Weddingbee Blog

I have given very little thought to flowers. In fact, I don’t have any flower inspiration pictures saved anywhere. I really like them, they are pretty and smell nice, but I just can’t get excited enough to drop  big money on them. For myself, the moms, and maybe the ‘maids (still undecided on them), I am planning on going to the grocery store on Friday or Saturday morning and bunching up some flowers. I don’t think that I can do what a florist could do, but I know I can do something that’s good enough for me.

For the men-folk, I have had my mind made up on their florals since wayyyy back in July when the lovely Ms. (now Mrs.) Ferris Wheel wrote this post. I was totally sold. I didn’t give the  bouts another thought until a few weeks ago when I decided to tackle this project for myself.

One thing Mrs. Ferris Wheel didn’t say was how easy she made it look! While it wasn’t hard per se, it was rather tedious and I got blisters on my fingers from hot glue burns and wire twisting! But the end result, after only a few swears, was very much worth it!

Here are my “wonky” looking ribbon circles. One thing I messed up on was not cutting the ribbon long enough to begin with. Then when I gathered it, it turned into more of a wad than a ruffly circle. Oh well. You live and learn.

Instead of tissue paper balls, I used buttons, beads, and sometimes little bunches of tulle for my flower middles. Once I got them all assembled I bunched them into a bouquet and pranced around the house. (I like to give Mr. Aardvark ample opportunity for eye rolling.) 

When I was done prancing, I made little piles based on the flower size and color and then sorted them into boutonnières or pin on corsages. Being the special kind of crazy I am, I wanted to create categories. Mr. Aardvark got a special unique one just for him. The groomsmen all got one big green flower and a small grey one. The ushers all got single large blue or green flowers. The dads have more or less matching bouts and the corsages for the grandmas all coordinate. In theory, you could identify a person’s role in the wedding based on their corsage or boutonnière. (While this makes me very happy, it also makes me feel a little cray cray.)

Without further ado…the groom’s and groomsmen’s flowers!

I may do some slight tweaks. But I am very happy with how they came out!

As a side note, this is the first time I have seen all of the many wedding colors together. I was a bit worried at first when I went from “Navy and light green” to “navy, light green, bright pink, yellow, grey, light blue, maybe some brown a dash of white, silver, and oh! how about copper?” You can see how I got carried away with color, but I am so pleased with how happy and springy and fun they look!

Are DIYing any flower substitutes? Has being a bride made you new kinds of crazy? How did you keep your color story in check? Or did you let it run wild?