DIY Wedding Flowers: The Arrangements

Now that you’ve been lectured sufficiently informed about where your innocent-looking flowers actually come from, I thought we’d move onto the fun part: pretty pictures!

For those of you who missed my last post, my Mom and I had the opportunity to DIY the flowers for a family friend’s wedding a couple of weeks ago and it was super fun and very interesting!  My Mom planned and handled the whole thing, so my role was to go along for the ride, be my opinionated self, and play with flowers 🙂  I’ve already shared the story of where we got our flowers and why we chose to go with a local and organic source, and in future posts I’ll talk about the bouquets and all of the logistics and tips to think about when taking on DIY wedding flowers.  But to make sure things get really pretty right away, today I’m going to share all about the arrangements that we made – the table centerpieces, aisle markers, big statement pieces, and sweet accents.

We definitely had a lot to make – this was a good sized wedding!  I’m not positive how many people attended, but there were 18 tables and a big tent to fill with blooms.  Fortunately, the venue (Curtis Farm in NH) didn’t need much help from us.

It was really a beautiful place to spend a few days, with grassy fields and a farm feel (and even some real farm animals which we had fun visiting with).  It also has a great view over fields, forest, and hills, which is particularly amazing as the sun sets.

However, just because the place was pretty already, didn’t mean that we were going to slack off with the flowers!  We planned enough for some great arrangements, and I’m thrilled with how they turned out.

DIY Wedding Flowers: The Large Arrangements

We wanted the flowers to feel opulent and plentiful, so we planned for a pair of large arrangements that we would get double use out of – flanking the arbor where the ceremony was held and decorating the tent on the buffet tables.  (It was super easy to move them after the ceremony – more on this tip in my next post.)  My Mom took the lead on making these and they came out great!

We used tall tins to go with the farm/rustic look of the wedding.  My Mom got little paint buckets to put in the bottom of them to hold water because they were pretty leaky.

Making large arrangements work is not easy, but we did our research and followed a few key tips.  Most importantly, we used chicken wire in the bottom of the vases to help the arrangements hold their shape.  I picked up a roll for like $12 at the local hardware store.

We just used wire cutters to cut out a section of the chicken wire about twice as large in diameter as the vase.  It is highly recommended that you wear heavy gloves while doing this (the wire is quite sharp) but totally optional to take awkward photos to share on the internet.

Once you have the piece cut, just bend it into a half-sphere and wedge it down into the bottom of the vase.

This gives you a lot more control over the shape of the arrangement as you build it and helps the branches stay in place, so you can build it out like a sculpture.

My mom started by placing the greens to define the shape of the arrangement.  From there she started adding in the main/statement flowers.

Then she added in the accents and contrasting colors.

Its important to keep adding until things feel really opulent and overflowing.  The last thing you want is for the arrangements to look skimpy.

I love how these came out!

The two are slightly different, and feature white and yellow lilies, dark and light blue delphinium, light blue hydrangea, and white snap dragons.  The greens and pretty little white flowers are cut from a neighbor’s viburnum bushes and another bush in my Mom’s yard.  In all, we used about 28 stems for each arrangement (I’ll get more into the budgeting/allocating of flowers in my next post).

They really popped in the white tent!  We had them on the buffet tables where everyone could see them.

We also used them to flank the arbor for the ceremony.

We put them on top of some crates I had bought a while ago to add more height and add to the farm vibe.

They really added a lot of brightness and life!

DIY Wedding Flowers: Aisle Markers

A last minute addition to our plan was to make aisle markers (those arrangements that hang on hooks along the aisle).  My Mom took the lead on these, as well, and these arrangements were my favorites out of the whole day!

We drew on Pinterest for inspiration, of course.  From our group board we knew that we liked these to feature a few large blooms and some greens.

We were very lucky that Curtis Farm had supplies that we could use, and these included the metal hooks and mason jars already tied with twine.   We planned for eight aisle markers (four for each side) with about eight stems each, pretty heavy on the greens.  Here is what we set aside:

We used white peonies, allium, and cuts of viburnum bushes for greens and the little white flowers.  (I’m not sure what the little pink flowers are – does anyone know? Updated: they’re Wax Flowers – thanks, Jude!)

Much like with the large arrangements, my mom started by building out the greens and adding the “wow” flowers (the peonies).

She then added in the accents and pops of color to complete the look.  Again, the goal was for them to look overflowing and plentiful, so we aired on the side of more stems of flowers for each container, rather than less.

I don’t know exactly what it is about these arrangements, but I love them so much!  The colors are simple and great for a wedding, and the high proportion of green and use of little/casual looking flowers keeps them feeling easy-going.  They’re definitely loose, rather than packed with dense/space-filling blooms.

We also picked up some lavender ribbon (purple was one of the wedding colors) to decorate the hooks.  To keep with the simple vibe we just tied a long strand on with simple knot, rather than some complex bow concoction.

From there, it was a simple matter of hanging the flowers (and securing them upright with a bit of green floral wire).

I love the colors against the sea of white chairs.

They really added a lot to the ceremony area.  And I made sure to grab a couple of these bunches when I left so I could enjoy them for a couple more weeks!

DIY Wedding Flowers: Table Centerpieces

Of course, a lot of our planning was focused on the table centerpieces!  Abby and Ian through-hiked the Appalachian Trail together, and he proposed to her at the end, so this was a big feature of the wedding decor.  All of the tables were named for different states that the AT passes through, and the seating chart was a big map.  To carry that theme through to the centerpieces, they decided to spray paint hiking boots gold, fit them with a glass jar, and use those to hold the flowers.  It came out really nice!

We wanted the centerpieces to be colorful and striking, and so we used a lot of the bright and more showy flowers on these.  Each took about eight stems (same as the aisle markers) but because we used more of the bigger flowers like hydrangeas, they came out a little larger.  I think that vibrancy holds up well against the boots!

The main tip that we learned was to cut the stems on these really low.  It looked best for the flowers to begin right at the top of the boot/jar to really give the impression that the boot was the container.

In addition to the boot, each table featured a chalkboard sign with the state/table name, a map of the state, a photo of Abby and Ian on the trail in that state, and some tea lights.

It seems like a lot, but against the white tablecloths it was a really nice look!

I also love that each arrangement is different.  Buying from a local, small farm we knew that we would get more variety and have less control over the types that we got, and I think this helped with the casual atmosphere that Abby wanted.

All sorts of flowers appear throughout these, including hydrangeas, snapdragons, sunflowers, queen anne’s lace, peonies, viburnum, lilies, delphinium, etc.

DIY Wedding Flowers:  Accents

Finally, we made a bunch more small arrangements to go around the space and decorate the bar, dessert table, etc.  We put these in small mason jars, and added ribbon around the rim for an extra sweet touch.

For a wedding feel, we picked a lacy pattern for the ribbon and just secured these around the jars with a little bit of double-sided fabric tape.

We also used the ribbon-lined jars upside down throughout the space holding little electric tea lights.

These are where most of our leftover flowers ended up, so we focused less on keeping them consistent and more on making sure each was pretty in its own right.   This is also where we used flowers that got broken through the process (and so had stems too short for other arrangements).

I hope that you enjoyed seeing how these arrangements turned out!  Working with a local farm, they were definitely more varied than if we had just bulk ordered a few types from the florist, but I think this really added to the charm and casual feel.  And we had a blast making them and seeing how the different combinations came together!

Stay tuned for my Friday post to hear more of the “behind the scenes” of how this all came together (and tips for how to be successful when DIYing flowers for a wedding) and my post next week where I can show off the bouquets that we made!

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