Behind the Bouquet: How I Designed a Dreamy Micro-Wedding

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In this video I take you behind the scenes for a micro-wedding. I stopped delivering full service weddings last year and now I take just a few small orders for wedding In this video I take you behind the scenes for a micro-wedding. I stopped delivering full service weddings last year and now I take a few small orders for personal flowers. This order was for just a bridal bouquet and a boutonniere.

First, I started with the bouquet. The bride asked for a natural style bouquet. So, I designed the bouquet in my hand using the spiral technique. I let the flowers do what they do naturally. I kept a loose grip and did not want to over-design the bouquet.

I cleaned the stems the day before so I would be ready to design. I made sure to have each of the six floral elements ( • Take Your Floral Arrangement From Amateur ... ) I identified in my most popular video. Foliage creates a natural appearance and an armature for the rest of the arrangement. Line flowers add height and shape. Every arrangement needs focal flowers for the wow factor. Filler flowers fill the empty spaces (obvi). Secondary flowers support the focals and provide additional color and texture. Finally, bits and pieces make it special.

I laid out all of the stems in the order I wanted to add them to the bouquet. I started with foliage - eucalyptus and abelia. I crossed each stem in my hand and twisted the bouquet a quarter turn before crossing over the next stem. Stock and amaranth were my line flowers. Dahlias were the secondary flowers. Cosmos were my fillers. Mums were the star of this bouquet with their big blooms. Sea oats and strawflowers were my fun bits and pieces.

I finished off the bouquet with some floral tape to hold everything in place. I gave the stems a trim and got them back in water to hydrate while I made the boutonniere.

The boutonniere had some of the same elements as the bouquet so the couple was matching. For foliage, I switched it up with rosemary. This was a sturdy option that holds up well out of water. I then used the same strawflower, amaranth, seaoats and dahlia from the bouquet. It took me a couple of attempts to get it right.

Like the bouquet, I taped the boutonniere up and clipped the stems. I covered the tape with ribbon and tied it off. I added two pins for the groom to affix the flowers to his lapel. I kept the boutonniere in a plastic clam shell case in my cooler overnight. I trusted each of the elements I chose for the boutonniere to last through the event out of water.

Then it was time to wrap the bouquet. I added some more tape to make sure the ribbon looked smooth. Like the boutonniere, I covered up the tape and pinned the ribbon in place. I then cut the stems short and even. The evenly cut stems could stand up vertically on a table by itself. Short stems also allow the bride to comfortably point the blooms toward the camera.

I love jobs like this at this point in my floral career. I get to use my skills to focus on the highlights of the wedding. Plus, no delivery.

0:00 Bouquet
22:14 Boutonniere
33:45 Bouquet Wrapping