make your own wedding bouquet
To make your own wedding bouquet, be sure to treat the flowers as a professional florist would. These means processing your wholesale flowers with a few products that can greatly extend the life of your flowers.
Needed Supplies and Flowers:
- Grande Belle Slanted Handle Bouquet Holder
- Weighted Vase
- Finishing Touch Sealant
- Floralock Stem Adhesive
- Crystal Clear Fresh Flower Food
- Florist Knife
- 18 white roses
- 9 stems white stock
Roses come packed in bunches of 25. They will arrive in heavy cardboard boxes and packed with ice bags. It's very important that you (or someone else) be home to bring in the delivered flowers immediately and get them into water as soon as possible. You can learn how to process your flowers correctly by following the same steps as professional florists.
Wash your hands, as the oils from your fingers can transfer to flower petals and allow bacteria to grow. Carefully unroll your flowers, taking care to treat them gently. Expect a broken flower head or two, or browned petals. These are live products that have traveled a great way to be delivered straight to your door.
Have a short vase or juice glass available to put any broken stems for use with corsage or boutonnieres work.
I always treat my water with a professional flower food such as Crystal Clear by Floralife. Since your flowers are a live product, you need to fulfill both the need for nourishment and water.
Always re-cut your flower stems UNDER WATER. If you dived into a pool and surfaced, you would immediately inhale a breath of air. Flowers, however, have been out of water for almost 24 hours or more. Their first "gulp" should be water - not air - as an air bubble could travel up the stem and block the flower head from receiving water. This is often the cause of dropping heads seen at discount stores or groceries that don't process their flower bouquets properly.
I use a flower rehydrator, such as Quick Dip, that hastens the uptake of water quickly. This helps rehydrate the dry pack rose or other flowers.
Don't be alarmed to see bruised or torn petals on the outside. These guard petals are left intentionally at the farm to protect the inner petals of the rose. Just peel off any damaged rose until the flower looks good.
The rose head should look good and will open up more as it warms. The petals should feel firm and tight to the rose stem.
Stock flower is a favorite of mine. It has a heavenly spicy scent and makes any bouquet design smell wonderful.
The flowers need to be allowed to hydrate for a couple of hours before designing to have plenty of time to open to their full beauty. Don't be alarmed if they look "wilted" . . . this tightly pressed flower simply needs time to rehydrate. Spread the stems apart so they can open fully and not be touching each other.
Single stems of stock flower can be cut into shorter pieces before you make your own wedding bouquet.
