Wedding Bouquet Instructions
Added September 6, 2005
First, go here and take a look at the basic instructions. This is the basis for my modified method of creating the stem.
Second, go here for information about which crystal beads and wire to consider. This is the basis for my modified purchases. Yours will be different based on what you want your own bouquets to look like.
Vendors I used:
1. Fire Mountain Gems for the crystal beads. I ordered sample packs of both the Swarovski™ and Celestial beads in the colors I thought I wanted. We opted to go with the more expensive Swarovski™ beads because they sparkle a lot more and the colors are richer. The shape I chose is "diamond" for the maximum sparkle.
My color scheme is white, silver, and navy blue. My wedding gown is white with clear and silver beadwork. I opted to go with 8mm clear diamond beads with 6mm light sapphire and black diamond diamond shaped beads for my bouquet. I went with a 2/3 to 1/3 ratio of clear to colored beads for my 550 stem (roughly) bouquet (300 clear stems, 100 blue stems, 50 black diamond stems, and 50 4mm silver ball stems).
For my bridesmaids I opted for the opposite ratio with 8mm light sapphire diamond shaped beads with 6mm clear and sapphire (dark blue) diamond shaped beads. There are none of the black diamond colored beads in the bridesmaid bouquets since their dresses are navy blue and the beadwork on them is clear. Bridesmaid bouquets have about 350 stems each with 200 light sapphire stems, 100 clear stems, and 50 (dark) sapphire stems.
I also made bouts and corsages. I bought pinbacks to use for these rather than trying to use stickpins. This way they are a more permanent form of jewelry for the ladies. The bouts each have 15 stems; the corsages have 11 stems - backwards size-wise from tradition, I know.
2. Paramount Wire for the wire. I chose 24 gauge clear silver craft wire for the 8mm beads and 26 gauge clear silver craft wire for the 6mm beads. I opted for Paramount because Malin required a larger order than I thought I wanted and the lag time from time of order to time of arrival made me nervous about having sufficient time to make the stems. Paramount has very quick service - my wire arrived within a couple of days of my placing the order. It's very shiny and catches the light nicely when it is twisted into the stem.
For some of the extra stems I made for the florists to use, I used ordinary silver colored florist wire, 26 gauge (which seems to be thicker than the finer quality wire from Paramount). This wire is much cheaper and since most of the wire will be hidden, I didn't worry about it being shiny. I also used some of the cheaper Celestial beads for the stems made for the florists in addition to the leftover Swarovski™ beads.
3. I asked my florists to ribbon all of my stuff since I wasn't confident in my ability to do it well. All of our items are being ribboned with white satin, as far as I know. I will try to post pictures from the wedding day so you can see the finished products.
Modifications to stem-making instructions:
1. The original instructions say to put the bead end of the wire over the cup hook on the drill. I opted to twist the loose ends of the wire around the cup hook and I hooked the folded end with the bead between two rubber coated nails in the end of a board (see picture, also here). My board ended up with a divet from the beads turning against it.
2. The bead is secured below the nails with the wire between the nails. I hold the bead in place with my left forefinger with the wire pulled taut by the drill in my right hand. Then I spin the cup hook/wire slowly until the wire is twisted tightly and evenly to the bead.
3. When the bead stem is twisted to your satisfaction, clip the stem free from the cup hook with wire cutters and remove the remaining wire from the cup hook and discard. You completed stem should be about 13-14 inches long.
4. To assemble the bouquets follow the instructions in the original links. The only advice I can give is to make sure that your stems are secured tightly together before you attempt to fold the bottoms up. If you place a plastic fastener around the stems at the spot where you want to make the fold, it will be much easier. I didn't measure the spot where I made the fold, but I think it was about 4-5 inches from the bottom of the wires. You may want to trim the wires so that they are all the exact same length; I did not do that and I have a few straggled ends that are visible above where the top of the ribbon will be, although you have to really look to see them.
5. You can see a picture of bridesmaid bouquet and here. Note that the ribbon in these pictures is not the final ribbon that I will use. I plan to use a heavy satin ribbon for better coverage of the wire stem, although I will leave the very bottom exposed because I do think it looks sort of cool.
To make the bouts/corsages:
1. I ordered 1.5" pinbacks from Fire Mountain Gems for the bouts/corsages. They come in packs of 10 pinbacks. I ended up doing about 10 boutonnieres and about 15 corsages.
2. Each boutonniere took 15 total stems. I used seven 8mm bead stems and four each of the 6mm colored bead stems. So... (see picture - note that the bouts are not completely finished in this picture. The ribbon is not the final ribbon that will be used.)
Groom bout: 7 clear 8mm stems, 4 light sapphire 6mm stems, 4 black diamond 6mm stems (to coordinate with my bouquet).
Groomsmen bouts: 7 light sapphire 8mm stems, 4 clear 6mm stems, 4 sapphire (dark blue) stems (to coordinate with the bridesmaid bouquets).
3. I placed the stems so that the beads were about 3 inches above the top of the pinback (top of pinback is where the catch of the pin is located, I made the hinge of the pin the bottom). From that point, I staggered the beads until they fanned at different lengths.
4. Holding the stems securely against the base of the pinback, I started to wrap a length of 24 gauge wire around the cluster to fasten together. There are three holes in the base of the pinback - I poked the wire in the middle and top holes to increase the security of the stems to the pinback - to prevent some sliding. Once the wire reached the top of the pinback base, I cut it with wire cutters and folded the end into the stems.
Make sure the catch and hinge are unobstructed by wire.
5. I then folded the stems at the bottom of the pinback, duct taped to secure those ends, and then trimmed the excess with the wire cutters. See pictures here and here.
6. Wrap the base of the clipped stems with ribbon to cover the cut ends and then down the stems/pinback to cover the wire wrapping. Make sure the hinge and catch of the pin are unobstructed. Finish with a pretty bow. I asked my florist to finish the ribboning for me. I will add photos of their finished products when I get them from my official photographer.
