How to Make Your Own Wedding Bouquet

Making your own wedding bouquet is something that you can very easily do on your own at home, especially if you’ve got experience

with arranging floral designs or anything of that nature (and even if you don’t, you’ll be able to teach yourself using everything on this page). Of course, the tradition is that the Maid of Honor holds the bouquet during the ceremony, afterward the bride will toss it over her shoulder, and then whoever catches the

bouquet is going to get married next. This wide-spread practice is thought to have originated from the Golden Apple of Discord myth (this refers to the Golden Apple of Discord which the Greek goddess Eris said she would give “to the fairest” at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis–this led to a vanity-fueled dispute between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite which would eventually lead to the Trojan War). Oh, also (and much more romantically): in the 17th and 18th centuries, the tradition was that an upper class bride would be required to hold a bouquet of roses or flowers as she walked down the aisle to cover up body odor caused by her having spent the last several hours sweating nervously. It was also said to help drive off evil spirits, but I suspect that was just a cover for the B.O. issue.

How to make your bouquet at home

Today I’ve got with us Margaret Flis who is the owner of and chief floral designer for Gathered Stems, a unique and charming flower shop in McLean, Va. Margaret has been in the floral industry for 19 years and has personally designed and made hundreds of original bouquets and other floral arrangements for weddings, parties, and other special events. Let’s get started.

Part 1: Introduction and necessary tools and materials

Part 2: How to choose and prepare your flowers

Part 3: Preparing your greenery

Part 4: How to put your flowers together

Part 5: Finishing the greenery and tying off the bouquet

Part 6: Adding the ribbon and finishing the bouquet

Part 7: How to store your bouquet overnight properly (very important–you want it to look as fresh as possible)

Additional Resources and Further Reading

I highly recommend you pick up a copy of a book by Wedding Magazine called Wedding Bouquets: Over 300 Designs for Every Bride–each of the 300 bouquets in the book comes with lavish close-up photos and careful descriptions of each detail, with recommendations for the kinds of dresses and ceremonies they best complement. Every color theme receives special treatment (with price range indicators), from whites, ivories and creams to yellows and oranges, reds and pinks, blues and purples, as well as variegated and original color schemes.

Also, here’s an awesome site with piles of different arrangements with photos for each one plus tips, articles, and a list of the Top 10 most popular wedding bouquet flowers.