Ideas for an unusual bouquet

[Kaloki]

Shopping for a floral wedding bouquet is hideously expensive, which seems crazy to me as cut flowers don't last too long. So we've decided to either find someone who makes cheaper, non-floral types of bouquets. Or make it myself.

So two questions, either do you know of anyone who makes alternatives to floral bouquest? Or do you have any ideas of different types of bouquets and how to make them?

A fan maybe? or feathers?

fake flowers? dried flowers? my bouqet was a mix of fake and real flowers, no one could tell the difference.

Giant colourful lollipops?
Those windmill things you get at the seaside?
How about 1 giant sunflower tied with a pretty ribbon to match the bridesmaids?
Paper origami flowers?

This website is fantastic for inspiration...

www.rockmywedding.co.uk/category/diy/

I almost went with a beautiful japanese fan painted with love birds but had flowers in the end.

I still have the fan. I was going to tie ribbons to it to give it length.

i think cut flowers are lovely. so what if they only last a day, thats all you need

I made my own and my bridesmaids in January (cold, no wild flowers).

I got a couple of artificial bits (a thistle and some small white ones) that cost a little. Then added twigs from my aunties curly tree (all the twigs were twisted into v interesting/decorative shapes). Tied these together with florists tape as a base then added some Tesco flowers (basic flowers that looked nice) as looked good then stole some ivy from a neighbour (it was a middle of the night job) to bulk it out with foliage.

It was really unique and actually looked pretty good (even if I say so myself). Some of my foliage had berries on too, as was natural for that time of year.

I'm going to have hydrangeas (cheap, for the time of year of my wedding) and loads of little pinwheels made from felt. Plan B was just loads of felt pinwheels.

Bloom and green do silk bouquets- they are expensive but will last forever.

I seen a gorgeous one made out of brooches on one of these wedding programmes on tv.
The bride awas a designer and had made it herself with old brooches into the same shape as a tied rose bouquet half spere kind of thing. If that makes any sense at all)

Do what I'm doing! I got my friends to each make a flower (some very crafty ones made two or three) and I'm fixing them all together. It's lovely, really colourful. We did a bit of flower making in the aftrenoon of my hen do too. Pictures on my profile of some of them laid out, but I've not fixed them together yet :)

Bridesmaids will be holding wooden roses, which are dirt cheap on ebay.

here

my sister had some herbs in her bouquet, like rosemary and there was also something like cowparsely or some other (very pretty) weed / wildflowers.

how far do you live from a wholesaler? If you are in london, try new covent garden market
www.newcoventgardenmarket.com/
you don't need to be in the trade to go...

I had some beautiful silk flowers - red roses and ferns. That was 4 years ago and I now have them displayed in a vase in our lounge. There were some really awful looking ones around but I found a lady at a local craft centre who did realistic ones. I'll put a photo on my profile so you get an idea.

I keep looking at the wild flowers growing on the way to nursery, but I thought it was illegal or just generally bad to pick wild flowers?

Romilly70 I had some rosemary in my wedding bouquet too - it's for remembrance, so represented close family who we had lost to cancer in recent years.

Mine came from the flower stall at the market. We ordered a whole load of sweet peas and freesias in all available colours and just tied our own bouquets and plonked bunches in plain glass Ikea vases for table centres. I had pale blue bridesmaids and matching coat-thing for me so the rainbow flowers looked stunning against that.

ooooh GladioliBuckets I LOVE sweet peas - they smell divine!

Someone I know had one made from buttons on wires with lots of lace... like this and this

another person knitted her own :)

A friend of mine collected lots of brooches, earrings, pendants, buttons, pearls and things from her family members, and had it all made into a bouquet, in a sort of posy shape. It was lovely.

Beaded flowers? There's a brilliant technique called French Beading where you thread small beads onto wire and twist them into flower shapes. I used to do that ages ago! It doesn't take long to learn and is very therapeutic. (Takes a while though!)

Alternatively, you could look on Etsy and Folksy and see if anyone would do that for you. They'd be heavy though, a whole bouquet-full. But would last forever. You could have a few choice blooms set off by feathers or artificial ivy, etc.

eg Ahem. Those are absurdly over-priced! These are cheaper and nicer, I think, but still steep.

Much cheaper! You could buy a few from her and it would look lovely. If this is at all your taste, that is!

My sister had one with feather flowers I'll see if I can find some photos. It was very effective. A friend of my mother's made it not sure whether she takes general commissions or not.

There's someone online who makes them out of towels and facecloths.