Summer Wedding Update

Another busy summer for weddings! I thought I`d share with you pictures from a recent wedding I did the flowers for in my hometown of Timmins Ontario. The bride Valérie Allaire was nice enough to give me permission to post these.

These are all bouquets that would be perfect as DIY Wedding Flowers since they are simple to make yet lovely and elegant. The bridal bouquets were composed of white and hot pink roses with tikki and variegated pittosporum foliage. They were assembled by starting at the center, taping 3 flowers and 1 foliage together with floral tape, then adding another 3-4 flowers/foliage and taping to the first bunch, working evenly around the center of the bouquet until you have used up all materials and the bouquet looks nice & round. The bride`s bouquet had 12 roses + 1 stem of cymbidium orchid and the bridesmaids had 8 roses + foliage. While many brides tend to want no foliage in their bouquets, greenery really adds texture, depth and makes every bouquet look bigger so you don`t have to use as many flowers and therefore can save money as well.

Her centerpieces stand out because of the brightness of the colors and the beargrass at the bottom of the containers make them really unique. So easy to do too! Just gather 4-6 pieces of either Beargrass or Florida grass, wind them around and place around dish so that they are all evenly distributed throughout holder. Then, place your next largest foliage, in this case I used variegated pittosporum. When you use one foliage in the bouquets, you are best to continue using the same type of foliage in your centerpieces and for your corsages. Same goes for your flowers. Since the bridal bouquets contained roses, I made sure to use roses in the centerpieces as well. Although the centerpieces contained a wider variety of flowers: stargazer lilies, white button mums, Japanese asters, white flat mums; they also contained roses in the same color as the bridal bouquets to have a sense of unity throughout the wedding flowers.

Her cake was stunning topped with freshflowers. In my opinion, no ceramic, plastic or

metal topper can compare with the beauty of fresh flowers; especially when they are well coordinated with the rest of the wedding flowers. This topper was created in an Igloo Holder which is a fresh foam holder designed for this purpose. The bottom of it is flat and the foam is in a half circle to fit perfectly on top of a cake. They come in two sizes but for a typical wedding cake, the small one is used. The flowers on the cake topper are the same varieties as in the centerpieces. I usually start by creating the shape of the holder with medium sized flowers and foliage. I insert stems at the center for the height, and then on each side of the holder to create the boundaries of the holder. After that, it`s all about filling in to complete a perfect half circle shape. Since beargrass was used in the centerpieces, I added them last for added elegance and style. You can try to pick them right into the foam but I find it much easier to attach one or two pieces of the grass to a floral pick, then stick that into the foam. For the extras on the side of the cake, I simply inserted a flower and a piece of foliage into a floral water pick and then covered it up with ribbon by gluing it on.

For more instructions on making your own wedding flowers, my book Unleash Your Inner Florist is a wealth of information. Learn more here: http://www.howtoweddingflowers.com/landing.html?id=SophiaCastonguay