You can easily make your own silk wedding bouquets with the use of this clever BOUQUET HANDLE.  This handle is white plastic, tube shaped for an easy grip, and filled with Oasis dry/silk floral foam.  Just stick the stems in the handle, wrap in ribbon, and you are on your way down the aisle!

Celebrity Wedding Flowers

Step 1:

Assemble the silk flowers you would like to use, along with wire cutters, white craft glue, scissors, ruler, rubber bands or masking tape.

Step 2:

Measure up 5 inches from the bottom of each stem of the silk flowers, and cut off this portion using the wire cutters.

Save all of the 5" stem pieces. (These will be added to the bottom of the holder).

Step 3:

Gather together the flowers you will be using so that it looks like the finished bouquet. The bottoms of the stems will stick out at all different lengths if you are angling flowers to make a cascade bouquet, or are making a round bouquet with side flowers shorter and center flowers taller. This is OK. Gripping the stems of the flowers in one hand, wrap rubber bands (or tape with masking tape) right above where you are holding all the stems together. Set the bundle of flowers aside, and unwrap your BOUQUET HOLDER.

Step 4:

You are going to put the flowers in the TOP of the bouquet holder.  The top has foam which extends up and out of the tube. Begin by spreading white craft glue across the green foam on the top of the bouquet handle.  This glue will help anchor heavier stems to the foam when you insert them.  Please do not use "school glue". "School glue" has a lot of water added and it will not hold stems firmly.

Step 5:

Pick up the bundle of flowers, and measure 2" BELOW (towards the stem ends) the rubber bands or masking tape. The masking tape or rubber bands you put on will be the baseline of the bouquet, flush with the edge of the tube, and you need about 2" of stem on each flower to push into the foam.  Using the wire cutters, trim the flower stems to 2" longer than where the rubber band or masking tape is, so that you will  have the 2" extra length to push into the foam.  Save the excess stem portions, you may need these later to finish the base.

Step 6:

Lay your bundle of flowers down, and carefully cut the masking tape or rubber bands so that the flowers can be laid out on the table.  You will start by inserting stems into the middle of the foam, working your way outward towards the outer edges of the bouquet holder.  The white glue on the foam will help anchor the stems into the foam. To finish the bouquet, remove some of the left over leaves from the unused stem pieces and add them around the outside of the bouquet to hide the wires and stems.

Step 7:

To finish the bottom of the bouquet, insert the 5" stem pieces you saved into the bottom of the BOUQUET HOLDER. Start by going around the outside rim first. If you run out of 5" stem pieces (which may happen with smaller silk flower stems) you can cut more stem pieces from the discarded leaves & stems pile to fill in the middle. The middle stems will be hidden, so if you  have to fill in with no matching stem pieces, no one will know!  We like to dip the end of the stem into the white craft glue right before inserting it into the foam. The foam is designed to hold silk and dried flowers, but with the amount of handling a wedding bouquet can take, the glue can be a little extra help to keep the stems in place.

And with that, you are done!  For best results, give the glue 24 hours to dry completely before handling the bouquet. You can stand the bouquet up in a bucket or vase or tall jar to support it while it dries.

As a final touch, use the white craft glue to attach ribbons or fabric strips to cover the bouquet handle. You can even cut strips of fabric to match your bridesmaid dresses to cover the handles of their bouquets.

And, guess what? You are your own floral designer!  Have fun with this, and visit our ebay store at Celebrity Wedding Flowers to look at finished bouquets for ideas making your own wedding bouquets.  We have the BOUQUET HOLDERS and lots of silk flowers in stock, just visit our "Silk Flowers, Bulk" and "Florist Supplies" sections in our eBay store.

Best Wishes on your wedding, and happy FLORAL DESIGNING!