So I continue to add clusters and individual flowers, and it’s gotten so big that I actually use two hands to spin the bouquet to make sure that I don’t have any spaces where I need a flower. When I feel like it’s big enough and thick enough, and everything from my hand down is nice and clean, I can, because it’s becoming really heavy with these long stems, trim up the stems. I’m going to leave them a little longer than I would necessarily need them, just because I can always trim up, but I can’t add length, so trim up the stems. And I’m going to take this up and secure it together before I finish trimming the stems. So I’m going to use two kinds of tape. I’m going to use this very thick floral tape that’s rubbery, and it’s really good for holding things. Even if the stems are a little bit wet you can use this tape and it will secure them.
So I usually hold the bouquet in one hand really really tightly, and then I take the tape and I place it just above the hand so I can use my index finger to stick the tape on. And then I pull and wrap around. And I’m going to secure the bouquet in two places, so here just under the neck of the bouquet. Twisting it around, and pulling tight. And you’ll feel with this tape that it’s already quite secure, even just with one little layer of tape. I’m going to secure it again down the handle and I want to arrange any of the stems that have gotten askew. But secure it again down the handle so that it’s going to create a nice shape in here. There’s going to be nothing jagged so if there’s anything you need to pull out just do so. Second piece of tape. Hold the bouquet really firmly in your hand, place the tape just above the hand. Use your index finger to hold it down, and pull and wrap around.
Now I have a nice base for my handle.
Here comes the second kind of tape. And this is, because now that we have secured it, we need to create a surface on which we could then put a ribbon.
Ribboning will be next. So we’ll pull out some of this thick floral tape that’s nice and stretchy. And I like, for a bridal bouquet, to start taping actually in between those two pieces of thick tape. So hold it down with your finger and pull, and then I wrap all the way up and all the way down. So I want to cover all of that thick tape that we just placed. And just pull the tape. And there you have that handle.
And now I can actually cut the stems. Maybe I want them a little bit shorter, so I’m going to cut them around here.
So when making a bridal bouquet, you can trim the stems as long or as short as you see fit. And when you cut them, you want to take your clippers and angle them and wedge them under some of the stems and just make a nice even cut. Ultimately the goal here is to make this bottom a clean line, straight across with a blunt cut. So if it takes a few passes to get that done, just go ahead and do it. Little stems will fly all over the place, but that’s OK.
And I’m looking at the bottom time to see. It’s a nice way to understand how flat your surface is.
And then just keep tilting it up to look. But that is how you create a bridal bouquet.