Greetings!
Welcome to Floral Design.
My name is Diana Ryan and today I'm going to design a hand-tied bridal bouquet for you.
It's not a difficult design, but it does take practice, so I suspect the first time you
try it, it may not turn out exactly the way you want it, which is the purpose of this
video.
You can watch it over and over and over, until you're comfortable with your design and it's
the way you want it to be.
All right, let's get started.
The flowers I selected today are pretty much in season year-round.
So, if you want to duplicate this bouquet, it doesn't matter when you view it, you should
be able to get these flowers.
I've got a Hydrangea here - very popular with brides - and Hydrangea is wonderful in a hand-tied
bouquet.
It adds for a great backdrop to some of the flowers.
Also, Asiatic lilies - one thing you want to keep in mind with Asiatic lilies is you
need to remove these stamens, because they will stain the flowers and they will stain
you.
Right now they're at the immature stage, which is great because we want this flower to be
perfect.
So, once you've selected your flowers, you need to strip all of the foliage.
The foliage doesn't do any good in a hand-tied bouquet.
It doesn't help us; in fact, it hinders us.
So you strip all the foliage off.
All right, now let's start with the Hydrangea.
It will be in the center of our bouquet.
I'm also going to put my Asiatic lily toward the middle, because they bruise very easily
and it's a nice bigger flower, it's a trumpet shape.
I'm just kind of nestling it in there within the Hydrangea.
If these were placed on the outside, for sure they'd get banged up and bruised.
I mean one little touch and there's a crease in the flower and we want this to be a perfect
bouquet.
So my next lily I'm going to place again toward the center.
So it's going to look like this, and it will be surrounded by other flowers.
There are buds here.
I'm going to leave them for now.
After I get done, I'll decide if I want to keep them or take them out.
So, I'm going to build this with all my different colors right from the beginning.
Same thing with this stock.
Stock is beautiful because it's got all these blossoms on this stem, which makes for a nice
design in this bouquet.
Next thing I want to do is add some Alstroemeria.
It's got a great bloom to it, lasts a long time, and again, I'm going to kind of weave
it into my Hydrangea, so I spread this red-violet color in here.
You're going to notice I'm doing an analogous color harmony with this bouquet - kind of
the purples and the red-violets.
OK, now let's add a punch of this purple.
This is a carnation.
This actually was not available 5-10 years ago, but the breeders bred a purple carnation.
I just love it.
Now sometimes carnations get a bad rap, because people think of them as an ordinary flower.
I'm a big fan.
I love carnations.
They come in different colors - every color, almost, of the rainbow.
They're sturdy, they're fragrant, they fill in nicely.
So, I'm a fan.
All right, let's take another Alstroemeria.
I want to spread this red-violet color around here.
So I'm placing the bouquet - the stems for this bouquet - kind of to the side.
And let's again weave it in here.
So, I'm going to be seeing the Hydrangea poking its little head out all around.
Now I want to add a little bit of waxflower.
It's a great little filler and it's going to tie in these same colors.
The nice part about waxflowers is the stems are very bendy.
So, I can bend my stems with the waxflower and it's not going to hurt it.
That's not true with most flowers.
So, it gives us a little bit of flexibility and it's going to add a great texture.
I'm going to place it in there and, again, I can weave it in where I want it.
I want a little bit more right up in there.
I love that touch of it.
Waxflower is available year-round.
Probably the best time of year is in the springtime to get it - the blossoms are little fuller
- but you can certainly get it year-round.
That just adds a wonderful texture, I think.
And see, I am bending these stems and it's not hurting them at all.
OK, let's keep adding.
Let's add a little bit more stock.
And when I place these stems, I'm going to be angling them.
If I keep the stems upright, I'm going to have a torch when I'm done, and that's not
what we want.
Our goal here is to get a rounded bouquet.
It's not necessarily a ball, like the pomander, but it is rounded so it looks full and it's
got a nice round shape to it.
So, I'm going to place one stock there.
You know what?
Sometimes you're lucky and you get a curve to the stem.
So let's add that as well over in through here.
You can see my color now is starting to ... and they get a little slippery - I'm not going
to kid you on that - so you've got to hang on to them.
Now, the tips of these stock, I'm not sure if I want to keep it yet.
I've got to keep it right here because it's not exactly round like I want it, but I'm
going to wait until I'm done to give it a final look on that.
The Star of Bethlehem is a great little flower.
This is very unusual.
I love the look of it, I love the green at the tip.
This lime green color is beautiful in bouquets.
It's the color of new growth, so it adds a freshness to bouquets.
Even though this stem is bent, you know what?
It's going to work to our advantage.
So I'm going to place it right in there.
And it's one of those flowers people will look at and go, "What is that?
We like that."
We want people to think our designs are very unique and different.
And I switch hands from time to time, depending on how I want to hold it.
Let's put another Star of Bethlehem over there.
Let's give it a look.
I think it needs a little Alstroemeria over on this side.
And it's starting to fill out...
right in through here.
OK, what else do we need?
How about a little more wax?
Again, I want to weave that - and you know what?
Even these little buds are great, because they look like they're fresh, they look like
they're new.
We want our bouquets to look like they're the freshest flowers possible.
I'm kind of liking that.
Let's give her a twirl.
OK, let's keep adding.
I've got another stock I want to add.
I just love this purple combination.
So again, the stock helps us on the sides of the bouquet because it's still got blooms
coming down.
Maybe a little more of this royal purple.
I think I'll weave it in here.
When you get to this point, you can actually come down in front and just kind of poke it
through.
Hence, another reason you don't want any foliage - that would be difficult.
I can put it right where I want it, right in through there.
Now, if you feel like your flowers are slipping a little bit - I think this lily slipped down
a little bit - I can pull it up very carefully to where I want it.
Again, I don't want to even touch those petals at all.
And I'm going to pull this one up ever so slightly.
Yeah, that's more of the shape I want.
See, my Hydrangea is still poking through there.
So, what other color?
Let's try a little...
I'm a fan of these too.
So let's get more of this purple in here.
I'm going to spread it out evenly.
Let's put it over here to the side.
It just gives a nice richness to the bouquet.
A little bit more wax.
Because I want it to be even, I need some on this side.
You can see, there's not a lot of wax, it's kind of over there.
And I can peel off little pieces if I want.
So let's place it right in here and, again, I'm going to weave it in through the Hydrangea.
Maybe I don't want it poking up that much.
And if I want this blossom over here, I can move it over there, because like I said before,
these wax stems are nice and flexible for us.
Now that's spreading the waxflower a little bit more even.
That's a little bit more of what I'm looking for - maybe a little touch over here.
I just love that, and maybe we'll grab another one.
Give her a look.
How about right over here?
This is probably not going to show, so I'm just going to peel that off.
Now, I really love this celery/ivory/green color.
Here's another carnation that is that color, so this is going to bring the look of the
Hydrangea through the bouquet in a spot, because I'm getting a little dark - you can see over
here.
So, my stems are getting a little long.
I want to kind of add that to it.
That will tie the colors in nicely.
Like I said, carnations are wonderful.
They also look nice as far as the roundedness of my bouquet.
So, I'm liking that.
Let's push this down a little bit - don't want to hide too much.
I'm going to give her a twirl, see if it's the shape I want.
Now let's go back to my buds.
I think I'll leave these buds on the lilies.
I like them there, because you know what, they're not really out of line, because I
have some buds of the waxflower showing here.
We don't want the bouquet to be perfectly round.
The idea is... it looks like you went into the field, gathered flowers, made a bouquet
and then the bride walks down the aisle.
So I like a little bit more loose, a little bit more natural look to it.
OK, let's revisit this stock.
I'm going to pull it up a little bit.
I don't think I want this bud in here, so I'm going to pop that off.
And we can certainly use this in something else - because it's kind of fun.
I think I'm going to take off this blossom too.
These work beautifully in corsage work.
Now I've got more of that rounded feel.
Yeah, I just don't want that one.
How about this guy?
Well, I'm going to pick off a little bit...
doesn't bother me too much.
OK, let's give her a twirl.
This is the shape I want.
I want this rounded.
So let's see if we did that.
Kind of twirl it around.
You know, even though these are up high and this is here, I think I need a little something
right in there to balance out these buds.
So, I think my Star of Bethlehem.
OK, so let's put the Star of Bethlehem in there and you're thinking: Now how am I going
to get that in here - the bouquet is already nice and tight?
Once again, I can go right through the middle.
I give it a little twist so it can find its way through, and because there are no leaves
on this stem, that's pretty easy.
What I'm aiming at here is to balance out those buds right there.
I may need to turn this a little bit.
I think I'm liking that better.
That just kind of - it gives my rounded feel, because I don't want one side to be lopsided
and fall short.
So I think I'm pretty happy with this.
Give it a twirl - don't want to let go - that's for sure!
I may put another - you know what?
On this side, I really like the flowers that are coming down here.
On this side it's a little bit not as full.
So, I'm going to add my carnation.
The carnation stems are more flexible than most, so that definitely helps us.
You know what?
You can never have too much purple.
Let's add a little purple in there.
OK, so let's give this a twirl again.
I may do a few minor adjustments here to get it the way I want it.
I think I'm liking this.
OK, now, we held on to all of this, so now I've got to tie it all together - hence, the
name hand-tied.
I like to use floral tape.
I've worked with it for many years and I'm just real comfortable with it.
There are other materials you can use - wax string (some people like that) - but floral
tape is a little bit stretchy and it adheres to itself, so I'm going to hold it here with
my thumb, and then I'm just going to wrap.
Wrap around like this.
And I'm still hanging on, I don't want to let go.
So, it's just a wrapping movement.
You want to hold all these stems in place.
Let's see how that's doing.
OK, that's holding pretty good.
My bouquet is looking pretty good.
Now, I want to finish...
you know on the back side of my bouquet, you see the stems and the flower heads.
So, I just want to finish it a little bit with some tips of salal.
It's a little thing, but in this industry, the details are huge.
So let's put some salal leaves there just to finish this off.
I'm going to place them around - that's probably out of place - and the nice thing about salal
- it holds up very well.
Even if these stems are not in water, they're going to hold up and I'm not going to have
to worry about them wilting.
So I've got the tips, but you know what?
I probably need to trim off a couple of leaves, just because they're not where I want them.
And I'm going to go all the way around with the tips.
You know what?
I kind of like seeing a few leaves poke through.
Again, it makes it look more natural.
Now, let's tape this.
I'm going to go down a little bit further just to make sure my bouquet is going to tie
in place.
Now, am I hurting the flowers?
Not really, they're OK.
They're flexible enough to where they don't mind a little bit of a bend to them.
OK, now we've got these long stems that we need to cut off, because obviously the bride's
not going to carry this big thing down here.
So, I'm going to cut them off with my clippers.
I'm trying to keep the stems all the same length, because it's going to go in my vase
here.
OK, so those are about the same length.
Let's clip off this little piece of waxflower - don't need those leaves.
And I've got a little bit of a woody stem here with the wax, so let's clip off that
part, because it's going to be in my way.
Come here you, there.
OK, re-adhere that tape.
So this is about the length of the bouquet that the bride's going to carry.
Now obviously we have to finish the stem.
She doesn't want to walk down there with tape and stems showing.
So, we're going to get our ribbon.
We're going to wrap in that.
I chose white.
Most of the brides' dresses are white or ivory.
I prefer to wrap the stem in the color of the dress.
If it were a bridesmaid's dress and she had this deep purple color, I'd wrap the stem
in deep purple.
That way, the color of the holder blends in with the dress and the flowers show up better.
So, I'm starting here with my ribbon and I'm going to hold it with one hand and wrap with
the other.
Once you get going, it's not going to undo for you.
We're going all the way down the stem.
It's just a nice clean finish to cover up all our mechanics.
So, just wrapping down the stem and, you know, it gives the bride a little something to hang
on to - she's probably a little nervous that day.
So, we're going to keep going around.
Now, how far down do I want to go?
She may want to hold it with two hands, so I'm kind of going about two-fifths down.
This is probably about right, so let's cut this.
And then I'm going to turn under the raw edge, fold it.
Once again, it's the detail, make sure that's tight.
Then I'm going to pin it in place, down here below.
We can just pin it up right toward the stems and they stay wonderful.
Don't have to worry about it at all.
So, this is our finished stem and a rounded hand-tied.
It has a natural feel to it, but it's still got our nice round shape.
Then, I always like to send my brides' bouquets in a vase.
That way the flowers can still be drinking water.
They're not going to wilt, and when the bride's not taking pictures or doing other things,
they can place the bouquet back in the vase so it stays fresh.
And I've got just enough water in there to cover up the stems, but it's not going to
get my ribbon wet.
This way it's upright, it's not going to get bounced around, it's not going to get bruised,
it's going to stay beautiful for that very special day.
All right, thanks for joining me.
9