DIY: Boutonniere

Originally I had our florist include all 16 boutonnieres we would need in the initial quote.  So technically, I can afford to pay $7.00 per bout, although when you think about it, $112 for boutonnieres seems a little crazy!

Yesterday while I was wandering through Hobby Lobby, I decided I was going to make my own.  So I bought some white roses, green hydrangeas, and some really cute green stick things that I guess pass as berries?  Anyways, they're super cute as you'll soon see, and the perfect chartreuse green.

Well my first attempt was a fail.  If you need photographic proof, here it is.

It's not totally bad, I just don't like it.  I posted it here for about a day, and started a discussion about it over on Weddingbee, hoping you guys could convince me to like it.  But it just wasn't happening.  The stem is way to skinny, the "berries" are too long, and it's actually pretty big.  All of those things are fixable, but somehow I just didn't feel like trying with this one.  I just didn't like it enough.

So I started again.  And this time I came up with something I think will work.  I made 5 of them, so I must be pretty pleased with the way they look.  Here is the almost finished product.  (It still needs ribbon wrapped around its base).

As you can see I decided to completely forgo the white rose, and just stick with an all green bout.  This will match the girls' bouquets, so it's better anyways.

How-to:

Step 1.  Start with a leaf, and three pieces of "stick-like things" which I'll refer to as berries from here on out.

Step 2.  Attach one of the berries using floral tape.

Step 3.  Attach the second berry, so that they form a "V".

Step 4.  Attach the third berry, smack dab in the middle.

Step 5.  Add in the bits of hydrangea, filling to your preference.

I wrapped around the base with floral tape a few times just to smooth everything out and make sure it isn't going to go anywhere.

I'm going to add to this either black or white ribbon, I just haven't decided yet.  I'd like to do black, but I think it's going to blend into the tuxes too much, unless I add white to it.  So we'll so what I come up with, and I'll make sure to share with you guys when I do!

Price Breakdown of 5 Bouts:

Hydrangeas (50% off @ 9.99) = $4.99

Floral tape = $1.99

Berries = (50% off @ 2.99) = $1.50

TOTAL = $8.48

Price per bout = $1.70

I currently have enough hydrangeas left to make 3 or 4 more bouts, and the berries will probably get me through all of them.  The tape came two to a pack, so there will be plenty of that.  So when it's all said and done, I'm looking at less than $1.00 per boutenniere, which will save me about $96.00