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DIY: Floral Centerpieces

This is my 110 step process (okay maybe a few less) to making my centerpieces for my recent wedding but it could be used to create beautiful arrangements for your home or any special occasion.

It was also featured as a Project of the Week on Weddingbee.com

For my centerpieces I wanted to include cream roses, champagne garden roses & gold pears. Since I’m cheap and crafty I decided to do them myself. It seemed like a good idea since I have no experience with flower arranging – but what can I say I’m a DIY daredevil. Besides it’s not like these were going to be front and center on the biggest day of my life with over 100 friends and family present…oh wait…

Anyhow with no backup plan in place I began. I chose mint julep cups because we live in Louisville and it’s a nod to the Derby plus they had the vintage feel which coordinated with our venue.

The Finished Product:

HOW THEY CAME TO BE:

Mint Julep Cups:

STEP 1:
Bought them in bulk in two sizes 4.25 inches & 7.5 inches. They had 10″ as well but once
I put the flowers in them I worried that they’d be too tall and block conversation.

STEP 2:
Attached gold and satin ribbon to them and tied a bow.*
(Click pics for links to supplies)

*Easier said than done due to the shape & the finish on the cups – they had to be tied,
then hot glued, then the bow was tied and hot glued again to keep them from slipping…ugg.

GOLDEN PEARS:

Initially I thought I could buy these some place (how foolish of me) but could only find glass
pears which didn’t really work. So I had to create my own.

STEP 1:
I bought mini syrofoam pears from Hobby Lobby (I got 10 pkgs of 12 each).

STEP 2:
I enlisted the help of my little sister.

STEP 3:
We used thread to tie slip-knots around the stems of the pears so we could hang
them from a cord to spray paint them. We used two colors of gold spraypaint.

NOTE: Use different lengths so that the pears don’t
bump into each other when they’re hanging.

STEP 4:
We set up two stakes in our back yard and tied a cord between them
and then looped the thread around it It took some precision to keep them
from getting tangled (sorry no pics).

It’s very messy! To get the bottoms we had to hold them so they
wouldn’t move when we sprayed them.

STEP 5:
Once they’re dry cut them down and remove the strings.

STEP 6:
Add floral wire to the bottom so they can be included in your arrangements.
I didn’t even glue the wire, I just stuck it in. If you want to make sure they
don’t pop off add a small amount of glue to the end of the floral wire.

FLOWERS:

STEP 1:
I ordered 400 cream vendela roses from FlowersandFreshness.com and
72 champagne garden roses from TheFlowerExchange.com

STEP 2:
Strip all the leaves and thorns off the flowers and put them in water so they can
open (most will look small when you first get them but they’ll open up with p
roper hydration). I used buckets I got from Home Depot.

NOTE: Be sure to BUY ONE OF THESE FLORAL STRIPPERS!!
I didn’t and it took forever because I had to use a utility knife because
I couldn’t find one locally (no craft stores had them).
Also get a pair of rubber gloves.

STEP 3:
Prep the vases. I bought WET floral foam (make sure it’s not styrofoam for
fake floral arrangements) and cut it to fit the vases (leave a little room at the top
so you can’t see the foam from the sides – it doesn’t have to fit perfectly).

STEP 4:
Arrange the flowers.

I’d already done a test run so I knew how many flowers would make each
vase look full (around 7 regular roses for the small vases and 19 regular
roses & 5 garden roses for the large ones) but I still needed to figure out how
long to cut them and how to arrange them so they had a nice dome shape.

It took some trial and error and one minor meltdown but I had help
and we got thru all the arrangements in about 3 hours.