The past few days have seen floral tests of great precision going on in this house.

I was really pleased with the variety of flowers I bought from the flower market on Wednesday. Next step was to test my own abilities at arranging them along with their longevity (because we’re driving up to Shropshire before the wedding, I need to buy the flowers four days in advance of needing them in the arrangements).

Last Friday afternoon was the designated bouquet arranging practice time. Saturday was the litmus test as to whether the flowers would still look good four days after I brought them home. And both tests were passed with flying colours…

Before embarking on the practice flower arranging, I felt pretty confident about the table vases (I stick flowers in little jugs all the time at home. I know that I, at least, think they look nice…) and I figured the buttonholes wouldn’t be too tricky since I had plans to do something really simple. But, I confess, I was a little nervous about the bouquet. I wanted something simple, natural looking and abundant. My fear was that this might be one of those times where making something look simple took a lot more artistry and care than making something look formal…

But, after only about 15 minutes of putting the flowers together, I ended up with this little beauty. Impressed? Yes! Pleased? Yes! Proud of myself? Exceedingly so!

Ignoring the fact this almost certainly means total and utter disaster when I come to make the actual real bouquet in a  few weeks time, I thought I’d share a few tips for anyone else who, like me, isn’t a florist but is hoping to do all their own flowers.

(Interspersed with lots more photos of the bouquet, as well as the buttonholes and the prototype table arrangements…)

Trial run

I would say it is imperative, both for your sanity and confidence, to do a trial run in advance. I went to the wholesalers this last Wednesday to buy the flowers, conditioned them when I got home (read on for more on that) and then left them to sit for two days, since this will be exactly what I will do in two weeks for the actual wedding. Then on Friday, I made the bouquets, buttonholes and table arrangements and left them until Saturday to see how well everything lasts with the exact same time frame I’ll be using in a few weeks. Anything that wilts, can’t stick around that long (or simply doesn’t look nice) can be abandoned now, rather than facing the disappointment of being greeted with droopy flowers on the wedding day itself. (Nothing wants to be droopy on my wedding day, thanks. Nothing.)

The only down side of this is the additional cost. As I was buying wholesale, I couldn’t just buy one or two stems of the flowers I wanted, but had to get a whole bunch of each one. I’ve used one poppy seed head in the bouquet, for example, but had to buy ten. However, for a start my house is now stuffed full with flowers; I’ve made myself popular with neighbours, friends and family by thrusting bunches on them and — in the grand scheme of things — I am still saving so much money compared to the cost of buying flowers from a florist that it felt like a reasonable hit to take.

To give you an idea, everything I bought this week cost me £94 including VAT and I think I will spend just a little more than double that on the actual flowers in a fortnight. I think I could have feasibly saved a few of the things I bought and used them then (the wax flowers and chinch will definitely last that long…) but I got carried away with arranging them and giving them away.

The other important thing about a trial is it allows you to work out exactly how many flowers you’ll need to buy. I was surprised to realise that for my table arrangements I will need only three or four stems per milk bottle. I would have hugely over-ordered on the table flowers if I hadn’t trialled these all first.

Containers and other bits and pieces

I would also recommend trialling the flowers with exactly the containers / ribbon / string you’re planning on using.

My table flowers are all going in little milk bottles I bought in Hong Kong. (Okay, eight of them are, the rest are going in normal clear milk bottles…)

I was really shocked how few flowers I needed to fill this up, so I tried out some in a jam jar as well. This also looked nice (though less nice and less striking) but used about four times as many flowers. And of course, four times the flowers equals four times the cost. I am so pleased I tried this all out now, rather than just spending too much money before the day on the assumption I would need loads of flowers for the tables.

I also bought some florist’s scissors (£8.50) and some florist’s tape (I can’t remember how much, but a matter of pounds I think) which not only made me feel like a complete pro, but also made the job much easier than had I used my kitchen scissors (a consideration for some time…)

Conditioning the flowers

I read up a lot about conditioning flowers before heading off to the market. Basically, if you buy flowers wholesale, they won’t be treated in advance (as they would from a florist) so they wilt more quickly unless you do this yourself. All I did is fill buckets a third full of water (about six litres for my buckets), added a quarter of a Milton sterilising tablet to each bucket and five teaspoons of white sugar. You could use a couple of drops of bleach instead of the Milton. Stick the flowers into the buckets and then leave them in a cool, dark place overnight before arranging them. I’ve been amazed how well my flowers have lasted. Four days after I bought them, they look perkier and happier than the day I brought them home.

Insanely early hours of flower markets

If you can, once you’ve done your bleary-eyed early morning trial run, arrange for your flower market / wholesaler to deliver the actual wedding flowers to you. The new Covent Garden flower market was a selection of five or so stalls who take part in UK-wide delivery (though they thought Shropshire was a bit too far) and lots who will deliver within London. Check whether the markets or wholesalers near you have a similar system.  On your trial run, you can find the stall you like and have all the conversations face to face with them in advance. Then, when it comes to getting the flowers for the day itself, you can simply telephone through the order.

Arranging

I’m not going to even try and tell you about arranging the flowers, as I am clearly far from an expert. All I will say is that there is lots and lots of information from experts online. My wedmin board on Pinterest has a few Youtube clips and tutorials pinned about spiralling the flowers and how to arrange bouquets etc. I watched all of these and then just held a flower in one hand and added on stems to it one at a time until I thought it looked nice. But actually, this was much much easier than I was anticipating.

So there you have it! A few tips and hints from a total amateur. If I can do it, so can you…

Related articles:

• For full info on all of the flowers I’ve used in these arrangements, see my post from yesterday: late summer wedding flowers