Lessons

Lesson Info

Arranging an Attendant Bouquet

Shall we start building do you ladies have any questions for me? Are you done with your prep what should I wait a little bit and perhaps some more it looks like you guys are pretty well prepped any other questions about preparation process guys feel good and glad from watching her I tried to get out fewer this time and space them out a little you just look like you have a great organizational system over there okay yeah the sweet peas can get tangled that's why when I picked him up I think I'm a piano in a bunch because I like them to show themselves and I like the texture they look like ruffles within a bouquet ok so let's start with our men's once them of us still be and even oculus a couple more and again we're using the mirror oh yes right where I building in front of a mirror because it's easier for me to see what I'm doing in building an asymmetric bouquet now do you ever try to build a just symmetric bouquet? Is it always asymmetric it can come out symmetric by you know it doesn...

't I don't think of it in that sense but something I have done so I have actually made it ok that was quite round and symmetric for a bride who didn't really wanting to wild just a little bit of what yeah I'm going to take some explosion grass again to put in between here, maybe I'll make this one kind of symmetric and see what we can do with it. And again, you don't have to be standing up. You could actually just let your table down and have a seat. Yeah, I mean, what? I'm digging into my studio, it's I sit I'm kind of on my knees and in front of a mirror and I'll do it. I'm curious for those of you students here are you guys finding it easier to stand up when you're doing this much easier standard for me? It's it's easier to stand up if the table is level I'm used to having taller tables, but for sitting it's fine as long as it's kind of level for me I think I'm okay. It may just be sort of variety, you know, I think anybody would get tired of standing too long or sitting too long. You want to have options and there is again there was a suggestion in the chat room that we didn't get a chance to share yet, but there are impact absorbing a match then you khun that you can buy if you plan to stand for a long time. I think they they market them this kitchen absorb you know they they absorb in the kitchen sure yeah. If you're cooking for a long time or just arranging flowers like this it could help this sort of lesson that burden yang on your feet for so long yeah for all of you crafters and makers hookers thank you for those suggestions yeah just going to grab in my sweet peas in a bunch and put on wherever I think would look pretty and again it doesn't have to be an extravagant bouquet it just needs to be pretty now when you're designing the attendant bouquets you typically have the bride's bouquet nearby to refer to when you're creating it no not really I'm using similar flowers and their their own separate entity I like to put maybe one here these were michaela's was so pretty well adam meant in between here it was really good yeah take time to smell the flower enjoy and do you go through that similar process where you're designing it for the attendance of you as well? Yes although this I'm trying to make it a little bit less asymmetric but yes for sure so I'm just going to go around and make sure I have a nice dispersement off flowers especially since it's going to be a little bit more symmetric I want things kind of evened out within the bouquet and nice balance of everything all over now our studio is incredibly well it here we have all these beautiful life and some of our viewers are under different light sources poppy hill says I arrange online dining room table and sometimes I wonder standing under the light which is their chandelier is harmful to the flowers because there there's for so long that harsh overhead lighting effect it could I I where I did I tried to design where during the time of the day that I need light on I like to have natural light around just so I can see what I'm doing I feel that the colors are better in natural light um so I don't use the light around when I'm but I don't think it should make that much of a difference really if you know taking three hours to make it ok then it won't make that much of a difference the light exposure but that's actually a really good point because if the flowers air let states an outdoor ceremony versus and endorse ceremony versus something in a ballroom yeah I like to use natural light to build that's why I rarely make anything at night because it never looks the same in the morning you think you've done something a great job and then you wake up in the morning anything well I mean that's not that's not very good so we might have a little asymmetry okay? It wouldn't be yours would be at some more men now, we talked earlier about, um you like to hand off the bouquet to the bride? Yes, and I don't know if you're able to show the attendant howto hold their bouquets as well. Well, it depends on where they are the time that I hand it off, I'm usually I would say eighty percent of the time they're there when I'm handing out off the bouquets, so they're all they haven't come and give him their bouquets, and I asked them to, you know, show me how they would hold it. Um, on the rest of the time, I would say they've done a pretty good job on their own and that's true, because at a wedding there's a lot of camaraderie, especially in the bridal party. Yes, it's like, no, no, no, your hair ponytail over to the right are all your chef is out or your lipstick is on your tooth or you're holding your bouquet of sight very good that they're very good. So I like the way this is kind of this goes back to what we discussed earlier. I like the way this is it's kind of bending to the right, and I like the way these buds are showing, so I'm just going to show it. I want it I want to accentuate about putting it right here and if you notice I'm making it I'm making a asymmetry is a little bit not on this side of the top is to the left versus what I did for the bride's bouquet and a little bit more grass I think this grass is like lace to me the grass as well as the still be when you give the bride her bouquet see her react oh yeah you don't know a couple of times I mean I have yes and that's mainly while likes to give it to them myself because I want to know if they like it or not um they just you know the expression on their face when they see it or um it's really priced less I love it there's nothing better than a happy bride for a floral designer how are these bouquets coming? The students here looking very good they're easier to hold yeah is there lighter smaller there? Yeah. Now have you guys been sort of learning as you go along and now that we've made a couple of these bouquets are you seeing things that you may not have seen when we first started? Yeah, I um definitely love these symmetry just a whole unique um it's just a whole new style of doing things you know I work in a traditional florist way try to do things outside the box you know but in terms of like shape I'm used to doing you know, the standard traditional round um arrangement so it's really nice to have the operation to do that do something different, isn't it now don't you feel like it's a little bit more relaxing not to have to worry about everything just looking perfect yeah isthe it really is and it feels more of an art form to me no it isn't it's very technical what it was to do it and not that this isn't but like kind of rigid this's more free why we call it free flowing e yeah, I mean this is meant to be fun and artistic and inspirational for sure you should never feel like you're burdened by it it's gotta be freedom exactly you talked earlier for a moment about ikebana yeah is that something that you've practiced you want? Tio quote cuban of course is a japanese style of floral arrangement it's it's beautiful but it's very sparse versus this lush and lots of variety of flowers you would find maybe one penny on the side and some stems and the other side and that would be it usually it's just I mean I'm not an expert in it, so I couldn't explain too much about it but from what I've seen being done it's just it's kind of a statement piece but with only two or three floral varieties so it's beautiful in its essence I don't know a tremendous about about it either but it does actually capture the essence of what you're doing which is to bring the feeling of nature yes and the flow of it so this is on the more lush version like absolutely so I'm just loving these poppies and I find that poppy is there such happy flowers and so I'm just kind of in some ways I feel like this is the star of my poppy is going to be the star off my bouquet and is there focal flour or you just said that's the star of the booking you're putting on one in the yeah I mean there's just not really a focal there's not one focal flower in here but I'm just making poppies tio popular standing out in this book a this one in particular I it's usually just the way it bends it's kind of a crooked way of ah the stem that I use it in my advantage and I'm going to use a little bit of these buds because I like the way they are and they add texture inside my bouquet and eventually they'll open now our students finding their focal flowers easily they're featured flower power flowers excuse me yeah well I'm curious now is you purposely not have a focal flower here because it is for the attendance is that something that you want this on the bride it's just some I mean this is just going to be a beautiful bouquet off a balanced beautiful okay I guess and when you have when you want to have balance you don't need toe have focus on just one thing and I'm almost done with mine how are you ladies doing getting growth in and so much easier to hold isn't it quite light and thin it helps that we have the poppies and puppies in that sense help because there are while they're bigger flowers they have a very thin stem the beauty of sweet pieces that wherever you feel that you have a little empty space you can stick one in there and it won't look funny because they were kind of wacky on their own they're not very straight there like funny looking okay and I like to cut as I go along just so I have ah control over my bouquet I'm going to look at this and see if there's anything I want to add to it I think it looks quite perfect it's beautiful on a little understated I want this here yes I think that this looks really pretty over here use it would you ever with your hands just kind of break the stem or do I just always want to use those shares I have been known to do that when I haven't had my shares but if I have them near me I'll do it it's hard to break the stems because there they don't just break right away. They linger around, then you just got a struggle with it, so I'd rather not. But I have done that in the past when I haven't had my shares nearby, and I'm going to use this last don oculus bud to accentuate a little bit of my asymmetry put a little bit of grass to support the bottom of my bouquet and that's it it's gorgeous! I personally would not have thought to put the grass on the bottom. Yeah, I think that it's fun to do unexpected things that's what makes it unique and your own makes it your own that's beautiful, I love it so it looks like it should be held by a young girl in the middle of a meadow. So pretty you ladies are awesome. Anyone have any questions about this process? Or does it hasn't been getting easier now that you're in your second bouquet now? Or maybe for many of you, it is not your second book and just for today, you know, with mind what I really had toe work through with not having the roses dominate? Yeah, I want it, so leave all you know they're the garden roses and so there's multiple flowers stem and I didn't want to lose that, but it got really heavy. And so I had tio rethink things and move them around you did a good job of that so that the poppy still get just deserve some attention yeah sure and the other reflections and in question you have a question yeah we had some questions come up you mentioned about how you want to present these to the bride or the bride's maid now how are you transporting them when you get them there because you're now it's it's easy when you have them here but they have to go even just going from like a ban to the actual brides maid's how you transport them I have a tray okay um I have a very wonderful man who makes these trays I think somewhere in the south they're very unique there they're like trace about this big and then you could put on they have pipes that you could stick through that hole the trades have a holes and then their pipes that you could put on the on the trays and then secure each vase I don't find mechanics stance but I wish I had my tray here with those pipes so I put my flowers inside the vase my bouquets on top of those trays secured with those pipes around them and then I'll take them to the bride what it could be two trays it could be three trays or it could be only one depending on the bridal party so and I'll take it up and take him out one by one something I wondered about is I think about sort of turning this into a small business for myself is transporting do you feel like air conditioning on and a standard like hatchback car is ok? Do you really need to rent a refrigerated van each time I have not rented refrigerated trucks in california um because I haven't needed teo I do have I do have a van that I that I transport my flowers and I'm there I take I turn on the a c before I put the flowers in it but I haven't needed to do that so it's just again we're so lucky to be in california if you were living in texas or somewhere in the south or the east coast I would definitely recommend getting a refrigerated truck for your transportation a question from eva poppy says poppies tend to move in the direction of their light source are there other flowers that do this and how do they factor in where you place them in the arrangement? Well when they're opened like this they're not going to move anymore because they've already been opened so I know that this will look just like this um at the end of the day by the time that wedding is over and that's really all that matters um other flowers that do that are two lips well it's definitely like for example if you're using it to lip to create to make some flowing arrangement that's like coming down this way using the tulip well if it's in the water or somewhere in the sun it lt's go right right back up and it just will ruin your whole game basically so you have to be mindful of that but once the poppies are open like this don't we all have to worry about them moving anywhere that's very helpful I wouldn't be possible to do another quick recap of what flowers air used here yeah I just think people so here we're using garden roses run on killers sweet piece this is a still be meant and that's on explosion grass that's it and you brought over to flowers from the bride's bouquet yes I got two flowers from what I had used from the bride's bouquet just to kind of compliment what those look like and I think that we did a pretty good job complementing are made are extravagant bouquets with this and maybe I'll go ahead and use my tape just a wrap it up thinking that there's a little bit of these grassy things that I could possibly use down here no too I was going to use somewhat more the grassy but I like this the way it looks so again when I have a thicker bouquet I like to use twine to first secure it and rapid but what if this thing it doesn't really need to be that secure because it's easily manageable in my hand so I'll just use a little bit of floral tape to wrap it up and you're just wrapping that around yes I'm just a couple of times when I wanted to be too thick as I mentioned in the last segment um I like my ribbons little more understated so if I don't have to use them I want at all but just a little to give it a little bit more of a feminine touch I was the wrapping coming for you guys looks good yeah yeah perfect looks lovely yeah so pretty so pretty and so wild yeah I like it so can you guess the right of okay it around to seventy five what would you be rydell yeah yeah right attend me and this over here I would say seventy five to eighty and then I'm going to cut it a little bit more just because I don't like it so long and beckett do you find it difficult to have it that that length still are you just going yeah definitely going to give it a little chop well john yeah yeah well it's too long that's why it's important that we have all these buckets here ready for all the trees yes always good to have that ready when you start you could make less of a mess either that or your entire space will be taken over with stems and leaves and what not but I'm sure you have a lot of great composting material d'oh I've got two really big bags that get filled almost every day for compost and all garden material so here is my bouquet very gorgeous q and then we have some really simple but lovely ribbon that we got and we can just drop it a little bit with this it's got two sides um one is a little bit darker the other side is a little bit lighter I'm going to use the lighter side I think it's pretty well with my color and this is different from the bride's bouquet again because it had that sick silk cream ribbon and it was a much more stated yeah other ribbon yes well the other the other ribbon was velvet and thicker for the bride's bouquet and this one is just a little bit it's smaller but delicate and it's I believe it's silk I think I'm going to make sure that it's kind of even for a start wrapping it so going to wrap it a couple of times on the other side around with this and then I'll come back and give it a bow and this way we won't even need to use the pain's like we did for the bride's bouquet let's wrap it around and since you'll be making more than one of these because again there's one bride there's more than one attendant usually do you try to keep it similar between the attendance or I mean will use the same flowers so that will help it look similar but I'm definitely not going tio try to make it look identical I don't find that to be beautiful necessarily so if it looks the same that's fine if it doesn't that's fine to um it's all going to be unique works of art now I have a question on the process here if you know that they're going to be safe four bridesmaids you try to sort of create those all simultaneously like an assembly line or do you always focus on doing it one at a time? I don't want a time I might do that with centerpieces um but not with bouquets each each bouquet gets their own special love and time and that flows usually with you know, even even these days when you have many attendance many brides often let the attendants where different style of drug yes even though it's a cz the same color the same color palette indeed, yes which kind of goes with the theme of your bride to yeah, they're they're not very matching that yearly exactly the matching that she doesn't work with my style and in fact I had a bride who wanted different colors of bouquet for each bridesmaid so um and that was actually a lot of fun you know, like all yellow all paint all bright orange and it just kind of it was almost like an ombre um down the line we kind of fun to do that I would feel like it would be so much fun to do an ombre for brides made them who will be standing in line next to each other. All right are you finished? Rachel let's see your beautiful creation. Oh, wow. And the ribbon really sets it off to yeah it's a nice choice. Yeah, hold it up for the camera here. Yeah, beautiful. You know, did you find this easier kind of doing the smaller boo cakes I know we were talking a little bit about when do you know if it's too much when is it going to become too big? So was it easier for you, rachel, that kind of do the smaller version because we use the floral tape instead of the burlap but actually I was trying to stop myself and I started taping it up and then I was like, oh, but I need a couple more, you know? And so then I had to tape it again that's the beauty was tape you can keep adding and then put tape around this you could add one here one there and you could just keep taking it yeah that's what I did and charlotte michelle look like they're ready to show off their beautiful creation really pretty well any anything that came up for you guys while you were making it he had to back off or build it up at any point well, I guess it's kind of hard to know when to stop but it was interesting to work with the poppies in this one because they're so yeah organic could have their own mind yeah yeah yeah it creates a lot of movement just thinking that there's more motion now looking at you guys holding them there you look more alive they're popping off but isn't that nice? Yeah, yeah, yeah very cool. You know they would have any questions for me we have a question here we're curious if you could just sort of do a quick recap of of the thought process going into making these attendant bouquets. Now I know that we spent a lot of time on the bouquets for the bride's yeah, do you ever have that conversation with the bridesmaids as well about like how they want their bouquets toe look in relation to the bride? Um not really because I don't meet the prize maids until the day of and unless you know there was like a maid of honor who comes to meet with me with the bride or something, but I guess although I do what I have in mind, what I keep in mind while making these is that well, they look beautiful, right next to the bride's bouquet, you know, in a line that they're holding together and will it take away from the bride's bouquet is they're going to complement the bride's bouquet? What will it do in that setting? And with that in mind, I want to make something not so overboard and not so understated and just perfect, very nice question you're ok, it just looks so sort of open and not tight the opposite of tight yeah, and I think that's a really art to get it to be that way because you know what I'm thinking just by holding it, you kind of end up pushing the together, right given me how you keep it through the open look, when you put this around it or when when you do your own the twine don't make it so tight, okay, because it's it's going to be still together, it doesn't need to be high klay together, it won't go anywhere. It's still being wrapped together, so I guess that's what I do, I just make sure that it's not too tightly wrapped that way, it looks just more natural flowing.