Thursday 21 April 2022

Wedding DIY: Crochet Bouquet and other flowers

When we were planning our wedding, I was conscious to try and avoid some of the wasteful elements that are deemed 'essential'. Especially since everything for a wedding is so incredibly expensive already. For flowers, I knew what aesthetic I was going for, having a clear memory of loving the flowers that my friend Anita had at her wedding [in August 2015]. 

Some thoughts I had about flowers and waste, was the possibility of 'resusable' flowers out of felt. There were a few places where I found templates for felt flowers: a thistle, a rose, some eucalyptus. Cutting these by hand with scissors, was possible but took SO LONG that it wasn't going to be feasible to do this for the table arrangements. I did try and invest in a (second hand) cricut machine to help with this, but in the end the version I bought wasn't able to cut felt and I just couldn't justify the most expensive version which would do the job just for the flowers. 

On my internet search quest for felt bouquets, I saw a few crocheted flowers which I thought I'd give a go. I bought a pattern from etsy that turned out to be far too difficult for a beginner, but I came across these videos where the lady takes you through the entire process. This I could copy and after a few tries, I got the hang of it. Also her voice was very soft and soothing which was good for all the times when mistakes got frustrating!

Since all the wedding planning was happening during lockdown(s), I had plenty of time every evening in front of the TV to crochet rose petals. Each rose takes 9 petals, plus a sepal and stem. I decided to just crochet for my own bouquet since it was going to take quite a while to make enough stems. I was so pleased with the end result, and glad that this is something I can keep forever. On the day I added some soft ruscus greenery and baby's breath alongside the roses and bound everything with jute string.

Another potentially wasteful element (and unnecessary expense) was confetti. We were actually not allowed to throw anything outside our church, and could use only natural confetti at the venue. So over the year until the big day, I saved petals whenever I had cut flowers in the house - and so did my mum, her neighbours and anyone else we could cajole! We had a huge basketful for the wedding day, plenty for all guests and it didn't cost us anything additional! I'm still not out of the habit of wanting to save petals from any flowers we have in the house since the wedding.

And for the table decorations, I couldn't manage the felt flowers but I still went with DIY and collected lots of jars of various sizes and some tonic bottles - which my mum spray painted blue. These were all wrapped around with tartan ribbon for decoration. I bought the DIY flower box in blue and lilac from triangle nursery which was great value. They offered an online consultation which was immensely helpful for planning how each table arrangement would look and how to organise the preparation. I would really recommend their service for anyone brave enough to DIY!



It was so easy to dry the petals, and a good money saver. Probably not a huge saving but every little helps!



I was pleased with these thistles but they were just far too labour intensive to be worthwhile.


Crochet practise, total beginner...



This was the first rose I made, which wasn't make properly to plan and had a lot more petals than later versions. Plus I didn't bother to make the leaves for the bouquet because they were a big faff, and actually the leaves are removed anyway from fresh roses.


Once I got into the flow, it became quite a therapeutic activity in the evenings and the finished roses were quite impressive.





Making the final white roses; all the petals, floristry tape and a glue gun!





The bouquet on the day - some people didn't even realise these were not fresh!




I was pleased with how the table decorations turned out; a handmade effort which was pretty and added nice touches without being over the top. 




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1 comment:

  1. Such a special day, I wish we could experience it all over again! Don't forget the wood centres for the tables which Dad rubbed down and varnished!

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