!
I almost wish that I did my own flowers, but then I remember my state of mind and am glad that I didn't. But kudos to you! :)

Paula said...

Jenna, your bouquet is lovely. You did a nice job, and they look great in your pictures. The idea of going to Pike Place Market and picking them out yourself ... dreamy.

I believe those beauties are Dahlias, which are one of my favorites. They are a late season delight, and would have been in bloom during that time.

Anonymous said...

You made one killer bouquet wrap. Gorgeous!

Kaitlyn said...

I think it was beautiful and served its (multiple) purposes well! :)
I'm lucky to have a florist in the family-- helo at-cost-flowers! Plus, there's a tiger lily garden in my grandparents backyard which I fully intend to take advantage of.

Mara (Coffee with Mara) said...

LOve it!

Shelly Yorgesen said...

I love hearing all this cuz we MISSED IT ALL!!! I am amazed you read all of those blogs, no wonder you were so prepared, how's Dallas today?

Cécy said...

I was thinking of going DIY but there isn't many flower wholesale place around here. In the end I just looked around the local stores for what flowers were available in the weeks before the wedding to see what I could put together.
The day before the wedding I bought a ready made bouquet for $16, took the paper out the day of the wedding, realized it wasn't attached together (oops), but it was ok since we had brought what was left from hemming my dress to wrap it up and it worked just fine.

Cate Subrosa said...

Great post. Makes me want to hurry up and post about our flowers.

Jenna said...

heather-Another commenter guessed they were Dahlias. That is my best guess as well :)

Jenny and blab-Flowers under $50! Amazing!

Cecy-I have read a few blog posts about this lately and I love it! I didn't want so much color in my bouquet, or I would have done the same thing with flowers from Pike's. Love that you were able to wrap it up with scraps from your dress.