2021 Is the Year to DIY Your Wedding Bouquet and Here’s How To Do It With Afloral
You’ve probably heard that a huge trend in weddings this year is intentionality - deliberate decision making and details that have dimension and thoughtfulness, rather than a mere reflection of ‘what’s hot rn.' Couples have been throwing out the ‘what constitutes a traditional wedding rulebook’ for over a decade now, but it wasn’t until 2020 that rule breaking became mainstream and not just altar-native. We love seeing soonlyweds marching to the beat of their own drum (quite literally, too, if a steel drum is going to keep you smiling and melting into a let’s-get-together-and-feel-alright place, then doooo itttt #PhoebeBuffayVibes) and taking willful steps with their wedding preparations. So, we figured maybe it was finally time to truly get behind wedding flower DIYs in 2021. Afloral is ready to help, because that’s also a huge trend for weddings in 2021 - the coming together of your vows village: vendors, friends, and family showing up in a big way for brides and grooms on their big days.
Your ensem isn’t just your dress and your jewels, your makeup and your hair finessing, it’s your bouquet too
It completes your whole about-to-say-my-vows visage, so being able to make it with your own hands and tap into your inner creative artisan is a pretty major deal. One step further? Doing so with a brand like Afloral, a pioneer in the world of timeless and trendy permanent botanicals (i.e. fake flowers but mind-blowingly fresh at the same time), can ensure that once your day is done, your bouquet can shine for the longest time in your apartment, house, vacation spot, even a chic shed. Consider it your own little favor from your wedding day. Oh, and unlike taking your formerly alive-blooms bouquet home and hanging it upside down to dry and decay (like, that is actually what happens), your Afloral bouquet will look just as stunning as new statement decor as it did on the day you got married. Always in bloom… boom, mic drop 🖐️🎤
Bouquet and slay (the blooms we used)
2. English Cabbage Roses in Eggshell Cream
8. Nigella Flowers in Periwinkle
10. Caspia Filler Flowers in Light Blue
How we did it
Set up your spot.
Straight up, you do not have to be a flower arranging goddess to be able to manage this bouquet for your wedding day. That being said, there is something to be said for having an on-point flower mise en place to work with. Get your little flower workshop ready and sprawl out your supplies, including the Afloral Essentials Box of Floral Supplies. Complete with all the tools you’ll need to make flower magic today, tomorrow, and forever, this beginners’ kit will not only bring your bridal bouquet to life, it’ll also raise your cred in the creative flower girl game significantly (shears, chicken wire, and stemwrap tape or it didn’t happen…)
Get your stems assembled and zhuzh ‘em up.
Just give your silk flowers some extra love before you start arranging. Open/fluff them up, spread the stems apart, etc.
Wrap your dried oats up with the floral tape in your kit.
Dried flowers, pampas grasses, and preserved florals are super delicate and brittle, so they can break easily. That’s why we wrapped our dried oats with the floral tape to give them some structure and support - if you bundle the dry items together, too, the product proves much more impactful in the final design.
Start with some filler flowers.
We built our bouquet with some blue filler flowers, Nigella and Caspia, first. We wanted a look that was modern and of-the-moment, so we figured something fanned out would be ideal. To achieve this, you’ll want to create an X with the stems and create the base of your bouquet shape with those fillers.
Move onto your focal flowers
Next, we added our Peonies and Roses. In 2021, there are no palette preferences for nuptials; however, blush tones and champagne-charged hues like taupe, gold, rose gold and mauve will largely be eclipsed by more evocative color combinations. Case in point, burnt orange/terracotta and antiqued blue. We all love peonies, too, right? But naturally, they’re only in season in the late spring/early summer (May-June, tops). When you use Afloral, though, you can have these typically-limited-time-only looks all year round. Win!
& keep those favorites centrally situated.
When you’re adding the focal flowers, you’ll want to keep them towards the middle of the design while making sure the filler flowers are still fanning out
Add the rest of the fillers.
We started with blue, but then we transitioned onto the white filler types: our Poppies and Daisies. The super fun wildflowers add a gorgeous nod of whimsy and nostalgia to the design despite their freshness and modernity. The perfect blend of something old and something new. Allow these stems to kind of pop out a bit, so that you can see their nuances - different shapes, textures, and degrees of personality (we’re not just personifying right now, these flowers have real moods IRL).
Sew in your wild, nah, dried oats.
Remember how we talked about the delicacy of the dried materials, earlier? Well, that’s why it's important to add these accents last. There is so much intrigue to dried accents, so you definitely don’t want to get them tangled or [friendly] flaked by the other stems.
And a few other pro tips (from one of our favorite florists)
Just going off of that “a ‘DIY-ed bouquet is magic’ deal…
The silk flowers are your focal stems and the oats are like the “sparkle” added at the end.
Once you've added your oats, it's time to grab your floral tape and wrap the bouquet. This will hold your entire design in place, so feel free to go a little craze with that floral tape. Once secure with the floral tape, use your fancy Afloral shears to trim the stems.
And ribbon makes your DIY-ed bouquet a total present to yourself. We went with a fringed blue ribbon that came in a 3-piece shades of blue set + some lace. We LOVE adding different colors and textures to our ribbon sitch and it’s also a great choice to go super long (trust us, it’s going to look SO GOOD in your wedding photos)
Savings on your silk and such
If we’ve convinced you and you’re ready to DIY for your BDE (best day ever) - and pleaseee tell us that we did/have!! - use promo code WC15 for 15 percent off the entire bouquet recipe. Start shopping now!
FOLLOW AFLORAL ON IG, TOO, IF YOU AREN’T ALREADY! THE FAUX FLOWERS ON THEIR FEED ARE INSANE
We partnered with Afloral to bring you all this dynamite DIY know-how. As always, thanks for supporting our sponsors!
- Floral Design: Petal Works Design Studio
- Flowers and DIY Supplies: Afloral
- Photographers: Radion Photography
- Styling: Wedding Chicks
- Wedding Dresses: Kate's Bridal Cottage