DIY Retro Style Bridesmaid Bouquet

The inspiration for making my Retro Bridesmaid Bouquet came from this site. Retro doesn't have to mean using "old" colors like red& black or cream and white. I used several shades of purple and blue in making this bouquet. You can use any color that you like. I chose to use faux flowers for this bouquet. The craft store will give you a lot of options as far as colors to use from. Using faux floral is a good idea for DIY wedding crafter. If you are the bride or in the wedding, you'll be so busy that you won't have time to mess with fresh flowers the day of or even the day before. Use high quality faux floral and you can make all of the floral arrangements weeks or months ahead.

Time required: This bouquet is fairly simple and should only take 15 min to make each bouquet.

Materials:

Flowers: I used faux flowers bought at the craft store. I spent about $1.50 per bunch of flowers for a total of about $10.00 per bouquet. Watch your newspaper for coupons for 40% a regular priced item or 20% off your total purchase. These coupons will help you a lot when you are having a DIY wedding.

Ribbon: About a yard per bouquet for wrapping the stems and making a bow on top

Brooch: This is where the retro element is brought in. Try to find brooches made of clear rhinestones or other faux gems that will go with your wedding colors.

Additional materials: scissors, rubber bands, wire cutters, needle and coordinating thread to go with your ribbon.

Assembling the bouquet:
1. Gather your flowers together and with the rubber bands, bind them together. Take your scissors or wire cutters and cut your systems to the desired lengths. Put another rubber band on the stems to secure the flowers even more.

2. Wrap the stems with ribbon. I used a wider ribbon to make a nice band. I then sewed the ribbon on. I tucked in the raw edge and did a whip stitch to secure it on there. You could do this step with a glue gun if you wanted to.

3. Tie a coordinating piece of ribbon or the same ribbon used for wrapping the stems to the top of the bouquet.

4. Take the brooch and secure to the top of the bouquet stem. You don't want it to be too high that it won't be noticeable. You might need to play with the placement a little to get just the write spot on the stems.