DIY: Fall Wedding Bouquets

If you're having a fall wedding, I suggest using flowers in warm colors such as red, orange, peach, brown, purple, yellow, dark pink, black or near black, burgundy and green. Types of flowers for fall that you could use would be Roses (which come in a variety of colors), calla lily, daffodil, tulip, marigolds, sunflowers, dahlia, mini-calla lily, hydrangea, holly, iris, narcissus, and there are other options that you can choose from as well.

Three of my choices for bouquets for fall would be 1) Roses and Calla Lily; 2) Sunflowers, Marigolds, and Dahlia; and 3) Tulips, Calla Lily and Iris. These are just my choices as you can choose any combination you would like to make your bouquet beautiful.

A general list of materials for any bouquet is, bouquet holder with floral foam, floral wrap, ribbon, floral wire and cutters, stick pins, scissors, stems of greenery and leaves, glue gun with glue stick's, and a cool place to store your bouquets such as a refrigerator! Make sure you soak your bouquet holder with floral foam in water for a few hours before making your bouquet to keep your flowers fresh when you put them into it.

Bouquet 1: Roses and Calla Lilies

I suggest a combination of 20-25 roses in two different colors, and around 10-15 calla lilies. Decide how tall you would like your flowers to sit when stick them into the floral foam; I would most likely make the roses a little shorter than the calla lilies so that the calla lilies stick up a little taller in the bouquet. Decide how you would like to design your bouquet and after you have decided you can stick your flower stems into the floral foam. Next you can take leaves or greenery and fill in between your flowers and around the outside edges of the bouquet to give it a finished look. Next take the floral wrap and wrap the handle of the bouquet starting at the top (use glue gun to glue end to the handle), and wrapping down in a spiral motion, then back up the handle and once again gluing the end to the handle! After that you will take your ribbon and wrap it the same way as the floral wrap to cover it up and give your bouquet a nice finished look. Use stick pins to push the ribbon edges up into the floral wrap to secure them.

Bouquet 2: Sunflowers, Marigold, and Dahlia

This one I would say around 3-5 sunflowers, 8-10 marigolds, and 10-15 dahlia's. This bouquet I would create without a bouquet holder. The sunflower being the biggest and therefore the center of attention on this flower will be sure to catch everyone's eye on this beautiful bouquet. Arrange the marigolds, dahlias and some greenery/leaves around your sunflowers to accentuate them. For this one you will need to use floral wire to secure your stems together. Since you will be using floral wire make sure not to skip wrapping the whole base of the stems in floral wrap so that the wire does not scratch your hands or snag and tear your dress. After you have done that you can then wrap the ribbon around the floral wrap to finish off your bouquet.

Bouquet 3: Tulips, Calla Lilies and Iris

For my final bouquet I would say 6-8 tulips, 15-20 calla lily, and 8 to 10 iris, I would also not use a bouquet holder for this bouquet. This bouquet I would make the calla lilies the focal point, therefore I would take the tulips and iris, with some greenery and leaves and fill in between the calla lilies. If the stems seem too fragile and you want to make sure not to break them, you can wrap each individual weak stem with floral wrap to make them stronger. After you have done that and designed your bouquet the way you would like it, then you can take floral wire and wire all the stems together, making sure to once again use floral wrap to wrap around the stems and wire to keep from snagging on anything. After you have finished this you can take your ribbon and finish off this beautiful fall bouquet.

Make sure to store you bouquet's in someplace cool, I would suggest making them the night before the wedding to keep them fresh and wonderful looking for you big day! Listed below are some websites to check into for some other ideas and tips.

http://www.reception-wedding.com/fall_wedding_flowers.htm

http://www.flowershopnetwork.com/pages/newsletter/NewsletterSeptember2006.php

http://weddings.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Fall_Wedding_Flowers

http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-flowers/articles/homemade-bouquets-basics.aspx