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    Emily Fazio

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The Perfect Bouquet For The Allergy-Riddled

January 8, 2013

I didn’t actually go into planning our wedding thinking that we wouldn’t have any real flowers at our ceremony or reception… it kind of just happened, and turns out, I was completely fine with it. I don’t think a lot of brides would take that approach, or even consider it for more than a few minutes (unless maybe they’re severely allergic to pollen, which I’m not). I always envisioned myself with a ginormous bouquet of peonies, all springtime-ish and lush and full of scent and so heavy that it made my arm muscles pop, but when we scheduled our wedding for Christmas Eve and chose to have it in a fake flower shop, I began to consider the alternatives. Peonies don’t scream “winter wonderland.”

On any given day, Preferred Plants has a really wide assortment of flowers, and sure, they’re all silk and plastic, but they look good, not good, great, not great, like the healthiest fresh-cut botanicals you’d find anywhere (and truth, they fooled and amazed many of our guests, some of whom even came with allergy pills):

Enjoying the flowers in Preferred Plants.

The owners clued us in on a trend that I was in no way aware of: Recreating your wedding bouquet using silk flowers.

Genius, really. Of course, the likeliness of a bride to do this probably is more dependent on the style of her bouquet and its ability to actually fit in with her family’s home decor, but I thought it was a brilliant idea, especially since so many mementos of your wedding day are quickly packed away in boxes or trashed. It’s kind of the best of both worlds, for brides who are dead set on the real deal–get a live bouquet for the big day, and a faux-recreation to have forever.

Given that I would be getting married in this shop, surrounded by silk inventory, I also chose to make my bouquet (and Julia’s best girl mini-bouquet) out of their flowers. I locked in on this decision after visiting the shop on its Night of Lights, wherein it presented its seasonal merchandise including wintery branches and flowers that fit in oh so well with the winter timeliness of our wedding.

Night of Lights at Preferred Plants.

As an lush alternate to the springtime peony, I fell in love with these perfectly white magnolias that were part of the seasonal merchandise selection (complete with thick leaves and a detailed stamen and pistil and pollen). Blurriest iPhone picture ever.

Blurriest faux-magnolia photo ever.

To accent the magnolias, I chose an assortment of faux pine branches (specifically, douglas fir and colonial), and tallow berries. Wintertime bliss.

All of the chosen flowers and branches for my DIY bouquet.

Purchased, I brought the flowers, branches, and berries home, laid them out on our own coffee table and began to dissect what I had. Most everything assembled nicely without adjustments, I would only need to trim the ends to length when it was complete. One major benefit of working with silk was that the flowers, stems, and leaves are lightly wired so I was able to bend pieces into better positioning in areas where it felt too crowded.

The tallow berry branches were the only component I deconstructed a little bit, because there were multiple stems bundled within each long piece sold, and I only wanted small bunches popping between the magnolia leaves.

Deconstruction the faux Tallow berry branches for my DIY bouquet.

I used a fine florist wire to cinch the bouquet together, something I had on hand which only cost a few dollars. It was Julia’s bouquet that I was assembling when I snapped this picture; her bouquet was composed of a single magnolia, one pine branch divided into two sections, and a few lengths of berry.

Assembling my DIY wedding bouquet.

For my bouquet, I used 5 magnolias, 2 pine branches, and several branches of hallow which mostly popped out from between the flowers. The wire wrap was concealed with florists tape, not in any especially fancy fashion, just to get the job done. I used brown so help it blend in with the stems.

Wrapping the stem of our fake bouquets with florist tape.

Once trimmed, the ends of the stems exposed a green paper lining which makes them look even more like fresh-cut flowers, I love this detail.

Cut ends of these fake flowers look real.

All in all, it ended up being perfect for me.

Love that DIY bouquet, love that man.

Maybe our photographer got a better close-up of the bouquet. You should also know that I didn’t throw it, it’s home with us sitting in a vase on our living room (or, as shown, photographed in the sunroom).

Finished magnolia bouquets.

I have no idea how real bouquets price out but I’m pretty happy to have ours forever. They’re not so much wedding-y that they won’t fit into our wintertime decor, and I’m looking forward to seeing them every year. If you’re curious on pricing (because Preferred Plants does sell online), the total for both my bouquets was $133.25:

  • Magnolias, $87.00 ($14.50/each)
  • Douglas Fir Pine, $9.75
  • Colonial Pine, $14.00 ($7.00/each)
  • Tallow, $22.50 ($7.50/each)

Finished magnolia bouquets.

Did anyone else surround themselves with silk flowers at their wedding? How about that recreate-your-bouquet idea, would anyone out there do that?

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DIY  / Wedding

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

5 Comments


Jessica@J.ParisDesigns
January 8, 2013 at 10:10 am
Reply

I was dead set AGAINST real flowers at our October wedding. It always felt like such a waste, because once you set out on your honeymoon right after the wedding, your guests get to take home and enjoy the flowers for that following week – when you get back, they’re all brown and dead! Plus, pricing out florists was unbelievable and waaay out of our price range. I didn’t use silk (because I don’t have a place like Preferred Plants and everything else looked fake) but I made a brooch bouquet which seems to be big right now. It, too, is sitting in a vase in our living room. I love alternatives to the traditional bouquet – and better yet when you can keep it afterwards. Nice work! :)



    Emily
    January 8, 2013 at 10:28 am

    I’m always impressed with the unconventional approaches, like brooches or wooden flowers or sparkly diamonds. How’d you find enough to use (and how many exactly did it take to create your bouquet)?

Jessica@J.ParisDesigns
January 8, 2013 at 11:20 am
Reply

I got some from mom, grandma, misc. family members. Mine weren’t all old. I bought a lot new at stores -craft and department stores – antique stores, flea markets. I got the idea very soon in our engagement so I had a year to look. I used beads as filler…I’d say about 50 brooches or so. It. Was. Heavy.



    Emily
    January 8, 2013 at 11:37 am

    Love the idea as beads as filler, too! Impressed with your effort!

Harper
January 8, 2013 at 11:21 am
Reply

Loved your flowers and super impressed that you did them yourself (although knowing you, I shouldn’t be surprised!). I never would have guessed that they were silk flowers. Great that you can keep it as a forever momento.



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