Blooms a-plenty

I have 3 out of 7 bouquets completed. POW! (Anyone seen Stepbrothers? Yeah, you know PO-POW!)

If you remember my flowers, these babies will look very familiar:

The flash really washed out the color, they are really a very rich eggplant.

And here are the white roses for the bridesmaids' bouquets:

And the white peonies for my bouquet (a few will go in MoH's bouquet as well):

Oh, my sweet peonies, how I love you. Look at those full, beautiful blooms.
I heart peonies.

Anyways... I decided to start working on my bouquets home instead of waiting to knock them out in one day. Partially for my own sanity, working on these had been a stress reliever. It has also helped me to get started in working through my mountainous list... ladies I have 152 days left until my wedding. Um eek?

So I arranged my bouquet in my hand... pretty much just until it looked pretty and not too contrived and then wrapped that sucker up in good old fashioned floral tape.

I also put some of my ribbon around the bottom to cover the ends of the stems.

Then I went at it with the dark purple ribbon. This ribbon is fantastic, by the way. It is deep purple and the edges are even darker. I found them on sale at Michael's and have since gone back and bought them out.

Fold the edge of the ribbon under and secure with corsage pins.

Jeeez, I love those peonies.

I think I did a pretty good job. This only took me one try and I don't think I could have done any better.

*sigh*

The next two that I did gave me a few problems (that's why I only have three done) and I ran out of ribbon (that's why I went to Michael's and bought all they had). And the heads started to pop off the anemones (the purple flowers), but luckily...

I am armed with mighty hot glue gun.
(this is what happens when BF works late and I play with the camera by myself)

In any case, I present to you *drum rolllllll* Bridesmaid Bouquet #1:

And Junior Bridesmaid Bouquet for BF's ten year old niece:

Wow, the anemone's look really dark here. Hehe, I heart them. The Junior Bridesmaid bouquet is just a little smaller than the bridesmaids.

There they are together for scale.


And the backs. I didn't do as well with the corsage pins... in fact that one has too many. I will have to redo that.

I have three more regular bouquets to go along with MoH's bouquet which will have peonies and roses along with the anemones.

I hope my girls like them, cause I sure do!

Whew! What a great post! I am glad that I decided to DIY my own silk flowers. It is incredibly satisfying to make something that is so simple and beautiful and will be such a center of attention on the big day. :)

-Bo. J.