Premade Bouquets + DIY (How It Works)

Hey this is Amy with Flower Moxie. I'm here to show you what our three type of kits are. So we've got the no DIY, we've got the hybrid, and we've got the from scratch DIY. So let's do an unboxing on this. This is how they come, very secured, wrapped in paper. And here's how the bouquet comes right out of the box. Each comes wrapped in a plastic sleeve. All of it is organized, trimmed, cleaned, and it even comes with some food. So this is what you'll be working with if you do no DIY. If you're doing hybrid, we're going to add fancy flowers and that means the flowers are loose and we'll have to add them. When you add luxury blooms, this is the way they come. And you might ask why don't you just put the luxury blooms in the actual premades? That is a great question with a great answer. Basically they come from different farms so there's no way to combine them. Two, it lets you really customize these base bouquets. So these are just single bunches of ranunculus and anemones. They are very secured within the box to keep them safe. And we've got some specialty roses. Okay we're going to clean this up and make some more sense out of what we're working with. Okay so let's break this down. If you were ordering no DIY, this is what you would receive. And you would cut this, put this in water, zhuzh it like you're going to see me do, pick it up, walk down the aisle. If you're going with the hybrid and that's typically our most popular because a lot of our brides love the base bouquets but they want to add some fancier more luxury flowers, you would receive this and this. And what you would do is cut and hydrate like you're going to see me do and then you would backfill the fancy flowers into the base bouquets. Adjust it as you see fit. So this gives you more control but it also cuts out the work for you. If you're going to go DIY completely from scratch, you take this out of your mind because you don't get the ready-made and you just get raw material. This is what you're seeing over here. So as a florist, I'm typically going to just work with raw material and build it from scratch. But having been a florist for 14-15 years, because the price point ends up being the same, I would still get the base bouquets because I would want to cut out all that time and effort and I would add the fancier flowers. And this is why I created these different packages because we have different clients that have different needs, different time schedules, you know, they may not want to learn how to do every single thing. So these premades work out really well. So at this point, I'm going to cut and hydrate and this is what you'll do on day one right when you unbox. So these are excellent because they come labeled. I would recommend to, sometimes you can peel the label off. Well, this one didn't work. But I would put a notation on my bucket or my hydration base of what it is. So this one is the bridesmaid. So with like a marker, I would write bridesmaid with some tape. That way I know going back to it. And you're going to think, just do this. But I don't want you to do that because you want these flowers to open to their max capacity. And although they need to travel really closed, you want to open so they begin to get larger and blow out. So what we're going to do is we're going to take off the ribbon. I'm going to just cut away the rubber band. And of course, it needs a fresh cut. So I'm going to cut it, come in, cut at an angle. And I'm going to just place down in the bucket. And it's all cut at the same length. I'm loosening it up. And you think, oh, you just ruined it. You just ruined the bouquet. And now I'm going to have to put it all back together again. That's not so. It's a matter of just picking it up, adding the extra flowers and re-bundling because it's built in the spiral, it will hold. We're going to do the same for the bridal bouquet. So we've already added food to this bucket. But if you haven't, then you can use the food that it comes with. It's not mandatory, but it's nice. So this is the bridal. I would, again, write bridal on this. That way I knew. You might know, but you might have helpers. And when they come in, we want them to know exactly what they're working with. And one thing that you're going to pay attention to is the guard pedals. So just because this is a ready-made bouquet does not mean that you get to go without guard pedals. That's the outside pedals that you need to pluck off. So when you look at these bouquets, you might see a few bruised ones. That is normal. You're going to pluck those pedals off. And then these carnations came in really tight. I'm going to let it just rehydrate on its own. But once it's rehydrated, I can always push up with open a carnation with my fingers. But I don't like to do any of those things right when I get it in because it's been traveling from the farm for a couple of days. So I just feel it needs a little bit of time. And that's why you want to get these flowers early. These to put this in. This is the centerpiece. Don't cut that. I think I'm actually going to put this in a bucket because I feel let me see if I can swap it out. I want it to sprawl out a bit more. And there's a lot more stems in that centerpiece than in the bridesmaid. So I'm going to swap this out. This is just a good lesson. You want it to have space to open. Okay, let's get our fancies in water. These are looking closed, kind of sad, but that's because they just came in. So we're going to give them a day to perk up. These anemones need to open. So the fancy ones come in looking a little bit tired, but they will perk up. So you can already see how this is starting to take shape. So this being your bridal, just so you can visualize, let's say you ordered the hybrid. This is the wildflower pastel one. So let's say you order Petrinunculus. Maybe you want some purple ones. You'll come back in and start adding your fancy flowers. And we're not going to do this today because these still need to hydrate, but you can see how easy it is to backfill. That's what we're talking about. And that's why I created these packages is I wanted it to be very convenient to get exactly what you wanted, but cut out 75% of the work because the work's already done for you. As you can see, compared to this, this is just a few things. So in true fashion, we're going to let our roses soak for a couple hours before we unwrap them. It just keeps the heads sturdy so they don't fall over on you. I always like to use a glove because I pull off the lower leaves because we don't want leaves in the waterline. So I'm just trying to like fit in a little flower prep reminder. Okay, we are prepped to do all three of them. Okay, so what I have is the white whimsy hybrid. This is one of our most popular new collections that we have. So when it's hybrid, it's exactly that. It's mainly pre-made, ready-made bouquets with fancy add-ons, and I'm going to show you how to work with it. So what I have here is the bridal bouquet, the bridesmaid, and a centerpiece. So I'm going to start, I'm going to put these to the side, and I'll show you how to work with the bridal bouquet. So I got these in yesterday. So you can see previously, I did the unboxing. I got them all unbound and hydrated. So you don't want to leave these bound when you get them, like I said, because they won't be able to open and fluff up. Now you can pick this up, or you can hand build it, but what I think is going to be the easiest is to leave it in the vase, in that spiral, and just hand place the fancy flowers and then zhuzh it. That's a sciency term. Okay, so I have this, and what I do first is I look for any bruising on any petals. So this is going to happen when you ship in flowers. So these look pretty good, but don't be alarmed if you have to pluck off any petals, especially on roses, because there's those guard petals. And what I have are ranunculus. So I'm going to go ahead and just start adding them in. And I'm going to let it follow the line of the spiral. And I'm going to let the fancy flowers kind of float above and then we're going to pick it up and tweak it a bit. So this is just kind of dispersing my product to where I don't have just a huge clump of ranunculus all in the same place. And you'll follow the recipe because we usually allow for, you know, three to five depending on what it is. But these are so beautiful and so large. And I want to make sure I have some in the front and some in the back. So I'm just kind of spinning it around like a centerpiece. And this is why these premades are so easy, because if you don't have a lot of time or a lot of confidence in your building skills, and I get it, it's the week of your wedding, you can kind of go with this easier option where most of the work has already been done for you. So now I'm adding these anemones. I'm so obsessed with these. They have the green center, not that dark navy center. But they look a lot like Cosmos, kind of like Helleborus. They're just light, airy, they feel very poppy-like to me. So I just want to go through and make sure I'm dispersing these. And the vase I have it in, it's just an inexpensive vase that you can find at the dollar store or order in bulk online. So you'll want these. And it's just a good hydration vase. So I'm pretty much there. This is the bridal, so reserve all the good ones for you. I usually leave the collar on, but it's getting kind of full. So I pluck that off and I want that guy kind of in the middle. Okay, I think I have it dispersed well. Now we are going to tweak it. So I pick this up and I have a mirror right there. I have to look in the mirror. And what you're going to do is you're going to front load it and create a flat back. So right now it's a little bit 360, but for me as a florist, I like to always create a flat back. That way my client can lay down her bouquet all day because that's what you're going to do. And I basically stack it to where the back is higher and the front is lower. That way I get more visual volume from the flowers. So you'll watch me do it. I come in here and I start raising the flowers in the back and I'm looking in the mirror and I'm just making light adjustments. So I don't have to build from scratch. I'm just adjusting the flowers, making sure that every flower face can be seen. So if something's smushed and buried, you either need to adjust it or take it out of the bouquet altogether. When I was a new florist, I would have like smushed flowers down in my bouquet because I didn't know or learn, like just take it out, just edit. Like you don't have to have every flower in this arrangement. And I'm just picking kind of a different shaped one because those are so big, which isn't a bad thing. It's just a lot. Okay. So the ones in the front, I'm going to do the opposite. I'm going to lower them and I'm kind of pushing on the stem. You never want to push on the head of the flower. And sometimes I flip it upside down to kind of let gravity help me a little bit. It's just my own personal way I build sometimes. And there's a lot happening in this one because of all this Queen Anne's lace. So it's not a big deal to pull something out and move it. And I just kind of twist it and pull it out. And I think this is a better place. Let's pop this guy in the back. It was too much in the front. It was just like too much texture. And this is what you're going to spend your time doing. Just tweaking. Basically I jiggle a stem. I find where that stem is and I pull it down or I push it up because I want all of them to be seen. If I notice I have like a, I have a really strong concentration of all these flowers on the same plane, I want to break that up. So I probably want to pull out, start by pulling out the cinnamony and let's move him to the back. I'm getting pretty close. I'm going to move this guy up a little bit, push the greenery down. I mean, if I was handing this off to a client, I would sit and tweak on this for a while. But just for the sake of time, I'm going to go ahead and call it pretty much good to go. See if there's any last minute changes I want to make. Yeah, this looks really beautiful. Just took me a few minutes and a few stem placements. So now what you're going to do is you're going to rebind it. So I told you when you got the bouquets to either pull off or cut off the rubber band. Now you're going to add it back. And just to beat a dead horse, we cut it so everything could open. But at this point we're calling it good and it just needs to hang out in its base of water for a couple of days. So I gave it a clean cut. We're going to wrap a rubber band around it. So we're going to find a strong stem like this Queen Anne's lace. I'll hook both of these, wrap it around twice if I can get it. It's like about perfect. A little bit, not long enough. Okay. Or you can use a zip tie. And then I take my hands and I just loosen it. Just give it a shake. I want some air between those flowers. And because the rubber band isn't too tight, I can still adjust it. So this is looking ready to go. This point, you're going to put it back in water. So this is, let's say your wedding is on Saturday. You got these on Wednesday. You gave them a day to hydrate and to relax and to recharge. You can do this on Thursday, which means you have two days to do all your other wedding errands and not worry about it. Just make sure that this has plenty of water. Keep the leaves out of the water line and add the floral food that they sent you with it. The day of the wedding, wait till you get to your venue to add your ribbon. That's my last advice when it comes to bridal bouquets because you don't want that ribbon to get wet and transit. This is the bridesmaid bouquet. You'll do the same thing. You'll follow our recipe. You'll add the flowers, pick it up, zhuzh it, tie it off, and wrap it when you get to the venue. Bridesmaids, you can be a little bit more liberal with. Just do a thin ribbon. But for a nice drapey ribbon for a bridal, just keep that in a Ziploc bag until you're ready to go. When it comes to the corsages or the boutonnieres, I didn't talk about this when I did the unboxing. When I get my boots and my corsages ready-made in, I usually cut the stem, put them like in a little shot glass of water, let them rehydrate, and then I transfer them to a hydration chamber. So a hydration chamber sounds very official, but all it is is a container with an airtight lid. So this is a glass Tupperware. I have a damp paper towel. I take my boutonniere or my corsage, lay it down, put the damp paper towel on top of it. And of course, you're going to use like a larger container. And you seal it and put it in the refrigerator. And this will keep them for three or four days, actually up a week or two. The hydration chamber works so well. Okay. Now let's shift into what to do with the centerpieces. Okay. So when it comes to the ready-made centerpieces, the hybrid, there's a few options that I need to go over with you. On our website, it says, well, are you doing bud vases, mason jar size or compote? And I want to give those options because not everybody's going to do compote size. What you use depends on how many you can make. If you're going to just do a straight up traditional compote centerpiece, it's one for one, right? But if you're doing a bud vase, you can probably make, uh, with this one about eight to 10 bud vases, because you're just going to do one to three stems per bud base. Okay. So you would take this, cut it apart, put it in your bud vases. Another option is what we call mason jar size. So that's the vases that have about a three-inch diameter as opposed to a five-inch diameter, and it makes a huge difference. So I could probably fill three mason jar size vases with one centerpiece. And so, um, I understand if you don't want to use a mason jar, but this is the size guideline. So these little vases are very similar in size, and that's why you can get a few out of each ones. Also know that, uh, it's okay to mix and match. As a florist, I very rarely would do the same centerpiece style on every single table. The easiest thing would be what I call chop and drop. That's if you're using a cylinder with about a four-inch diameter, three to four inches, you take this, um, you cut it, and you just place it down into, um, down into your vase, down into your cylinder vase, and then you add your pretties. So you can come in, you can add your pretty guys, cut them, and pop them in just like you would for the bouquet. Um, and this is very lovely, and it's a, it's a fine centerpiece. The only problem is that if you think when someone's sitting, it's going to be in that eyeline. So oftentimes you don't see a lot of cylinder vases at weddings just because somebody wants typically more of a compote style. That leads us to the more traditional style of centerpiece, and I'll show you how to do that. So you might ask, well, it doesn't feel very made for you at this point, but I will say it's still much easier than starting from scratch because it's already reciped out. So I have some plant-based foam here that Oasis has created. Uh, we don't sell it yet because it's not on the market yet, but they sent us some to try out, and what we're going to do is build a little compote. I'm going to start with the greenery, and what's nice is when you have your helpers, you can just give them, like, give them a mock-up, and then give them, you know, one bouquet, and they have the exact recipe that they need. So typically compote style, I'll start with the greenery like you might have seen me do in other videos, and if you're not a big greenery lover, then cut it down and pull it in tighter. Like, the taller and looser it is, the more prominent it will be visually, and this just allows me to work quickly. So even though we are taking apart a ready-made, I promise you it's much faster. Callie and I, who are the designers at Flower Moxie in-house, we were both, like, wedding florists for years, and we say, oh my gosh, if I was still working weddings and booking weddings, I would order the ready-mades as a base for most of my weddings, just because they'd be cleaned and ready to go, and then I would add the fancy flowers. So this hybrid to us was, like, kind of the perfect solution of getting, like, that elevated look. Okay, so now that I have it kind of greened out, I'm going to add my biggest pieces and then work my way in. So I have these crimones, so I have three of those. I'm going to create a triangle, and I'll show you how to do that. Always start with the largest and then work your way in, and I tend to, like, to stick with the same product as I'm building. That way I can kind of know where all of my placement is going to be. So what I've done is I only have three of these guys, but I created a triangle. It's a small one, but you can see it, and I clustered it. Instead of just spreading it out, I made it a little bit more condensed, and now I'm going to set my line flowers. So I have this delphinium, and I want to create some movement on the opposite side. And with this wildflower, you know, we're going for asymmetry. We're not going for rounded. So sometimes things are more visually impactful when you group them, which is kind of what you're seeing me do here. So I grouped my crimones, and then I grouped my delphinium. I should have my lazy Susan. Okay, so now I have spray roses. Let's disperse these. Well, let's go ahead and cover our mechanics. So I have these asters that are a lot like feverfew, and I'm going to sink these low. These are the lesser expensive flowers, and they're still really pretty. They're really nice texture, but I want them to sink a little bit lower because I want my more expensive, fancier flowers to float above. So that's my, that's the thought that I'm taking into how I'm using this material. I'm working my way around. So even though we took this apart, we're still moving at a pretty nice clip because everything on the table I know is, for me, in this centerpiece. Now, this is a six-inch, and really, you need to use a five-inch vase, but I wanted to try out my new vase. So you can see it's a little bit sparse. That's why it's so important to go with the vase size that we recommend. Do as I say, not as I do. Okay, I'm filling in the gap with some extra that I have. You wouldn't need to do this if you follow our instructions and get the right vase size, but when you get a new vase as a florist, you're like, I have to try it. I've got to try it on, and I really love this. But if you feel that you're kind of heavy-handed in your flower building, don't be afraid to just tag on a few extra bunches at checkout. Okay, let's disperse our spray roses. These are majolicas, so these are very creamy, almost kind of blushy. If you get these in and they don't feel like super white to you, don't worry about it. The reason I say this is because having variation of creams is going to give your arrangement visual interest. So if you're all the same color of white, then it's going to feel very man-made, and it will be giving silk flowers. So when I get these creamy ones in, it never bothers me, but sometimes our clients will be like, oh, these came in, they feel like very creamy. And as a florist, I'm here to tell you that you want that because if you wanted the look of silk flowers, then you wouldn't be here right now. And with real flowers, there's just going to be variation. So now I'm dispersing this queen lace. And you notice how, well, I'm quick to place things because I've been doing it for years. But when I created the lines with the cremones and the delphinium, then it was really easy to work within those lines. Okay, let's disperse our fancies. So we're going to let these ranunculus kind of float above and be the stars without taking over the formation that we created. Now with these ranunculus, see how curved they are? We're going to need to wire these. This does not mean your ranunculus is bad. It means that the head of it is so heavy that it needs to be wired. I typically have to wire maybe half of my ranunculus. So what I do is I have a thin, straight floral wire. I run it up the center of the stem because it's hollow all the way to the top to where you can feel yourself stabbing the head of that ranunculus. And it is now supported. I'm just going to continue with the grouping thing that I've got going. I really needed a lazy Susan to be twisting this the entire time to make sure that it's even on all sides. But I'm building kind of quickly so this video isn't too long. And I'm going to let these little anemones kind of sink down into the arrangement. But I think that we're at a really good place. I could definitely fill it in a little bit more. That'll teach me from using a larger vase size. So then it's a matter of kind of like squatting down and looking at it from table level to make sure it's all filled in. But this is enough to kind of give you some guidance of what that looks like when you're creating a compote style from a ready-made arrangement and then adding the fancy blooms. So it's much faster. Again, you can make these on Thursday for a Saturday wedding once everything has had the time to open and rehydrate. And you can also change it up. So I can do five compotes for the family reserve tables. And then for the extras, I can do bud vases and smaller size vases just to stretch my budget and make my workload less. So if you have any questions, feel free to leave it in the comments below or better yet, email us. You can always schedule a call to talk to one of us, just kind of talk through the DIY. If you're interested in a custom design and you don't feel quite sure, you can still do a custom design and they can go with the hybrid packages and kind of adjust them by adding additional flowers on. But I would say this is our top selling just because it gives more flexibility and an elevated look. So thank you so much. And we will see you next time.