Blooms to

Bouquets
The DIY Bridal Guide
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3
Table of
Contents
Dreams Doe & DIY...............4
How To: Carnation Backdrop.............6
Bouquet of the Month...........9
DIY Wildfower Market Bouquet................10
Featured Wedding of the Month.........14
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Dreams
Doe &
DIY
Do Your Dreams, Doe & DIY Efforts All
Measure Up To Your I Do Day?
Since I was a little girl Ive always dreamt of
a big wedding. It became such a dream that my
sister teases me for having dressed up as a bride
nearly every Halloween. If you look through my
scrapbooks youll fnd that assertion is almost true.
However, what I had not dreamed of as a
little girl was how frustrating, time consuming and
expensive a wedding would be to plan. Maybe
I would not have dressed up as a bride so many
times as a child if I would have realized all the
stress that comes with that title.
Immediately after getting engaged my friends
and family constantly asked me how excited I was
for my wedding day. To be honest, up until every
last thing was planned, I was wishing it were over
with rather than looking forward to it.
According to TheKnot.com, the average
total cost of an American wedding in 2012 has
been more than $27,000. Think about how many
honeymoon trips a couple could go on with that
money, the nice car it could buy, or the college it
could pay for.
One thing I know I did wrong was try to bring
to life every detail I had ever imagined since I frst
thought about my wedding.
Also, we did not make ourselves stick to
a budget. We simply went through just about
every pretty penny we had. Taking a step back and
realizing what your budget will realistically be is
important so that you know what stores or which
dresses to stay away from before you get invested.
Every engaged couple should remember that
you cannot buy your wedding-day happiness.
Each wedding vendor tries to make each couple
think that every item possible is needed to make
everyone happy, which of course is the only way
to make yourself happy, right? Wrong.
Although DIY is the trend and seems like
such a fantastic way to save money, be careful. If
your time is valuable then make sure youre man-
aging how much you can really afford to ft onto
your plate in the DIY area. I must say, it was a re-
warding feeling to say I had done my own fowers,
but I couldve asked for a little more help in certain
areas to make it all more manageable.
What matters most at weddings is not
if our parents are happy with everything or
whether the guests thought it was perfect or not it
is the fact that the couple gets to spend the rest of
their lives together.
Haley Arismendi;
age 3
5
Once a wedding day arrives it seems to go by
so fast. All of the money spent and endless plan-
ning seems to be enjoyed in fast-forward mode.
A wedding cannot be perfect. My wedding
had its mishaps. Near the end of my reception, the
dance foor was packed, and many guests carried
their wine glasses onto the dance foor. A couple
different times I heard glass shatter; some people
just cant handle drinking and dancing. Neither
the dancing nor the smiles ended, however.


Much like those wine glasses, my nerves
and fears shattered throughout the wedding day.
I was nervous to walk down the aisle and be the
center of attention, but once I saw my husband
standing there a smile wouldnt leave my face. I
was so hopeful that everything would go perfect,
but when things didnt when they shattered I
couldnt help but to just keep smiling.
The fear of the future, infuenced by
negative relationships around me, shattered with
the promises my husband spoke to me.





...once I saw my husband standing there
a smile wouldnt leave my face.
My biggest fear whether this would all
be worth it also shattered. Now that I have
celebrated my wedding day I feel that all the
money and planning was worth it. I think I may
only be able to say that now, though, because all
the planning is over.
Maybe it wasnt a wedding big enough for
some people who would go above the average
$27,000 wedding, and, for others, a courthouse
wedding would have been just fne.


Yes, a courthouse wedding would have done
the job just as well, but it wouldnt have made as
many great memories. I could have done without
the stress, and unnecessary money spent. But hey,
you only get married once, right? (Well, thats not
exactly true these days, but a girl can hope.)
This may sound cliche, but it really was
the best day of my life. I think that the little girl
I once was would have been proud of my big,
fancy wedding.
Haley Arismendi;
age 20
6
HOW TO:
Carnation
Backdrop
7
Carnations: 15 to 20
Sold in bunches of about
ten, will run $0.30 to $0.40
a stem at a fower market,
around $0.75 a stem if you
order wholesale online, or
you can get them for more
last minute from a grocery
or foral store.
Fishing line
A few thick sewing needles
Scissors
A wedding arch/gazebo
1
Cut stems off your carnations, and divide them
into piles of about ffteen fowers.
2
Roughly measure fishing line so its slightly
longer then the length youll need for
your backdrop. Allow space at the top of the
line to tie it to the structure, and tie a knot at the
bottom of the line. Push your needle through the
stem of the carnation, and out through the cen-
ter of the fower. Then tie a knot on the other
side of the carnation to fx it on the line. Youre
line should sequence like this: Lineknot
carnationknotline. Repeat this, stringing all
ffteen fowers at randomly spaced intervals on
your line.
3
Create fourteen or ffteen lines of fowers.
This number will vary depending on the size
of the space youre decorating. Refrigerating these
fower lines, trying not to tangle them, before
transporting them to your venue would be smart.
4
Hang lines of fowers on your wedding arch or
gazebo, cutting off excess at the bottom.
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One more extremely important step:
5
Pose in front of your creation, looking hip and
fabulous. Dont tell anyone you got the idea
from us, so you look extra creative and thrifty.


This project started when we ordered this
super cheap, cheesy wedding arch off of Amazon.
Also, it was $20. Long story short, we had no idea
what we were going to do with it. But then the
Brooklyn Wedding Stylist Michelle Edgemont sug-
gested that we do something with carnations. Since
Michelle is the artist behind this insane, upside
down, fuchsia carnation installation. When she
suggests carnations you just blindly sign on the
dotted line. Its a good thing we did, too.
While we created this project, with an awful
$20 wedding arch, our goal was to provide
inspiration for those of you getting hitched at
venues with old school gazebos, or traditional
white wedding arches.
Sometimes the universe throws you a white
wicker structure, and you just have to fgure out
how to get your style on.
It just so happens that we ended up creating
a project that looked so cool that I would go out
and buy a cheesy wedding arch just to make it. It
would be a killer backdrop for saying your vows,
and/or a killer photo-booth backdrop. Plus, its
easy (although time consuming) to make. Also, it
can be made well in advance. Carnations are the
cockroaches of fowersits really, really hard to
kill them. Do you have family coming in from out
of town that want to hang out, catch up, and help
you out? This is the project for them. The beauty
of this project is that anyone can do it.
Sometimes the universe
throws you a white wicker
structure, & you just have
to fgure out how to get
your style on.
DIY
reader
bouquet
of the
month
by reader
Haley Arismendi
DIY forist
Flowers:
Blown Rose
Purple Lisiantthus
Seeded Eucalyptus
Wild Berries
Supplies:
Floral tape
Clippers
Purple satin
Pearl pins
10
HOW TO:
Make a
Wild Flower
Mart
Bouquet
11
Lets make a wildfower bouquet, the
kind you would buy from a really expensive
forist. Can you do this yourself? Totally! How-
ever, read this tutorial carefully, and possibly
do a dry run like I did, if you have little-to-no
experience with fowers. Also, just a disclosure,
this bouquet is more expensive to make because
you need to buy various types of fowers (usually
signifcantly cheaper than having it made for you).
The technique of todays bouquet is to follow the
basic steps of creating a base, wrapping with fo-
ral tape, and flling in the spaces as you go. More
important than technique however is to use your
creative eye to create something that works.
The key to this bouquet comes in the shop-
ping. We bought our the fowers from the
San Francisco Flower Mart. We
selected fowers all in the same color
scheme, with a wide variety of textures.
A rule of thumb is if youre going to use a
variety of colors, keep the textures similar.
Select six to ten types of
fowers and fller. Yes, you will need it.
Always pick a few highlight fowers from across
the color wheel, to make your main colors stand
out and not fade together. Here we used green.
Start with the typical, basic construction
technique: build your base with three fowers,
continually wrap the fowers with foral tape, add-
ing a balance of main fowers, and occasional
accent fowers. Create groupings of the
same textures, interspersing soft with hard
textures. For a wild style select wild looking
fller, being longer than your main fowers. When
you are done prune back any extra leaves. Then
cover with a neat wrap of foral tape. Wrap
the taped stems with a colored yarn, or what-
ever wrap fabric you prefer (we used a hand
died yarn in the same color as the main fowers).
Secure with pins or hot glue in tiny dots.
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Use your creative eye to
create something
that works.
Build your base with three fowers,
continually wrap the fowers with
foral tape, adding a balance of
main fowers, and occasional
accent fowers.
13
Publication sponsored by:
Glamour Gowns
The perfect gowns for
the night you say your vows.
14
The purple &
coral pallete
Blooms to Bouquets featured wedding of the month
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Find more on our blog & store:
www.blooms-to-bouquets.com
A
ddressed To:

Liese Zahabi
4600 S. Harrison Blvd
Ogden, Utah 84044
POSTAGE