2021 Update: My baby sister just made her own bouquet, too! Peep this link for her gorgeous winter wedding in Orlando.
If you saw my post about the lessons learned from planning a destination wedding, you already know my thoughts on being both a DIY bride and a destination bride. (It was kinda dumb!) It might’ve been easier had our Bahamas destination wedding not been an epic disaster, but here we are. Hindsight is 20/20, right?
Crafting everything at home in advance, packing it all up in SEVEN suitcases and knowing there’s no Target or Hobby Lobby in The Bahamas to pick up last minute items added an extra layer of logistics that wasn’t completely necessary. I could’ve ordered a silk flower bouquet on Etsy (there are some incredible ones!) but that was just one more thing to plan.
And, I LOVE crafts and I LOVE travel, so leaving one or the other out would’ve been disingenuous to the glue gun-toting, passport wielding woman I am.
DIY Fake Flower Wedding Bouquets – the how-to guide!
Would I do it again? Not on your life. But I am happy with the results!
In my earnest bridal quest to DIY everything I could get my hands on for the wedding, I began to think about making the bridal bouquets for my maid of honor and me. Aside from plopping supermarket roses in a vase, I don’t have much other flower arranging experience, so I wasn’t sure if that would be biting off more than I could chew. (I could say that about almost everything wedding related!)
However, when the florist’s estimate for two – yes, 2 – bouquets tallied almost $500, the decision to DIY became very clear. (Especially knowing that due to customs regulations, I wouldn’t even be able to bring them back to the U.S. as a keepsake.)
Throwing away $500? No, thanks.
In the grand scheme of wedding planning details and priorities, the bouquet, and really flowers in general, were not at the top of my list anyhow. That’s one benefit to getting married on a beautiful beach like Treasure Cay. You don’t have to decorate it too much as the white sand and turquoise sea are embellishment enough.
Like any good crafter, I did some Pinterest research and watched a few YouTube videos to get an idea of supplies I might need for the project. And then I shopped!
What you need to make DIY fake flower wedding bouquets
- Silk flowers (I used a mix of peonies, hydrangeas and dusty miller)
- Floral tape
- Glue gun
- Wire cutters
- Ribbon, burlap or whatever decorative fabric you’d like to wrap the stems in
I searched for the perfect flowers for weeks and ended up finding blooms at Hobby Lobby, Michaels and surprisingly, Walmart. I knew I wanted peonies and a subtle mix of coral, teal, peach and pink, so I just snagged a few pretty blooms in those shades anytime I was out.
I ended up with peach peonies, white magnolias and hydrangeas, silvery green dusty miller and some other pinkish flower that might not be a real species, but it fit the aesthetic so I used it.
One afternoon, I gathered all the goodies around me on the floor, planning for hours of bouquet crafting. I was concurrently disappointed and proud when it took less than an hour for both bouquets. It could not have been easier!
It was one of the easiest and cheapest DIY craft projects I did for the whole wedding.
How to Make Your Own Fake Flower Wedding Bouquet
STEP 1: Trim excess leaves off each flower except for one or two nearest the bloom.
STEP 2: Choose between 2 and 4 flowers to serve as the base and tape together, wrapping the floral tape around the stems
STEP 3: Build the bouquet stem by stem, turning and taping as you go, until you get to a desirable size. It’s totally up to you how big or small the bouquet is.
STEP 4: Wrap the stems collectively in one last layer of floral tape for extra stability. Trim the bottom of the stems to your desired length with wire cutters.
STEP 5: Heat up that glue gun and glue the burlap evenly around the stems. Wrap once or twice and secure with a thin layer of hot glue. Embellish as desired!
TIME TO COMPLETE: 30 minutes per bouquet, depending on your own skills and perfectionist tendencies
COST: Approximately $50 for the large bouquet and $30 for the smaller one. I saved more than $400 on the quoted florist rate.
The bouquets were so easy to make, I could’ve brought the raw materials to The Bahamas and done it onsite. (Well, maybe I couldn’t have due to the other wedding circumstances, but other folks dealing with a non-criminal wedding venue probably could!)
It was nice though that they were ready to go and we didn’t have to wait on a delivery or have them picked up the day of.
No surprises, for a welcome change.
Are fresh flowers prettier? Debatable. They certainly do smell nicer than the fake. But on our insane wedding day, I never noticed a difference. I did not, in fact, have a moment to stop and smell the roses on my wedding day!
DIY isn’t always cheaper and sometimes it turns out like a hot mess, but in this case, the bouquets came out perfectly.
And now, the bouquets live in our happy new house as a reminder of our crazy wedding day.
So tell me what you think about the DIY fake flower wedding bouquet! Could you tell I made them? Would you attempt to make your own?
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*We did enlist the services of a local Abaco florist, Melinda Pinder from Buds N Blooms, for boutonnieres and corsages for the wedding party, parents and grandparents. Buds N Blooms also provided our pretty arch on the beach. Originally we were supposed to have peach & pink flower petals scattered in the sand, Melinda called an audible at the last minute due to the high winds and switched us up to a conch-shell lined aisle. Smart move! We didn’t receive any discounts for Melinda’s services, we just want you to know if you’re getting married in Abaco, she was lovely to work with and provided everything requested!
