Carnation Inspiration

Carnation Inspiration

April 11th, 2010 @ 11:40 am by Mrs. Jellyfish
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A lot of my ideas for our City Hall wedding are inspired by my parents’ civil wedding (in fact, the whole idea of having a civil wedding before the wedding is inspired by them!). One of the traditions I’ve always loved when looking at their photos is the carnation arch:

Carnation Inspiration : wedding diy flowers pleasanton 1 primarie_01

I’m not sure how this tradition started but it seems to be pretty typical at city hall weddings in Romania. The family and friends of the bride and groom form an arch out of carnations and the bride and groom walk beneath it and get a photo taken.

I decided early on that I wanted to do the same thing at our ceremony.

We are only inviting our immediate families so it won’t be quite as big of an arch, but I also want to incorporate carnations into my bouquet. I love how fluffy and pretty carnations are all bunched up!

Source

While looking for carnation bouquet inspiration, I came across this amazing tutorial by Mrs. Flamingo. I decided to follow her steps and create a trial bouquet. Here are some pictures of my finished bouquet, interspersed with gratuitous puppy shots:

Carnation Inspiration : wedding diy flowers pleasanton 4 4

Carnation Inspiration : wedding diy flowers pleasanton 5 5

Carnation Inspiration : wedding diy flowers pleasanton 6 6 ’

Stinson admiring my handiwork

This was an easy project and only took 15 minutes. I’d probably recommend getting more than 24 carnations – my bouquet looked a little sparse from some angles.

Carnation Inspiration : wedding diy flowers pleasanton 7 7

Stinson shows lack of approval at lopsidedness.

All in all, this project cost me around $20. The biggest expense was the carnations, which cost me around $12 for 2 bunches of 12 stems. I got my carnations at Safeway, but if you go to a florist or buy them at a flower market, they’ll probably be a lot cheaper. Either way, I think it’s still a whole lot cheaper than getting a bouquet from a florist.

Have you ever considered making your own bouquet? Do you have any tips for making DIY bouquets?

Tags: diy, flowers, pleasanton |

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16 Responses to “Carnation Inspiration”

Member

lemondrop (message) 1,193 posts, Bumble bee

We made our own bouquets! The morning of the wedding I stopped by the grocery store and Wal-mart and bought $50 worth of flowers. My maid of honor and my mom threw together 4 bouquets of happy bright flowers. It turned out really well!

We could have even bought the flowers several days ahead of time, because my mom said that it took 3-4 days for all of the flowers to open up all the way. Guess I didn’t need to worry about them not looking fresh after a day or two since we kept them in water for most of the day.

4/11/10 @ 12:52 pm (reply)

Guest

BunnyBlue

I did make my own bouquet , actually I DIY’ed all my wedding flowers. Practice is key , and don’t expect perfection! The best advise I can have is know your flowers. do a trial before hand and take LOTS of pictures! I ordered my flowers online and has quite a few left over (oops) the house smelled great though!

4/11/10 @ 1:22 pm (reply)

Member

rawrkitty1022 (message) 516 posts, Busy bee

Love it! I am going to DIY my own bouquet. I think flowers are very pretty, but they just aren’t that one big thing I love and MUST have at my wedding. Therefore I can’t justify the couple hundred dollar price tag when I could DIY bouquets and bouts and use the saved money on something that won’t die in a week. My centerpieces are not flowers either. So I’ll probably be doing as Lemondrop did and pick up a bunch of flowers from a market a day or two before….and I’ll be sure to throw some carnations in there!

4/11/10 @ 1:29 pm (reply)

Member

labrat (message) 472 posts, Helper bee

You did a wonderful job!

I thought of making my own but I fear not being able to find the right flowers the week of the wedding.

I myself, at this moment, am more fascinated by the carnation arch! Was that in the place of throwing rice on the couple? I’m looking for inspiration for our post wedding thing and rice/bird seed is out at the park. I’d do the bubbles but the idea of getting that many things of bubbles tend to be messy when the odd few leak. We could possibly have them throw grass seed. But I like the idea of an arch such as that. It would hold a similar symbolism as the rice but be better environmentally.

4/11/10 @ 1:45 pm (reply)

Guest

ash

I love the carnation bouquet, too! A grocery store near me sells them for about .50 a stem if you order them ahead of time. I practiced a red and white one just last week with about 14 stems and it looked so full and bright. It cost me about $10 a bouquet after ribbon and all, and the florist said they would charge $35 to $40 for the same thing. So, it’s definitely a savings. And, you really can’t go wrong with carnations. They stay fresh-looking for so long.

4/11/10 @ 3:13 pm (reply)

Member

elfe515 (message) 45 posts, Newbee

Way to go on designing your own bouquet! And it doesn’t cost $125-$200 (my current quote from the florist…gulp).

PS. Please intersperse all your future DIY posts with gratuitous puppy shots! Stinson has adorable ears and feet!

4/11/10 @ 3:49 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Flamingo (message) 1,366 posts, Bumble bee

Yay!!! Glad someone used my tutorial. I agree… more flowers would be better (and they are quite cheap) and if ever you have left overs you can make boutonnieres (i did, just didnt write about it)

You did a great job though

4/11/10 @ 4:22 pm (reply)

Member

jordynrose (message) 6,351 posts, Bee Keeper

I love the look of white carnations. Very pretty!

4/11/10 @ 4:26 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Turtle (message) 782 posts, Busy bee

I love carnations! It’s sad that they’re so under-appreciated! All of your bouquet inspiration pictures are amazing! I can’t wait to see the pictures from your civil ceremony!

4/11/10 @ 5:43 pm (reply)

10.

Member

aunt pol (message) 1,473 posts, Bumble bee

Good woman, I’d forgotten all about carnations!
I’ve decided to do all my own flowers too- I have a fairly big bridal party (in Irish terms, anyway -4 BMs) and the florist wanted 800 euro to do all bouquets, church flowers etc! About $500, I reckon. He can go and jump! Flower market for me!

4/11/10 @ 6:30 pm (reply)

11.

Member

tea (message) 7,288 posts, Bee Keeper

first, i love how it looks like stinson crosses his front paws like that. how proper!

second, i was inspired by mrs. flamingo as well. i plan on diying my bms’ bouquets with white carnations too. good to know i’ll need more than 24 flowers. thanks!

4/11/10 @ 10:47 pm (reply)

12.

Member

alivoo01 (message) 2,622 posts, Sugar bee

Can’t wait to see your carnation arch!

4/12/10 @ 10:53 am (reply)

13.

Bee

Miss Hamster (message) 4,046 posts, Honey bee

Love your bouquet - came out great! Can’t wait to see the arch!

4/12/10 @ 11:25 am (reply)

14.

Member

LoriLori (message) 727 posts, Busy bee

I am seriously considering DIYing my fowers too - just 2 bouquets, a bunch of boutineres and a corsage for my mom. I can’t justify paying $175 for my bouquet, when I really don’t care abotu flowers all that much.

4/12/10 @ 1:44 pm (reply)

15.

Member

cnuptain (message) 330 posts, Helper bee

So pretty! I love your dog, too!

4/17/10 @ 6:02 pm (reply)

16.

Member

BrownBridal (message) 27 posts, Newbee

Your flowers look really amazing. Right now in the flower district in NYC — the carnations are 25 stems for $9 to $12 — depending on the variety, day, availability.

So I would say that is pretty good! Roses you get about half that many stems for the same price!

6/2/10 @ 7:08 pm (reply)