wedding flowers

[fi]

my friend gets married next sunday. we are making the bouquet with lemon verbena, golden marjoram and lady's mantle for greenery, flowers will depend on the day, maybe sweet-peas, roses, cornflowers. any advice on how to keep the bouquet fresh so everything doesn't flop. wedding is in the afternoon. also any other tips on flowers would be good, how to hold it together.

[fi]

[Sparkly]

I have been looking into this for our wedding and we were told that sweet peas are not good as they will droop very quickly and also each stem would be wiring. Dahlias are meant to work well, but watch the earwigs!

Some good instructional videos:

http://www.ehow.co.uk/video_2274017_prepare-shaping-cascade-bridal-bouquet.html

Are you using a foam handle?

http://www.lainesworld.co.uk/L/product/S-821015.html

The advice I got was to choose sturdy flowers like the dahlias and roses that don't need wiring.

[fi]

only found out last night that i was doing this! foam handle, don't understand! looks like it will be roses, lost all my dahlias last year and new ones only  have small leaves at moment. thanks for advice and links.

[Paulines7]

This post takes me back a bit.  When I got married for the second time in 1974, I wanted a quiet wedding that would not entail a large expense as we wanted to put every penny we had towards the deposit for a house.  I made my own bouquet using roses from my parents garden and covered the stems with foil.  It looked and smelt beautiful and didn't cost an arm and a leg.

I have plenty of white dahlias but I don't know where you are Fi.  If you live near me I could let you have some. 

[rosebud]

 Fi, cut your flowers VERY early in the morning. Second soak them up to there necks in cold water in a very cool place cut them at 45 degrees
= a slanted cut before you put them in water, if you are having roses please DO NOT smash the stems, look at it this way would you like to drink cold water with smashed teeth ;D ;D ;D that came from my Tutor at college when i was training to be a florist, makes sense. ;D, wrap any flowers in foil they look much nicer & put a ribbon on to match the brides outfit.
I hope this helps you lots of luck with it & have a lovely day. ;D ;D

£2 will buy a lovely bunch of gypsophilia?? spelling sorry