Bespoke Bridal Bouquet with Floral Netting

Welcome to the Flowerschool.com video library. I'm Leanne Kessler, Director of the Floral Design Institute and today I want to share with you an on-trend bridal bouquet in the bespo style with floral netting and the flowers all fabulous from 50flowers.com. As you can see I had a lot of fun as I was shopping. They make it so easy with their choosing by color and I started with blush on trend and found this fabulous astilbe. Now that's going to be super popular due to the royal wedding. Started there and then just started playing. Scooched over to light pink and got and these beautiful secret garden roses. That color is so grand, so soft, so blush and then I wanted to update going on trend with the addition of that burgundy or it could be called marsala or cranberry. So I just slid across the color bar and found these amazing dahlias. They are spectacular. Fabulous quality. Astrantia also going to be popular because of the royal wedding. Then thinking about roses and garden flowers on trend what we do but now adding in the tropicals is becoming so popular. So I went ahead and kept shopping. Found some James Storey orchids for a delicate look. Nice line and movement. Tea leaves. Look at that color. It will be stunning with the design and then lastly some cymbidium orchids. This spike has got to be the best I have ever seen in my life. Today's bouquets are becoming more flower centric so if you've always worked with foliage base it can be a little tricky. How do you create a design focused on flowers, have control and still hide your mechanics? Floral netting is the answer. Just takes a small piece, roll it around creating an armature. You can do different sizes depending on how big you want the bouquet to be but you just sew the ends together by twisting them and creating a beautiful armature that will support all the flowers and hold them in place. As I begin I think about the form of the design and how the lines will be placed. The James Storey orchids are perfect for that because they can come right in and start that horizontal movement. You can see the armature holds it in place bringing in another coming off to the other side. Thinking about the scale of the design. You want it to be relatively large because that's sort of the trend but not so large that the bride disappears. Stems all coming down to the side back in finding the perfect hole and weaving it across down feeding it in and then you can pull it from the bottom with the dahlias. They have that beautiful horizontal head that allows you extend outward and have the head still looking upward so bringing that in again following through with the same lines stems all gathered in my hands twisting it so the face stays upward bringing in another and they'll shift on you but don't worry about it because by the time you get everything in place it will hold securely. Once you've established your line and your scale you want to add emphasis the main impact right in the center of the design and that's where the secret garden roses are fabulous removing their foliage and then feeding it down through keeping it nice and low repeating now these already have the thorns off and it's not a super thorny variety which that makes me so happy feeding it in and coming back with some of the astilbe for some soft texture just dropping it in and you can see how each stem helps to support the preceding stem as you continue you can add flowers in without going through the mesh they can actually go underneath and give you a little movement at the bottom continuing on with a little bit more of this astilbe to bring in that softening and then tucking in contrasting colors to get in texture and variation maybe bringing in more of the dahlias coming out to the opposite side again working on that horizontal movement putting the perfect little hole just kind of twist you can slide it into your hands coming back with the astrantia that blends the colors from the deep deep cranberry to the soft pink it's a nice movement twisting things back around determining where you want it maybe one more of the james story adding more impact on this side and then coming back with more texture again just coming in underneath filling in as i finish i want to think about movement some things come forward some things to the back and concealing all my mechanics because right now you can still see the floral netting you don't want to see any of that you want that totally hidden and we want a little more dimension so maybe bringing in another rose coming a little more forward pulling depth adding in a little bit more of the astilbe coming out to the side maybe another angling it a bit adding in more texture from the astrantia so you can see i'm focusing everything so that it radiates from a central binding point creating strong emphasis the line the form all of the elements and principles that you're supposed to have in a design but done in this more up-to-date on-trend bespo style you can even go back add in some of the dahlia buds we don't want the leaves remove those and let them come out to the side creating even more line and movement tucking it in and everything just tucks into your fingers holding in place some through the mesh some underneath the mesh then to cover all the mechanics at the end coming back with your tea leaves and tucking them in and clustering it tightly so that it will conceal everything underneath you can even take it place it in and then pull it back on itself creating beauty from the top and from the bottom so that the color shows so well and adding that depth of color at the bottom to enhance the design when you get it to this point and you're pretty happy with it stand and look in the mirror see what else needs to be adjusted maybe i need a little more burgundy on this side some weight to balance off tucking it low so that again it adds depth to the design then i have so much light dark dark maybe bringing in a little bit of the lisianthus out to the side to lighten the edges bringing it out even a little bit to the front letting the buds go it has so much interest then going back maybe adding another leaf or two then to secure it all in place using the bind wire just taking off the length flip it and then wrap above your hand going around two or three times and then twist in place the finished bouquet is lovely it looks good from the front and from the back the mechanics are concealed you don't see any of the floral netting so i cut the stems down i'm just going to set it in water so you can do this days before the wedding and just set it in water and put it in a flower cooler but i want to add one more bit of fun we talked about the cymbidium now obviously the spike is far too big for this bouquet but the blooms will be such a wonderful addition so just taking start at the bottom that way the top stays beautiful and pull off individual blooms then using your knife give it a nice cut set it into the tube like so already have water in here i always give a cut to the lid so it's not too tight because if it's too tight it's almost like a tourniquet flowers won't last as well then the beauty of these they're going to last forever and ever it seems like weeks tube like this because they're slow water drinkers and they can just be set right down into the bouquet using a little bit of your oasis floral adhesive just a bit of glue on the tube and then determine where you want it again remembering the focal emphasis you could bring some down low some up a little higher just start right in here feeding it in i can reflex the petals and the glue will just bond to the other stems so it's not going to fall out it's nice and secure you don't have to worry at all and then remembering orchids have faces and orchids are social creatures they like to talk to each other so facing their faces so that they're looking at each other finding another little hole in here and adding it in finding a perfect spot there we go and again reflexing and then adding additional until you love it a huge thank you to 50flowers.com these flowers were amazing the dahlias all came in perfect the cymbidium so huge and dramatic it was a delight to create this bouquet now if you need more creative inspiration check out the website flowerschool.com be sure to look at 50flowers.com as well and see their purchase by color it's a great tool when you're your flowers if you have questions you can reach us through the website or pick up the telephone and give me a call at 503-223-8089 now it's your turn i'd love to see what you create make a bouquet post it on social media and tag floral design institute so we all can see have fun and do something you love