Bridesmaid Bouquets

When I began looking at flowers for the wedding I was blown away by how expensive they can be!  After talking with several florists about the price of a simple nosegay bouquet of roses for my bridesmaids, I decided to try making my own out of silk flowers.

There are three upsides to this choice:
1:  Silk flowers cost a lot less than real ones.  I bought six silk roses for one boquet and it was $6.  This is compared to the $22-$25 I was quoted PER bouquet from the florists I talked to.  That adds up to a lot when I need 8 bouquets!
2:  Silk flowers will not wilt in the hot hot hot August 12th weather here in Missouri.  I have heard horror stories from friends who had real flower boquets in their summer weddings, and they had to travel around with a spray bottle of water to keep the flowers looking good for outside photos.
3:  Silk flowers give me the freedom to work on the bouquets at my leisure between now and the wedding, where as if I choose to make the boquets on my own with real flowers I would be scrambling to make them in the few days leading up to the big day.

I decided on six yellow silk roses per bouquet, and wrapped the base in pewter ribbon.  First I started by wrapping the six flowers together with floral tape:

Here is what one looked like at this point:

I then wrapped over top of the floral tape with pewter ribbon from my Jo-Ann Fabrics trip, securing each end with hot glue.

After each end was secure I cut off the excess flower stems with a wire cutter.

I am insanely happy with how they turned out!  They will look gorgeous contrasting against the pewter bridesmaid dresses.