When planning our wedding budget, we decided to order everything by priority. For us, the venue/dinner sat at the top of the list, followed by the photography and for me, my dress (I actually paid my own savings for the dress a year in advance, so we wouldn’t have to even worry about budgeting for it.) As much as I wanted to sneak in designer flowers, our teacher salaries would not allow it…
Every “affordable” florist we contacted asked for over $1000 just to do half of my floral vision (10 bouquets, 10 centerpieces, 10 boutonnieres…) I was not going to settle for a minimalist floral design, because let’s be real, I would wear a wedding dress adorned with white and blush roses if I could… So, it was DIY flowers for me!
When doing your own wedding flowers, I suggest prioritizing what you want made out of fresh flowers and what you would be okay with being artificial flowers. That way, you don’t overwhelm yourself the days leading up to the wedding. I chose to reserve the days prior to my wedding for fresh bouquets, centerpieces and flower girl crowns.
For me, Boutonnieres and Corsages could easily be artificial, because they aren’t really center stage in wedding photos. I purchased natural looking faux flowers, and the groomsmen AND their wives couldn’t even tell! Boy was I glad that I made these weeks before my wedding! It really became one less thing for me to worry about and the savings were amazing.
The boutonnieres were super easy and even more affordable to make! I got all of my materials 50% off since they are all on sale every other week which was an added bonus. I literally spent just under $15 to make 10 boutonnieres! This was a huge savings considering every florist quoted me for $10-$20 PER boutonnieres. The guys even liked the idea of having a keepsake boutonniere and I’m sure they felt relieved knowing their flower wouldn’t wilt in the Sedona summer temps!
This post contains affiliated links. All opinions on products are 100% my own.
DIY Wedding Boutonnières
Materials Used:
- Main Flower (the more “real” looking, the better!)- exact stems purchased here (50% off every other week)
- Faux Greenery Leaves (My ranunculus stems already came with great greenery!)
- Accent Greenery (I used dried up baby eucalyptus that I purchased months ago from Trader Joes)
- Floral Tape – purchase here
- Floral Wire Cutters – similar set
- Hot Glue Gun – similar
- Boutonniere/Corsage pins – not pictured, but I bought mine here (50% off every other week)
Step 1:
Measure and cut around 3 inches of the stem. 1 Stem made 2 adult sized and 1 child sized boutonniere.
Step 2:
Pull off a one of the leaves to use. Luckily, this faux ranunculus stem came with attractive leaves that kind of resembled dusty miller! This would also look great with silver dollar eucalyptus, but I just decided to use every bit of what I had already paid for.
Step 3:
Measure and cut about 3 inches of your spiral eucalyptus. Rosemary sprigs, lavender and reed grass would look great as well! There are tons of faux options at craft stores as well!
Step 4:
Layer your boutonniere in the way that you want the final product to look. Plug in your hot glue gun!
Step 5:
Glue from the bottom layers up.
Step 6:
Glue the flower in place.
Step 7:
Wrap floral tape around boutonniere. This part is really optional, however I felt it made the piece look more real and uniform. (opposed to chunks of leftover glue from the sloppy job I did with the glue gun ha!)
Finished Product:
I was super happy how these turned out! They honestly looked real once the groomsmen and fathers were wearing them! At least, that is what people were telling me.
Honestly, I was just relieved that there was 1 less thing on my to-do list to worry about prior to the wedding. This was totally worth the huge savings in time and money for me! I hope this helps you out as well 🙂
Pin it! (on your man’s tux, and on Pinterest)
