Our oldest son is getting married in May and the wedding details are slowly falling into place. In order to keep costs down and to add personal touches we are doing some of the things for the wedding ourselves. One of the things I volunteered to do is make the wedding bouquets.
Ages ago I wrote a post about different colour bouquets that would coordinate with a red bridesmaid dress (which you can read here). Christie, my daughter-in-law-to-be, looked at the choices and decided that she preferred an assortment of bright flowers (like in the last few photos). I searched on-line for directions that looked manageable on how to tie the ribbon around the stems to hold the flowers in place and have found several good sources (for example here and here).
Since it's always fun to look at wedding bouquets I've pulled together some images so we can consider what style of handle would be best. I was not able to find all of the bouquets in the colours we will be using, but you can still get the idea of how the handle is formed. There appear to be eight main handle wrap styles:
1) The ends are tied into a bow (sometimes a big bow as in the first photo or sometimes smaller as in the second and third photos).
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| Martha Stewart |
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| Bride |
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| Bride |
2) The ends of the ribbon can be tied in a simple knot with the ends left trailing.
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| Martha Stewart |
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| Wedding Dream |
3) A wide ribbon is used to wrap the handle and another narrower ribbon is layered on top to finish the look (the first one being a simple version of this and the second one much more complicated).
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| Martha Stewart |
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| Chez Wedd |
4) The ribbon is pinned into the handle with pearl head pins.
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| Wedding of my Dreams |
5) The end of the ribbon is held in place with a decorative button.
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| Martha Stewart |
6) The ribbon on the handle is decorated with one or more pretty brooches.
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| Wedding Flowers |
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| Style Me Pretty |
7) The handle is wrapped with a handkerchief embroidered with the wedding date.
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| Martha Stewart |
8) Moss or vines are wrapped around the ribbon to finish the handle. Although I think this looks really pretty, it might be a bit messy.
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| Brides |
Aren't they all so gorgeous. It is hard to decide what style of handle wrap looks best. I'll be interested to hear what Christie says.
Once I began collecting inspiration photos, I realized there is a second decision to be made - what colour of ribbon to use. There seem to be three main choices.
1) Green so it blends in with the colour of the stems.
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| Better Homes and Gardens |
2) White so it coordinates with the bridal gown.
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| Better Homes and Gardens |
3) A colour taken from the flowers or the bridesmaids' dresses.
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| Better Homes and Gardens |
I think looking at those pretty flowers was just what I needed after months of our long snowy winter.
What type of handle do you like best? Are there any others that I didn't mention?
I'm going to check in with Christie after she reads this post (which I know she does) and see what her preference is.
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