Make Your Own Silk Wedding Bouquet

If you’re planning a wedding, chances are you’ve noticed how expensive everything is. What should be a simple celebration of your love turns into a budget war when you take into account the cost of inner envelopes for your invitations and monogrammed wedding favors for your guests. But you can save money on flowers by making your own silk wedding bouquets, corsages and boutonnières.

Most people’s initial reaction to silk flowers is predictable. “Eew,” they’ll say, “silk flowers look so fake!” But get the image of your great-grandmother’s table decorations out of your mind – silk flowers have come a long way. The development of new plastics and other materials has created some incredibly realistic look-a-likes. In fact, your guests may not be able to tell that your flowers are silk.

If you don’t feel confident in your flower arranging skills, ask a local florist if they work with silks. You’ll still be paying for the labor, but you’ll save a lot of money on the raw materials. In addition, working with a florist will be less stressful since you’ll get to sit back and know that a professional is handling your wedding flowers.

However, if you’re a real do-it-yourself kind of person, you can save even more money by arranging your own silk bouquets. Silk flowers are a very forgiving medium to work with – they won’t wilt and the wire stems mean you can adjust flowers again and again. If you’re nervous about it, see if your local community enrichment program or home and garden store offer any flower arranging classes. You’ll be able to learn the basics before starting on your bouquets.

If you aren’t able to take a class on flower arranging, check your library for books on the subject. If you’re completely on your own, don’t panic. Start by studying pictures of the bouquets you like in magazines and on the internet. It’s easier to replicate a bouquet you like than to come up with one from scratch. Look at the pictures to see how floral designers use leaves and green material to break up a bouquet, and how they create different shapes using different flowers. Once you’ve got an idea of what you want, it’s time to hit the craft store!

One of the easiest ways to make a bouquet is simply to tie a bunch of flowers together with ribbon. This works best with flowers like calla lilies and daisies that have long stems and simple flowers. While you’re in the craft store, grab a handful of these flowers and bunch them together in your hand to see if you can get them into a visually pleasing shape. If you’ve found something that works, find a matching ribbon and a hot glue gun. Rubber band the flowers together while your wrap ribbon diagonally down the stems, securing the ribbon with a dab of hot glue in the back.

If you’d like something a little more complicated, you can purchase a bouquet holder – basically a small piece of floral foam on the end of a handle. Using a pair of wire cutters, you can snip off the flowers you like and arrange them in the holder, creating the round or draping bouquets that many brides prefer. It’s a good idea to buy an extra holder to practice on – if you rearrange the flowers to often, you risk weakening the structure of the foam, causing your flowers to fall out. If you get stuck, many larger craft stores have a separate person working in the floral department that you can ask for assistance.

Another advantage to working with silk flowers is that you can make them several months before the wedding – before things really start to get hectic. You’ll also have time to practice your floral arranging skills and perfect your bouquet before the big day. Store any completed arrangements out of the sun to avoid fading and keep them covered to prevent dust collection. Then lean back and take a deep breath – you’ve saved money and created a keepsake that you’ll cherish for years to come.

Sarah Russell, aka "The Sexy Secretary," is a connoisseur of living the good life on a budget. Check out her website at www.thesexysecretary.com for more fabulous ideas on how to trim down your expenses without reducing your quality of life.