Wedding Flower Bouquets
This bouquet is a short and simple for a stylish design is by Smithers Oasis. For more in depth (step by step photos) check out my more detailed flower tutorials.
You'll need the following supplies
- 1 Grand Straight Handled Belle Holder
- Finishing Touch flower sealant
- 7 - 8 Standard Calla lilies
- 4 -5 Green Button Chrysanthemum
- 8 - 10 Ranunculus Stems
- Silver Diamond Wire
- Crystal Clear Flower Food
Belle bouquet holders are available both in white and clear handles. This design needs a Grande straight bouquet holder.
Always soak bouquet holders in water treated with flower food. It's easy to skip this step, but remember that flowers are living plants. They need food and water just like any other living thing. Feed your bulk wedding flowers and give them a continuous water supply and they'll live longer.
Oasis Diamond wire is a way to decorate the handle that is impervious to water damage.
Using cool melt glue, wrap your bouquet holder with the diamond wire in your choice of color. You can either use floral clay or cool melt glue to anchor the wire to the bouquet holder. Cool melt, however, becomes brittle in refrigeration. I prefer flower clay or floral adhesive (which is designed to hold fast even in when refrigerated) to hot or cool glue.
Diamond wire is easy to bend and manipulate with your hands and is popular as a decorative accent in wedding designs.
I have a different tutorial that shows step by step how to wind the wire around the handle and keep it in place.
After you have the handle wired, start by filling in one side of the bouquet holder with button chrysanthemums. Create a tight cluster, with the flower heads overlapping a bit.
Fill in the opposite side with short cut ranunculus blooms. Leave and opening on both sides to cluster in calla lilies on both sides, with the stems going down the handle on both sides. Let the calla lily heads extend above the shorter button poms and ranunculus
I'm going to be honest. This designer overlayed the stems of the callla down OVER the handle (not in the foam) as you see in the picture below. Apparently there isn't room in the bouquet holder for the large calla stems.
Callas, however, are VERY water loving. I would urge that you consider using a large Gala bouquet holder and fit the Callas into the holder. It would make winding the wire down the handle harder - but would give much needed substance to the fresh flowers. As a florist - this is ALWAYS my first concern.
Tuck your button mums in between the calla stems, keeping everything tight and snug.
If you decided to use the Belle holder instead of the Galal, you now wrap additional diamond wire around the calla stems, leaving the stems to extend down below the wire wrapped bouquet holder handle. Insert more button mums in between the stems on the callas and into the florist foam.
The final design finishes with the calla heads above with the mums and ranunculus clustered around the base. Mist well with Finishing Touch or Crowning Glory. Take care to to keep this calla wedding bouquet in water so the calla get constant nourishment until needed for the wedding.
