DIY summer bouquet

Welcome to our first official DIY Tuesday!  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this about some blog changes and a new schedule.

Last week I was supposed to have jury duty, but I got excused early and took advantage of being downtown to hit the LA Flower Mart.  If you’re in the area and have never been, or if you’re planning your wedding, I HIGHLY recommend going.  It costs $2 to get in if you aren’t a vendor, a small price for all of the bargains and floral inspiration (just remember that if you’re there in the summer, but your wedding is in the fall or winter you may not have the same floral options depending on what’s in season).  I’ve got a post coming up soon about seasonal florals, so stay tuned.

I found these gorgeous coral peonies, opened wide showing the yellow inside.  I had to have them.  And because the were opened up and would only last a couple of days, I got them for a steal!  Since the peonies were going to be the focus of my bouquet, I selected a variety of other flowers in yellow, green, and white.  Some were flowers I knew, and others were new to me.  I don’t know a lot about flowers, so I was just picking what appealed to me and what I thought looked pretty together.  After I was done, I had spent $30 for a huge group of peonies, two bunches of crespedia (fondly known as billy buttons), a big bunch of white dahlias, and three other types of florals that I don’t know the official names of (if anyone out there does, please educate me in the comments).  They basically filled the passenger side of my car!  When I got them home I put them all in water and laid out my materials.

{as you can probably tell, all photos were taken with my iPhone.  Sorry for the poor quality, but I was in a bit of a hurry to get this done during Charlie’s naptime!}
DIY wedding florals

Let me preface this DIY by saying that I have never done this before, and I’ve never taken a floral design class.  So if I can do it, YOU can do it!

{Materials}
Variety of Flowers
Scissors or pruning shears
Jute or string
Containers of your choosing
Optional: I wrapped mine in a vintage hanky

{Step 1}  Lay your flowers out on newspaper grouped by type

DIY wedding florals

{Step 2}  Start by gathering a little of each type of floral, and then keep adding bit by bit, keeping the big peonies and dahlias seperated by the daisies and yellow filler.  Once I did this, I added a couple billy buttons and the green ball thingys.

DIY wedding florals bouquet peonies
{Step 3}  I contined adding a little of each type, keeping the peonies seperated.  Because the peonies were so big and open, I only used 2 or 3 on the bouquet.  Keep gathering until the bouquet is the size you want.  I made mine really big.
DIY wedding peony bouquet for summer
{Step 4}  Wrap your bouquet with jute or string, lay the bouquet down, and tie it together.  If you want to wrap it with a hanky, fold it in half, top corner to bottom corner, making a triangle.  Then srap it around the bouquet, tying the ends together.  Then trim your stems.  I used my crappy scissors, so it was harder to do than a good pair of scissors or shears.
DIY wedding bouquet
You’re done!
DIY wedding summer peony bouquet
Told you I made mine big 🙂

{Bonus centerpiece and boutonniere}
I had so much left over from my bouquet, that I wanted to make a quick centerpiece and boutonniere too, just to show you how much you can do with the $30 of flowers I bought.

First I trimmed a single peony to size for the container I wanted to use.  I love the look of a single peony on a table, either grouped with other smaller floral containers or alone.  Next I selected a medium sized container, and basically went step by step like I did for the bouquet above to make the centerpiece below on the right.  But because I wanted it to be looser and relaxed, I used less flowers.

DIY peony wedding centerpieces
Now I STILL had leftovers, so I threw a couple billy buttons and one of those green thingies in a vintage bottle to group with the other two arrangements.  It gives the grouping a modern feel, which I like in contrast to my vintage containers.  And then I took two more billy buttons, one of those little green thingies (a really small one) and one stem of the daisies, grouped them together, trimmed the stems short – leaving about 3-4 inches, and wrapped the entire stem with jute.  Leave an inch or so unwrapped when you start, then wrap until the stems are covered and work your way back up to the little unwrapped piece and tie it in a knot.  Then trim the ends.
DIY billy button crespedia floras boutonniere
I love that bouttoniere!
DIY summer wedding florals
And once you’re done using your bouquet, you can put it in a vase and add it to your table.  So here is everything I made, and I still had 3 big peonies left over.  If you have 3 bridesmaids you can have each carry a single stem of peony.  Simple, classic, and budget-friendly!  

So for around $30 and one hour of your time you can make a bouquet, boutonniere, and one medium sized and two small arrangements to group as a centerpiece.
Charlie loved the bouttoniere too 🙂
So what do you think of our first official DIY Tuesday?  Are you loving these summer DIY florals?

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