Camilla’s beautiful DIY bridal bouquet -and how to make it.

July 7th 2018 we had this beautiful, amazing celebration of love in our family. Young mr&mrs Loennecken (Camilla and Edvin) had a wonderful wedding. It was all located at a farm on the southern coast of Norway, outdoors in beautiful surroundings and amazing, warm summer weather everything perfectly arranged in beautiful, summery and playful boho style by the young couple.

You might already know I’m the grooms mom … and I’m so so happy and thankful and blessed to call Camilla my daughter in law. She is a beautiful young person inside and out. We all Love her so much!

From the very first time this girl set her foot in our home six years ago (even if she was only a very shy and barely 17 year old young girl at that time) she was one of us and part of the family.

So, while Camilla and Edvin planned their wedding Camilla wanted to make things herself, creating and doing things her own way and I was so so honoured and deeply thankful when she asked me if I wanted to make her wedding flower bouquet with her. Wow!! What a honour!

I’m no flower decorator or used to make flower arrangements so this was exciting.

We looked at some YouTube videos on how to do it and collected ideas.

She wanted the style to be a bit bohemian, playful, soft, light and summery. This was the theme for the wedding and her color palette was cream, pink and green.

Today I want to share how we created her wedding flower bouquet, and step by step walk you trough how we made it and how you easily can make your own.

After doing this I’ll strongly recommend you try making your own bouquets and flower arrangements. It was so incredibly fun and we had the best time ever doing this together.

Most people get their wedding bouquet made professionally in the flower shop so deciding on making her own diy-flower bouquet for her wedding was a brave and unexpected decision by my wonderful daughter in law. I am sure she is a perfect new mrs Loennecken…. seems like we all are happy homemakers in our clan. 🤩

Now on to the making:

The wedding flower bouquet

Please don’t feel intimidated. Making your diy flower arrangement is not difficult or for flower professionals only. It’s not too time consuming and it’s definitely a really affordable way to make the bridal bouquet, the bouquets for the groom and flower girls or brides maids and even decorations for the tables all using the same flowers and style and make it just the way you want it.

Time and place

Weused aprx one hour preparing and making the bouquets.

We bought all the flowers at the local flower shop, kept the flowers in buckets of water until we started creating and arranging, then we arranged all the flowers on the outdoor table and had our “flower shop ” outdoors on the balcony.

We made the bouquets in the evening the day before the wedding .

What You’ll Need

• 30 to 60 stems of a hardy flower like the rose and lisianthus. We used 10 Of each color rose; cream, pink/cream and pink and added in a bouquet of cream lisianthus. Our bouquet was aprx 25cm ( 8-9 inches) wide.

• Two bouquets (or a good bunch) of white gypsophila

• Greenery, green leaves to add in to the bouquet.

• Bucket with water

•paper towels

• Ribbon, pink or any preferred color, aprx 2,5 cm wide (we used aprx 3 meters for the bridal bouquet and bows for the flower girl bouquets)

• Flower thread (and green waxed floral tape)

• Stem cutter or very sharp knife

• (Stem stripper)

• Straight pins or pearl-tipped corsage pins

Preparing the Flowers

• Use your hands or a stem stripper to remove excess foliage and thorns, and pull off damaged or unattractive outer petals.

• Place the stems in a bucket filled halfway with cool water until you are ready to use them.

• Keep the stems long while you work with them and trim them to a shorter length when you’ve finished constructing the bouquet.

Assembling the Flowers

• Take one stem at a time with one hand, and use your other hand to hold the flowers in place.

• Assemble two flowers at an even height, the stems crossed, add in a third flower to make a triangle shape. These will be at the center of the dome.

• Arrange the other flowers one by one around the center flowers. We added the flowers always to the left of the last added flower in a spiralling movement, rotating the bouquet as we worked round and round to create a dome shape.

• We alternated using the three colors of roses, the cream lisianhus and added in lots of gypsophilia and greenery to make the bouquet more bohemian and soft looking.

• You can add in more greenery at the end of the process to make a green collar for the bouquet.

Securing the Bouquet

• When the bouquet is finished secure the stems with a green flower thread to bind the stems at the spot where they naturally join (about 3 to 4 inches below the flower heads).

• Wrap the thread around the stems a few times and secure with a tight knot.

• Repeat the binding 2 inches from where you’ll cut the end of the stems.

• Either place the stems in water and wrap them later or continue to Step 4.

Finish the Handle

• Cut the stem ends so they are all the same length, about 7 to 8 inches long.

• Dry off the stems with a paper towel.

• If you like wrap the stems using the flower tape to assemble.

• Cut a length of ribbon about three times as long as the length of the stems.

• Tuck the end of the ribbon inside the top bind and start wrapping in a spiral down the length of the stem.

• When you reach the bottom, wrap in a spiral back up the stem.

• At the top, tuck the cut end of the ribbon underneath and secure with a couple of pins pushed through the ribbon and into the stems.

• If you’d like a bow, cut a separate length of ribbon and tie it just beneath the flower heads.

Preserving the Bouquet

• Store the bouquet in the refrigerator or a cool place until you are ready to leave for the ceremony.

The grooms bouquet

• we used the three main flowers

• 1 cream rose, 1 pink rose and 1 cream lisianthus

• We added in a little bit gypsophilia and greenery.

• The stems secured with green flower thread. Add flower tape to assemble the stems if you like or just leave them and cut at a few inch under flower head.

• We added two pins to back of bouquet to fasten it to the grooms suit.

Flower girl bouquets

•the flower girl bouquets are made using the remaining flowers and the same technique as the brides bouquet just a lot smaller.

Table decorations.

We bought one extra bunch of cream lisianthus and pink roses and used these in small vases along with remaining gypsophilia and greenery. It made one of each flower and just a little bit green. We wanted it simple and not too high or too much on the table and we were totally pleased with the result. This idea made it simple to follow the color palette Camilla wanted for her summery wedding.

After the ceremony we added the flower girls bouquets and the bridal bouquet to the main tables along with a larger matching bouquet on the bridge&groom table for extra beautiful decorations.

I feel so happy and blessed the girls, Jarle and I got to join Camilla and Edvin in their preparations for their big day. I was so impressed by the young couple and all the hard work they put in to make sure their wedding guests should have the best celebration. They had made and prepared and decided and hosted it all by themselves and it became all beautiful. I’m so happy to see how they manage to make stuff, create, find creative solutions and do things their own way. They are for sure real Loenneckens. 😊 if you like I can cover more of their great and fun ideas on their take on the wedding guestbook, photoboot, outdoors, table decorations and more.

Now I hope you feel inspired to make your own bouquet. Don’t feel intimidated it’s really not hard at all(!) it’s fun and a wonderful activity to make together with your bridesmaids, sisters, mother, MIL or friends. You don’t have to get married to make a bouquet either… you can make a beautiful flower arrangement as a gift or a decoration for a party at your home.