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Planning Your Magical Wedding

A Guide and Resources

Arranging Your Own

Floral Centerpieces

Special Ceremonies
Vows

Congratulations! You are getting married!!

You are planning the event that will change your life! Everyone dreams of the perfect, magical wedding. And while it is ALWAYS a lot of work to plan and prepare for, it can be a time of great joy and fulfillment with the proper planning.

On this page you will find many free and helpful resources that will assist you in your journey to your special day.

And because weddings are always expensive, I have included information that will help you do many things yourself. It is my hope that this group of pages will help you to plan your wedding on a budget.

There are even instructions for making your own flower arrangements, corsages, and buttonnieres on these pages!!

Want to learn how to make your own bows for flowers or for decorating?? Look no further!! Instructions for making large and small bows are on the Pew Bow page.

The information you find on these pages is information that I gathered to plan our magical wedding to which I added my own knowledge in working with flowers, etc. I hope that you find these pages useful!

 

Making A Floral Centerpiece

 

Arranging your own flowers for your wedding can not only be a great savings for you, but also can be a personal statement of your creativity and personal style. The following information should give you the basics of creating your own centerpieces for your wedding.

Poetry & Readings
Writing Your Vows
Decorations
Wedding Favors
Pew Bows
Making Your Own Corsges & Buttonnieres
Wedding Planning Guide

Arranging Floral Centerpieces

Arranging A Floral Centerpiece

Arranging a beautiful floral centerpiece is much easier than it looks. The biggest trick is to just trust your ability to do it. There are a few rules that you should remember, but even they are not iron-clad.

First, pick out your vase. I, personally, prefer a smaller vase. Most people tend to pick out vases that are too large, then become overwhelmed in trying to "fill" it! Start small and work your way up to larger arrangements.

When you have your vase, you will need to cut your foam to use to hold the stems in place. *** IMPORTANT** There is a special foam to use for fresh flowers. It is called wet foam. Do not try to use foam that is intended for silk flowers to arrange fresh flowers. It simply will not work.

Cut your wet foam to fill your vase. Soak the wet foam in the vase at least overnight in water. It becomes very fragile when it is wet, so make sure you have it the size and shape that you want before you expose it to water.

 

Now that you have a vessel in which to begin to place your flowers, you need to decide what the finished arrangement will look like. I wanted the finished arrangement to have a fresh, summertime wildflower feeling. I chose a variety of flowers to project this image. I began with using some red roses. As they would be the largest flowers and be a focal point of the arrangement, I placed them first.

 

Traditionally, you will want to use an odd number of flowers in your arrangement. (Since I wanted this to be a less formal-looking arrangement, I broke that rule. I would advise you to follow this rule until you feel very comfortable with arranging...)

Once you have your focal point in place, I would advise putting in your fill. I chose baby's breath for a couple of reasons. First, nearly everyone likes it, and secondly it had the airy feel of a summer bouquet.

Once you have your fill in place, choose additional flowers that will go with your idea. Cut the stems on a diagonal before placing them into the foam. This will allow the flower to uptake more water and will lengthen the life of the arrangement.

When inserting the flower stems into the foam, support it so that you don't end up with a broken stem.

Continue to add more flowers

Make sure you keep things balanced and of the correct height.

Don't forget to add texture and interesting shapes.

By using greenery or other "non-floral" accents, you give your arrangement depth.

 

Let your imagination go. Trust your eye.

When you have the flowers arranged like you want, make a bow to add that final touch. For instructions on making a bow, CLICK HERE

Whimsy and a burst of color.

These are a few of the arrangements I made for my boss's retirement party. There were 32 of this size of centerpiece plus 2 other large arrangements for the dais.

I ordered the flowers on-line. They arrived in great condition. I was, in fact, worried that they would not open up enough by the day of the party. I allowed 1 1/2 days to make all of the arrangements and had plenty of time.

Aren't the roses lovely????

So, you can see with a little work, you CAN do it.

Believe me, if I can do it, so can you.

 

Believe in yourself and give it a try.