My sister was married in August and little did I know that I would discover my mad florist skills the day before the wedding. By chance, my sister met a rose farmer and was able to secure 350 roses at a great price in time for her wedding. With the edition of some contrasting freesias and some eucalyptus foliage, I made bouquets for the bride and bridesmaids and eleven table flower arrangements in low vases. Best Bridesmaid ever! One caveat though – I spent close to 12 hours in total creating all the arrangements; there’s a reason why the florists are professionals.

Here is what you’ll to make a bouquet yourself:

• 30-40 roses, peonies or other large-headed flowers per bouquet
• 1 bunch of complimentary flowers per bouquet
• contrasting foliage
• 2 buckets and water
• towel
• rubbish bin
• sharp heavy-duty scissors
• florist tape
• medium-width satin ribbon (try 25mm)
• florist pins

Optional: rose de-thorner, cotton gloves, gaffer duct tape, stemmed diamantes (bouquetjewels), adhesive pearl and diamante jewel strips

Step 1 – prep
Add a small amount of water to the bottom of the two buckets. Place all the flowers in one bucket. Lay an old town on the table. Pull the florist’s tape to get it started and keep at hand.

Step 2 – de-thorning
Prepare each flower by removing leaves from below the head, removing thorns with scissors and cutting stems to the same length (about forearm’s length). Place prepped flowers into the empty bucket.

Step 3 – starting a bouquet
Remove gloves for greater dexterity. Take 3 roses and 1 stem of complimentary flowers and hold them together firmly in your hand, heads touching.

Step 4 – adding flowers
One-by-one, add a rose stem to the arrangement in your hand, fitting the rose head in the natural space created between two proceeding roses. Continue to hold the arrangement tightly, barely letting go as you fit in each rose.

Step 5 – forming the bouquet
After each rose is placed, hold the bouquet away from you and view from the top to ensure that the shape is round and the flowers are evenly spaced. Add complimentary flowers when required. Try to keep the height of the flowers relatively even.

Step 6 – add foliage
Once you have reached the desired shape, add stems of foliage around the bouquet in the same manner as for the roses until you achieve a balance when viewed from above. If there are any flowers that sit too high in the bouquet, attempt to pull the stem of the flower down from the bottom to maintain an even height for all flowers.

Step 7 – secure the bouquet
Keeping hold tightly, carefully wind florists tape very tightly in intervals around the stem, starting from the top. If you start a bit too high with the tape, don’t worry as you won’t notice the green tape. You can also use gaffer duct tape in the middle section where it won’t be seen. Cut the stems to the desired length, ensuring they are cut are evenly at the bottom.

Step 8 – adding ribbon
Wind the ribbon from the top of the bouquet (about 3 finger-widths down from the bouquet head) down to the end of the tape (about 3 finger-widths from the stem ends), then wind the ribbon back on top of itself to the top, keeping each overlapping width of ribbon even. Fix the ribbon at the top with foliage pins. Optional: you can now add a bow or adhesive jewel or pearl strip to the ribbon. You can also choose to add flower jewels to the bouquet by poking the wire stems throughout the bouquet head.

Step 9 – keeping them fresh
Place the bouquet back into a small amount of water in a tall bucket (tall enough to hold the bouquet without it falling over – it will be quite heavy). The bouquet may change shape slightly as the flowers continue to open. When ready to use, dry the stem ends thoroughly with a cloth or paper towel to ensure that the water does not mark the gowns.

And there you have it! Instant (or not-so-instant) DIY bouquets. Immensely satisfying and budget-friendly, but not for the stressed or faint-hearted!

Images: weddingideasaustralia.com.au. Top image: poeticimages.com.au