Bouquet - My Way.

Prom bouquets can easily cost $50-$65 apiece!  I have THREE boys.  AND, when they started getting asked to multiple proms in the same year...more than one of the boys that is, the flower fees were really adding up.  So, I discoverd DIY Prom Bouquets.

How did I learn? Luck.

I've blogged about flower bouquets before HERE and also HERE.

Now that my two older sons are in college, there's only one boy still at home.  AND... tonight is his junior prom.  One of the challenges of homemade bouquets is flower selection.  You can't just go into a reasonably priced flower selling location and pick out the EXACT flowers that will match the dress.  But, you can skirt around the issue by using coordinating flowers or all one color - like white!

Today's dress color is CORAL.  So, I went with a dark coral rose, pink and white tulips and few other white accent flowers and some greenery picked from the yard.  The dress is apparently somewhere between a pink and a coral, so I thought these colors would work.  I selected these flowers at Trader Joe's for a total of $18.

In addition to the flowers, a pair or sharp snips are helpful and some floral tape is a must.  I got a 3-pack of floral tape a few years ago for around $5 and I'm still using the same batch.  Keep it wrapped in plastic so it doesn't dry out.  I went with the thinner type but thicker might require less wrapping.

First step, remove the excess greenery and anything broken or undesirable.

Next, start adding flowers to your hand between your thumb and your index finger, letting the end of the stems criss cross as you go.  Making a big X while you're building the bouquet seems to work best.  I try to make the flowers slightly different heights for some dimension.

Once the bouquet looks the way you want, start wrapping it with the green tape just under the blooms and continue round and round for about 4 inches.

Whew - now take a breath and rest your hand.  I always get nervous when I'm making the bouquet, afraid I'll drop the whole batch or something.  Next, I trim off the bottom stems just a bit, an inch or so.  I do this so I can immediately add a few inches of water to a vase and stand the wrapped flowers in it.

Next, I wrap the hand-hold part (over top the green tape) with something decorative.  I use bits and bobs of fabric, and today - as I have before - I used satin blanket binding.

When I'd wrapped enough (make it as tight as you can - same when you are wrapping the floral tape - tight) binding, I tucked the final end under and then stuck it through will pins.  I use a flat edged spread knife to push the pin all the way in and save my fingers.  The florist uses fancy pearl topped pins, I just go with flat head silver, very inexpensive - hundreds of them for just a few dollars.

I think it looks like a little tuxedo wrap on the hand-hold when the pins are done.

Final - add some bling.  I just go with some sort of ribbon.  As I had a lot of the dark coral color in the bouquet, I decided to off-set it with some light pink.  I tied a knot around and let the ends hang.  Then I tied a bow around atop that and let the ends hang.  Nice.

The ribbon I used frays a bit at the ends.  I just brush a little clear nail polish on the front and back of the ribbon at the very tip where I cut it to keep it from fraying further.  I'm sure watered down glue would work for this as well.

Once the bouquet is all wrapped and has a bow, I store it in the basement fridge after sprinkling the flowers with a hand spritz of water.  Before we are ready to take the bouquet to the young lady recipient, I cut the stems to the perfect length, nearer to the bottom of the hand-hold.  We usually transport the bouquet in a vase in the car - it's easier to hold that way and doesn't need to be laid down - the ones at the florist come with a plastic lidded container, but I figure it's one less box or bit of plastic to recycle.

The bouquet just needs to look good for the photos and for walking into the prom and for the prom photos themselves, after that, I figure we're lucky if the flowers make it back home and maybe get a bit of display at the house.  Who knows.

Here are a few other bouquets I've made over the past couple of years.

If you click on the links I've provided at the beginning of this post, you'll see another step by step tutorial and yet two more bouquet photos if you need ideas.  Good luck!

PROM BOUQUET - made at home

$50 seems to be the minimum going price for a hand held prom bouquet these days.  CRAZY!  My son gave me permission (with an okay from his date) to give it a go at making one here at home for his junior prom tonight.

I rushed off to Trader Joe's at 8:30am this morning to make sure I got first pick at the day's flowers.

The dress is a purple/lavender color so I went with purples and whites with some greenery picked from around my yard.

Here is the selection of stuff I came home with from the store for about $15.

To decorate the outside of the hand held part, I picked up a few things at JoAnns in the clearance section - most of which I didn't end up using.  The floral tape which sticks to itself as it wraps is a MUST HAVE for this project.  I got it for $1.  The items I didn't use cost $1.50.

I may still use the lavender ribbon around the outside.

I also scrounged around the house and in the sewing drawer (which contains 40 year old products handed down from my grandmother).

I did iron and use a piece of wide satin ribbon which can be seen at the very bottom of the photo above.

Next I cut off the pricky things and excess greenery and anything that didn't look fresh and healthy from my flowers.  I made piles of the cleaned stems.  And got to work  - mind you I was really nervous that I wouldn't be able to do this.

As you add stems to the bunch in your hand, you kind of let the stem fall to the opposite side of where you placed the flower head.  You end up with a big bunch in your hand having added them one by one around the bouquet, making sure they are even and well placed.  It looks like this.

Then came the floral tape and I breathed a sigh of relief as I was able to loose my tight grip on the bundle and give it over to the security of the tape.  I wrapped all the way down to the bottom and then back up to the top. 

Above is the wrap job with the stems still long.

Next, cut the stems to an even and shorter length - with something really sharp.  This was harder to do then I anticipated.

I then wrapped the satin ribbon from top to bottom and back up to the top.  I turned under the ribbon edge and used white headed applique pins - the only appropriate pins I had here at the house.  You can purchase white headed floral pins that are longer and probably better, but these seemed to work fine and hold well.  I went thru the tape AND into some of the stems for security - hopefully this will be okay.

And ta da!  The bouquet is pretty much done.  As I said above, I am pending a decision to add a lavendar bow or bows.  Feel free to offer your opinion on the bow.

Here are some more shots of the finished bouquet.  I placed it in a sturdy vase that wouldn't crush the flowers and put a scant bit of water in the bottom to keep the stems hydrated.  I removed a shelf from our extra fridge so there was room for it to stand in the vase without touching anything and gave it a final spritz of water on the blooms to keep it fresh.  I hope this will work and by 6pm tonight it will still look good!

Ah - now to breathe a sigh of relief!  Enjoy!