Do it yourself $5 wedding corsages and boutonnieres
By Elizabeth's mom
Elizabeth's mom loves to garden in her spare time. She made corsages and boutonnières for the ushers and a few relatives at Elizabeth's wedding. Today, she shares with us how she did it for less than $5 each.
Editor's disclosure: Shiny Orb, a search site for bridesmaids dresses, receives no form of compensation from Elizabeth's mom...except for the occasional meal or two.
In arranging your own flowers, you can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. In this post, I'll talk about how I designed and assembled 15 corsages/boutonnieres in under 15 minutes each. Note, because most of the assembly occurs 2 days before the wedding, you should definitely ask your friends/family for help.
1. Decide the colors of the corsage/boutonniere flowers.
- I used different colors for different guests, but most people would probably prefer to use the same colors, particularly if you are assembling boutonnieres for your groomsmen and ushers, so they all match.
2. After picking colors, decide what flowers will be available and will look great in these colors for your big day.
- Baby roses and carnations are available year round and are great flowers to use.
- I used roses with some sprigs of ferns and baby's breath for Elizabeth's wedding. (See photo #1, 2, 3)
3. Buy supplies.
- You can buy any of the following from a local crafts store or online. I bought most of my supplies from a Michaels' store.
- Corsage pins (often craft stores have a "wedding supply area" -- check there first). Buy 2 pins per corsage/boutonniere.
- Floral tape. Comes in white or green. You'll need 4ft per corsage/boutonniere.
- Florist wire, 20 gauge. Look in floral arrangement aisle or jewelry stringing area. You'll need 7 inches per corsage/boutonniere. (See photo #4)
- (Optional) Spools of ribbon. Decide on transparent or opaque, on color(s) and on width: they tend to come in 5/8 inch, 7/8 inch, 3/8 inch, ¼ inch. I chose blue and white ribbon. (See photo #5) I used about 3 feet of ribbon per boutonniere/corsage but you can probably get by with less. Because you'll be using the ribbon purely for decoration and not for any utility, you can also create corsages/boutonnieres without any ribbon. (See photo #2)
4. Optional -- start assembling your flower ribbon bunches -- can be done months in advance
- If you decide to use a ribbon bunch for each corsage/boutonniere (See photo #1), you'll need one ribbon bunch per corsage/boutonniere. You can make these in advance and set them aside until a couple days before your wedding. However, if you decide not to add a ribbon bunch, feel free to skip this step altogether.
- If you use two colors of ribbon like I did, e.g. blue ribbon, wider in width, with white ribbon, thinner in width. Place them on top of each other. Fold the ribbons back and forth. (See photo #6)
- Scrunch the ribbons at one end and coil the florist wire to secure the end. (See photo #7, #8)
5. Buy flowers locally -- ideally 2 days before the wedding
- I bought flowers (roses) from a local farmers market. You can also see if there are flower/plant outlets near where you live. For those of you who are in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are great places in San Francisco or Half Moon Bay. Costco can also be a good backup source for flowers. Check if a Costco near you gets their flowers daily or only on certain days.
- Also, buy some sprigs of fern leaves and baby's breath or other small flowers to complement your main flowers. (See photo #1)
- For a Saturday wedding, try to buy on Thursday.
- If possible, keep your flowers in a vase filled with water in a refrigerator.
6. Assemble the corsages/boutonnieres the day before the wedding
- (Optional) Find those ribbon bunches you made a while back.
- Use the free ends of the wire to anchor 1 fern leaf (or equivalent) and 2 flowers (I used baby rose buds) to the ribbon bunch in a pretty position.
- Wrap the floral tape around the end of the flower, fern and ribbon "arrangement". To do this, place the free end of the tape at the base of your arrangement. Wind and wrap the tape down the length of the floral stems, make a "U" around the tip to cover stems,tightly wrap in circular motion till you reach the base of arrangement. Tear off the floral tape, leaving a little extra of tape, and cover any exposed parts at the base with more tape.
- Stick two corsage pins to stem. Store the corsage/boutonniere in refrigerator, in a container with lid.
