OK girls, tell me what you think of my flower skills...

[AmberGretchen]

Flower arranging that is. I''m hoping to do my own flowers for my wedding to save money, and so my mom and I did a trial run yesterday. There are a bunch of pics in my knot bio (just scroll about halfway down):

AG''s Knot Bio

Thanks in advance for your thoughts girls!

 

[HOUMedGal]

Wow, I''m impressed!!! Seriously, you guys did a great job! I think that my mom and I will be doing my flowers too, number one because it''s cheaper, and number 2 because I think it would be fun!!! I''m totally into fun ways to save $$$!!!

 

[Mara]

hi AG....i love doing my own flowers for bouquets in the house, esp since i garden so i have lots of stuff in the garden...

my initial thoughts are that you need to work on your shape (form), and also beefing up the bouquets with more flowers. i always end up using too LITTLE flowers and then have to supplement, so err on the side of more with the flowers and you can always trim it down after. but too little and you won''t have that rounded effect.

the other comment is that you did great on the tying the bouquet with the tape and then covering it with a ribbon...i would make that tighter next time, but that is basically what they do at the florists! so you are on the money with that. but i would cut the stems down and keep the thing shorter....also in some of those shots you can see how many more flowers you need on some of the bouquets, they are too small (maybe good for BM''s though).

other than that, they look great, i like the colors alot though i am not a fan of some of the flowers used, though that may have been inventory issues...hehee. that''s the thing about getting your own stuff, you are kind of at the mercy of the inventory of the day!

 

[MelissaSue]

Wow! looks nice! I really like the red roses with green accents one.. Its just beautiful

 

[katrina_33]

Hey Amber,

I too am a DIY floral design enthusiast (not really anything pre-wedding related though, just like to do them around the house). I go to the LA flower mart, which is my favorite place ever (after the jewelry district of course!)

Here are some links to mine. They''re pretty rough, but fun to do, and I am getting better!

I think yours look great, esp the rounded red bouquet. I do think the purple arrangements should be a little fuller. Did you practice spiraling the stems? That''s tricky to get the hang of, but once you do things are so much easier.

In terms of covering the foam, I''d either do bamboo sticks or some kind of leaves in the vase between the foam and glass, do a non glass or frosted glass vase that hides it, or you can completely wrap the outside of the vase in something, even leaves or something like that. For inspiration, I''d check out Paula Pyrke''s book "Flowers: the complete book of floral design"

http://homepage.mac.com/killerchihuahua/PhotoAlbum10.html

http://homepage.mac.com/killerchihuahua/PhotoAlbum8.html

 

[qtiekiki]

The red-green-white bouquet looks great, but is a bit on the small size for a bridal bouquet. The lavender bouquet is little more messy but still good. As far as the arrangements, they need more flowers to create the compact and modern looks that you like. For the arrangement in the cereal bowl, either some of the flowers need to be shorter or greenery/moss need to added in order to cover the floral foam. I personally like the red-green-white color scheme (because with the addition of gold, that would be my color scheme).

I am DIYing my own flowers too since I worked as a floral designer for seven years and am really picky with my flowers and styles.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Thanks for all the comments everyone. I agree that they should be a bit fuller, although we had somewhat limited flowers to work with - I think I learned that I do need to get some fuller flowers like hydrangeas and others with large blossoms in order to fit enough flowers in a container.

Katrina - I really like your flower arrangements - they are very creative and interesting.

I actually argued with my mom a bit about the size of the bouquet. She wanted me to stop smaller than that. I think I might go a bit bigger on the actual day, but I am not a very large person and when I held this in front of the mirror, it looked in proportion to me. I guess it might be different with a big dress and a veil and everything, but I don''t want to bouquet to look out of proportion to me either. I would estimate that this had about a 12" diameter - I''m not sure what the normal diameter of a bridal bouquet is, or how much it varies with the size of the bride and the style of the dress etc...

Thanks again for the thoughts and feel free to share any other tips or thoughts

 

[flopkins]

AG- great job... i personally like the more loose, free-form look in the purple arrangements myself, but I think the main thing that would help your arrangements look ''fuller''(as the others mentioned) is to buy a lot of green and neutral color fillers... seems like you didn''t have much in your red/green centerpiece, and i think that would help cover the stems a bit.

Don''t know if you tried this method already, but some tips from watching my mom :
My mom took lots of flower arranging classes, and she always completely covered the oasis/green foam with greenery first, so you couldn''t see any of the foam anymore. (For the vases, you could cover the foam w/flat leaves, or cover the vase w/ribbon like you did) This uses the filler/greenery to create a ''skeleton'' of the shape you want. Then, add the biggest focal point flowers - whatever ones are the biggest, or the most show-y. Start from the middle, or the highest part of the arrangement, then work outwards. Finally add the secondary flowers and adjust everything.

For the bouquets, I don''t know if you tried this either, but you might want to wire your flowers to get more control of the shape. I think it looks good already, but just options I guess.

Hope this helps, but anyhow, good luck with your flowers!!!

 

[valeria101]

Date: 5/15/2005 6:42:29 PM
Author: katrina_33

I too am a DIY floral design enthusiast (not really anything pre-wedding related though, just like to do them around the house).

Wow girl ! Cabbage ot not, this one is havenly beautiful...

 

[JessesGrl]

Katrina- your flowers are super pretty....and also, I saw that your doggies name is Pia? That''s my name....hahahhaha- that is the THIRD dog I have met named Pia!!!!!!

 

[kanne]

great job! I love that you are doing your own flowers. I am toying with this idea (centerpcs only tho).

I really like the green/purple bouquets with the bells of ireland and purple (stock?). Very nice color combo.

Katrina33, the "cabbage arrangement" is fabulous. Would be GREAT for an autumn vineyard wedding. Excellent texture and the colors are just incredible. Thanks for posting your links! I'm glad to see that there are other flower crazy ladies on this board too. I have a little flower garden on the side of my house. When I moved here, it was just sand...the first thing we did was plant grass..and every year the grass patch gets a bit smaller (need more room for the plants that I buy at the nursery and online..) ah well..less mowing. Right now I have tulips and a lilac blooming. I'm rambling now...sorry to hijack!!!

 

[katrina_33]

Yep, my pup''s name is Pia...Pia Maria to be exact. I love that name, for a person or a dog! (People get a little weird about the whole "dog name" thing, but really, people without kids on the horizon just choose their favorite names for their pets because they have nothing else to name!)

Thanks for the complements on the floral designs. I love the flower mart. I developed a $50 a week home floral habit for a few months there, had to knock that off!

AG, how''s it coming, have you practiced any more since?

The way you wrapped the bouquet looked really professional! Keep us posted.