Lessons

Lesson Info

Building the Bouquet - Part 1

The way I like to make it okay I don't know how many of you do this but I like to look in the mirror when I'm making it okay you guys do that too no, I think it's great because you can see you know what the bride will how it's going to look when the bride's holding it and for me it's just unease e way of doing it so I will be showing how to do that today um what do you guys usually start with when you start your bookcase? Anybody the green green okay um well I'm going to go over um what not to use when you first start because what you start with is going to be the center of your bouquet right? Because you're going to build around that and so whatever you choose it better be what you wanted to be a kind of um showing centered um I want to talk about uh making an asymmetric bouquet one that's not completely round and, you know, just like it's like a dome perfection it's going to be a wilder more loose and kind of you know, right out of the garden type of thing so I'm gonna start making i...

t here is my variety that I have I have had to put it all back inside the bucket because I didn't want them to they were starting to die a little bit outside the water um so I want to start with my narine lilies because I think they're so pretty in the middle I'm going to start with these then I'm going to take the's garden roses take some them out maybe I'll put on my apron before I do that I like to use aprons um when I work sometimes I could put things in my pocket and my nice clothes dont get dirty you could still look nice and have nice clothes on that's another important thing maybe to put in your kit if you're just starting true getaneh friend yeah aprons are in their hip thing that was great you look good yeah you look like a rock star well thank you a flower rocks so then I'm going to take my eye still be so these air this things that I want in the center of my bouquet still be and this and a little bit of explosion grass you can see why it's called explosion it kind of does explode so I'm going to start like this and then I'm going to look in the mirror and start building I could use a little bit more explosion here when I used when I move this up a little is located move this up and move it up so a little bit wobbly some more indurain's this is going to be the centre we think this is better to have in the center or some leaves yeah I'll take some of this out sage smell so good maybe they'll come up with a way for us to be able to smell through the screen one of these days I'm going to use a little bit of this for some color and texture right next to the flowers this is uranium of green a little bit of sage and here we have kind of a center but mainly with these and focus when I little bit more this marine to add the fluff and now I'm starting to build it yes I think the students can start piecing this together themselves give it a shot now I know that you guys don't have the mirror right there but you can kind of piece it together and chiana will definitely let you know yeah go ahead yeah you determine the size of the uk does it depend on sort of the guidance from the brighter is that in our getting process as well until you feel that it's a little bit of both the some brides don't want too big of a bouquet and some really do they want it to be just all over the place I like it somewhere in the middle today since we don't have a bride I'm just going to go until I decide it's time to stop okay feel free to stand up get comfortable whatever works for you so you can arrange the flowers and it's important to always pick the best blooms right like this looks so pretty you better believe I'm going to use it in my bouquet and the way I think of this is so I'm looking at it in the mirror and I'm going to go with I'm going to pick these leave that there it's not going to be inside that okay and then I'm going to look at it and say well I'm kind of building my asymmetry already you can see that this is and this is already a symmetric right and I'm just going to build upon this more and more add a little bit more right here that asymmetry you're mostly using the blooms and the color you're doing yes some leaves like for example this is going to be used again I'm gonna use the sage to accentuate my asymmetry like this I want some dusty miller in here now did this vision sort of come to you when you were in the preparation stage or is this just from looking in the mirror this is fun looking in the mirror and what I think would look good okay I'm going to do this and see how this looks I think it looks pretty good I'm going to add it sometimes don't be afraid to take things in and out you can put something and if you don't like the way it looks then you could remove it that's the beauty of being in charge of your bouquet come in here about the focal flower now mad lizzie wants to know do you pick a focal focal flour from the beginning or do you just sort determine which flower would look best as you're arranging? Well, local flower should be the flower that is the most beautiful in your eye and to me actually my focal flour and you'll see that in the end it's going to be the pani these panties but the roses so beautiful to start with I don't like to start with with the peonies because there's such there's so big that you kind of want it it's going to be the last thing that you are to your bouquet you want to build the bouquet and then see where it where it could, you know, host this big beautiful flower and that's a revelation because I personally would have thought it would be the other way around that you would start with the focus and the center and then build yeah, I mean, I do have a focus and that the center of my flower my my bouquet is the rose, but somewhere down here there's going to be a panini and you'll see I'm going to add some more explosion grass because um it could get a little lost among all the flowers that you put in, so you want to make sure it's still there it's making a statement it's really helpful when you remind us to speaking of loss yeah, what flowers you're putting in yes trying to keep up and maybe a quick recap of each of the flowers that are in there so far are as you put them in just one I know okay, so so far I have got rose sage explosion grass um dusty miller this is marine lily another rose and some still be these ones right here which I might just use some more of right now. How are you guys doing question help but notice that it's almost like one sided yeah so were you trying to build it but it's almost like a wall so it's almost like that and then but toward the end he will see that I'll add to the to the this side's to my side of more flowers but first because I'm looking in the mirror it's natural that I'm just going to make a one sided thing once the front side is beautiful then I'm going to add more flowers in the back okay now let's see if he didn't have a mirror would it be okay to hold it in front of you and start to build it that way and then turn it around so you could also yeah I mean the way I used I used to do it before I discovered the mirror was so much easier was put it together and then just kind of look at it or go like this to make sure it looks beautiful from all angles and, uh that's it so if you don't have a mirror it's not the end of the world I think someone who got married recently is that flowers have some weight to them yes and I of course wanted a huge okay on so that's what I had but you can see in my wedding pictures me holding it away from my body a little bit because it was what felt heavy, you know, which was just something that when I decided on what I was going to do, I didn't anticipate so I think that's a great point, you know, um I have to be honest, most bouquets have made have been heavy just because of the variety that I use in my bookcase and you don't want a small bridal bouquet so it's naturally going to be heavy. So, um those brides better be ready they better be they better work out before their wedding there. Most brides have had that you know that bride boot camp experience where they're working out, you know, for the dress but you gotta work out for the flowers yes, you gotta work out to be strong enough to hold your bouquet, so how are the students doing things coming along wei have any anybody want to volunteer to maybe look in front of the mirror and see if it looks different in the mirror? It'll be interesting to know me you'll see a different that is near really such a good approach, is it? I mean, you can see what that's gonna look like. You can see that you might want move this down a little or put a flower in front of it to keep it from kind of looking like it's wilted it's not wilted, it just kind of limp, so you need some support for that you're gonna put maybe a rose or something in front of it that's another thing like an oculus and, um sometimes tulips can look limp even though they're not. So the best bet for those would be to use them in the middle of the bouquet versus somewhere like this because by the end of the day it's going to look like this and in the bride's hand and you don't want that, you don't want it to look like that after it's been around quick question this might be random, but let's say that you don't need to take a bio break in the middle of making your bouquet, but you've worked so hard and you're holding it together, what do you do? I've never had that experience but that's where the husband comes another hand I cannot tell you the number of times I've called my husband that you come here and hold this or he's the one who ties all of my bookcase for me in the end you know I hold it and he ties it I mean it's always nice to have a second pair of hands around and if he's not around then it's my children but I've never had that expense but you can always ask somebody or you could just go to the bathroom with them okay nobody's going to know I'm gonna know where it's been yeah, that is an important thing you don't want to let go the bouquet at any cost no please I know I don't but um uh through experience to more traditional hand bouquets it's easy to just because you're constantly twisting it around and holding one hand and moving in you can just put it down on the table on walk away and usually things won't move or put it inside another thing is you can put it inside a bucket like a vase you know like rapid quickly with maybe some rubber band or something put it in a vase and then walk away I have a thing about putting bouquets on tables because I feel like it squishes one or the other side no matter what you do is going to score something so I try not to do that as much as I can and hopefully a little later you can show us how tio how you transport and what you deliver yeah, I'm sure you're being crushed exactly eso these beautiful little balls here they're like little bells balls they're called mylene and I want to have like I want to have them in the middle of my bouquet somewhere kind of hanging out like this and you want to you want to use them a little bit higher than the rest so that they could they could show their bell shaped selves better and it gives that sense of wildness and organic quality to your bouquet I mean a question coming here, sheri and they said in the past I've had people tell me when doing bouquets toe at each stem at an angle I noticed you're kind of putting them straight in yeah, how do you do that? Do you typically align them straight or at an angle? Well, my entire bouquet is kind of at an angle if you can see because because I was a symmetry so I don't like to some people put him so that all of these stems are going to be like this at the end because it goes around and around and I don't find that I can really easily handle it so I I put him in straight because it's just easy for me to handle my bouquet better as they get bigger did you see some of our students here are labouring it at an angle right there? They're doing it and then doing it from up top, which is also a good idea, but I don't do very much but there's more than one way to do absolutely do it the way that you are most comfortable with, which is the most important thing. Whatever works for you now, I want to add a little bit of color to this bouquet and really are darker color comes from these lovely plum branches that we have and this this I do at home all the time, I like don't prepare it ahead of time and I have to go like this on dh that's okay to do that's what makes you human? So I'm going tio do this maybe add a little bit of color over here and I'm also slowly trying to adm or in the back too, because I find that it's getting pretty good looking in the front, so I'm going to add a little bit more in the back as well. That is what the bride has to look at that is very true that's the one thing people forget about, I'm trying to have flowers that are the same right next to each other if I can avoid it really learning how to empower ourselves here in create these beautiful arrangements and you've or they would have gotten all of these flowers from a martyr their local florence, but let's say that someone were to actually purchase a bouquet like this. Renee wants to know what we're building. I mean, what what's the typical price that you would pay retail for something like that it's in which is another reason, probably why a lot of people want toe want to show up for this, to know what they're going to be there by doing it themselves. I mean, I don't know, I guess it depends on the size on the type of flowers that you using, and based on what I'm using today, this bouquet would be, um, two hundred seventy five dollars retail and of course, it's the labour part of it to right, that you're paying for really and the fact that peonies are not cheap flowers, nor our garden roses door on none of these that marines are not cheap, what we're using as are kind of the texture, textural flowers like these are not still be or not cheap. Um, we had a question come up about the mirror technique. Yeah, this is something that you do on ly for bouquets, or do you find this helpful for all different types of arrangements? I only do it for bouquets because with different with centerpieces, I can see and I could walk around it and I guess I'm not attached to it, but with the bouquets I'm sort of attached to the bouquet so I would have you know I can see it better this way versus if I you know, but if I wanted to walk we'll talk about that too with the centerpiece is that it's very important to make it and then walk away and look at it I don't have a way of walking away from this because I'm holding it so that's the mirror it gives me that walk away option unless you have a rubber band and a vase yes true your husband hand exactly or just taking that step back is that stepping back from your work to look at it like a painting I think this is a work of art um when you're painting something, you look at it from a distance and examine it same idea here how the students doing her thing coming along they look beautiful look at all the earlier yeah I like that you used your puny they're really pretty so I am curious to note from the students what is it like to work with flowers that you haven't selected yourself? How is that creative process going? I think she did such a good job with the color palette it's hard to make something that doesn't look nice yeah, she chose beautiful flower thing to anyone else want to share michelle oh yeah I love the palette it's just so organic and go everything you will together all right I was just working away there how many flowers can I get and how are you doing? Rachel it's good it's funny you know like I said, I'm such a big a fan of chiana has work that it's the's are some different florals and I then I would have selected myself on often because I kind of cheap out at the market formal terms so it's really nice tio had tohave like sort of her design I influencing what I ultimately create I'm curious to know that these sort of visions come to you guys you had these flowers sitting on your desk for a little while were you already seeing these come together in the last segment where you just sort of putting it together as you go um usually it's just kind of work with the process yeah, we kind of happened organically exactly other ways to get in the way yeah, well thing that makes us wear so just let it come naturally you overthink it that's advice for life now don't overthink that's a life lesson right there well, I think the other thing is you think it's gonna look one way and in the flower hangs totally different okay that's what you take it out and put something else in place and I guess that's the beauty of this process to is that you haven't gone through all of this work to really cement and tile of these things together it's very formidable and interchangeable yeah exactly everyone's gonna look different you know we have the same flowers to start from here but if you look around the room each bouquet is unique in its own right that's the beauty of it right it's not a recipe like that first photo she showed us right? Right? Yeah, right exactly exactly. I didn't want to offend anyone initially when I want when I use that for I didn't want to offend anyone I actually made that um you know, based on what I have seen being done, I don't want to offend anyone but I wanted to just show that there's a different way of doing it. Um then just a round packed together that's the idea is that we don't want you wanna pack flowers into your bouquet you want him to look like they are just happily resting together now let's say that one of your flowers rests a little bit too much maybe ghost permanently to sleep forget gets messed up and it's a local piece how how might you fixed that if it's in the center if it's in the center I would go ahead and cut it without taking the stem out, because you don't want to mess up your thing and then try and put another one in from up top. Um, but honestly, I haven't had that happen because the roses with roses it's really hard for them to get wilted. They don't. They don't wilt very easily there. They're hardy enough flowers to be able to rely on them to put it in the middle of europe, okay, but, yeah, if that happened, you could definitely cut, cut the cut it from like this inside there and stick something else in the middle. That's. Good, I wouldn't have thought actually cut it. I would have been trying to fish around and get out and fishing around means you would have to mess around with your with the entire structure of your bouquet.