I’m finally following up with part 2 of the Bouquets & Boutonnieres post from January! Hilary and Matt were married in October of 2014. Hilary isn’t into flowers. I think that she likes them when they are in the ground and wants them to stay that way.* But Hilary does like bouquets, so we decided to use faux billy buttons (felted balls about 1″ in diameter) alongside various cones and dried lotus pods in place of traditional flowers. By using these materials, the bouquet should stay intact well beyond their golden anniversary. As they say, pine cones are forever.
It was quite a challenge to put this thing together! I ended up sewing everything through a four inch styrofoam ball, using jewelry wire and a long embroidery needle. To make sure the bouquet was strong enough to withstand the test of time, I shored up every nook and cranny with gobs of hot glue. The glue gun also came in handy for attaching the fragile white skeleton leaves peppered throughout the bouquet.
Next up was the bouquet for Hilary’s sister Melissa, the maid of honor. As you can see, this one is simpler.
This bouquet is composed of larger felted billy buttons (1.5″ diameter felt balls), fake lamb’s ear leaves and white skeleton leaves. As with Hilary’s bouquet, the stems were crafted by wrapping wooden skewers and aluminum wire with green floral tape. Before this project, I had never worked with floral tape and quickly learned to love it. Floral tape is amazing and essential when working with real and fake flowers.
Melissa later told me that she was able to stash a few tissues in her bouquet in case they were needed during the ceremony. I’m pretty sure they were needed!
And last but not least, the spiral cone boutonierres. For these little guys, the bride and groom came over to my apartment and we made them together. To brighten up the boutonnieres (and bouquets), we brushed gold paint onto the spiral cones, matching perfectly with Matt’s bow tie.
Before finding its way to a groomsmen, this lone boutonniere made for a great ring holder.
And here is the lovely couple en route to getting married!
* Side note: Hilary and Matt live on one of the greenest blocks in Brooklyn. I know this because their block won 3rd Place in last year’s Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest organized by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This is no small feat– placing in this contest requires not only interaction but also collaboration among neighbors (a rare phenomenon in NYC), incessant litter patrol, and early morning waterings. The banner totally calls it… “Greening Takes a Village.”
Coincidentally, Sean and I live exactly one block away from Hilary and Matt on the very same street. Our sidewalks look quite different. My favorite plant is this 15 foot tall weed. As you can see, it gets a lot of good light. I’m expecting big things from it…Greenest Block in Brooklyn might be moving one block west this summer!
HEART in CRAFTS 