I’m not a huge fan of store-bought bouquets, but I adore fresh-cut flowers.

When we first moved into the apartment, I’d make it a point to buy some fresh-cuts for the house every week 🙂 It is rather convenient as we have a floral market right next to our house.

When I first started, I’d just buy a single type of flower and stick the bunch into the vase. I slowly became more interested in combining different colours and types of flowers, especially after I started flower-shopping at the bigger floral markets along Thomson Road 🙂

Since the pregnancy, I haven’t been that diligent in bringing the blooms home because to prolong the beauty of these babies, you need to treat the flowers properly when you first bought them and diligently change the water every day and trim the stems.

My last attempt at arranging flowers was on Valentine’s Day. I love the sweet, pastel colour of the bunch but after reading up about flower arranging, I see some problem with the arrangement – particularly the overly-florished (or crowded) foliage a the bottom of the vase.

About a week back, I was shopping online for some lovely bouquets to order for my parents-in-law’s wedding anniversary. Saw a gorgeous bunch which costs a gasping $150. So I had this crazy idea to attempt at putting together a DIY hand-tied bouquet on my own.

The night before the anniversary celebration, we went shopping at the flower market to ensure that the flowers are fresh and nice but, unfortunately, that was a day right after Mother’s Day and seemed like all the more interesting flowers are out of stock 🙁

I had a colour scheme in mind for the bouquet so we just picked some different flowers based on that. I also picked up some proper tools for the job such as the florist’s scissors, wires and tapes.

I was mad excited to start! But first, I had to trim and treat the flowers to ensure that the stems are not too long to work with and that the thorns from the roses and leaves from the lower part of the flowers are removed. This allows the flowers to absorb water better and the leaves and stem will be less likely to rot due to prolong contact with water.

My excitement worn off quite a bit when I was trimming the thorns from the 5th rose in the batch of 20 -_- Honestly, that was not my idea of fun, and it needed A LOT of patience.

After finally treating and trimming all the flowers that night, I left them in vases about 1/3 filled with water and popped a panadol into the water as I heard that it helps to keep the flowers fresh.

Woke up bright and early for the real action the next day!

As you can see, I cheated a little 😛 The hydrangea is  already in a gorgeous round shape so I used it to guide the shaping of my bouquet, slowly adding the roses and carnations around to fill up the spaces.

When creating a round hand-tied bouquet, remember to add each new stem into the bouquet at an angle so that the stems also form a circular shape at the bottom.

Hold the arrangement tightly and adjust the height of the individual stems if necessary. I used a couple of wires and florist tape to keep the arrangement in shape.

And finally, as with the best part of preparing a present, the wrapping!

I chose 2 colours of tissue wrapper. The pale yellow to contrast with the bright tones of the bouquet and the pink to compliment the carnations.

I had wanted to add a pale yellow silk ribbon to finish off the bouquet but could not find it at home, so I used the twine. The shape and arrangement was not as organic as I had liked it to be,  but I love the colours and the touch of rustic from the twine 🙂

I was left with about 1/3 of the flowers which could not fit into the bouquet so I gladly placed them on the TV console 🙂 With proper trimming and changing of water, the blooms are still in full glory till today!

So is it more worth it to create your own DIY hand-tied bouquet compared to buying one? Here’s a cost break-down for those who are curious:

20 Roses – $15 (I used about 12 stalks)
20 Carnations – $12 (I used about 12 stalks)
1 Hydrangea bunch – $10
Wrappers – $8 for 10 sheets (I used 3 pcs)

Effectively, for less than $50, you can create 1 big and 1 small bouquet. But in terms of effort, it really depends if you’ll enjoy the process 🙂 I enjoyed most part of it (yes, except the thorns pruning part) so I am definitely looking forward to creating my next bouquet when I get the chance!

If you wish to give flower arranging a shot, HGTV provides a bunch of really useful links on that 🙂

Have fun!