The Wedding Bouquet

It's me again!!! Blogging two days in a row, almost unheard of!!

I have a lovely little treat to share with you this evening and I am so super excited about it! 

A project that has brought me a huge amount of joy to make. Not only because its full of crafty goodness, but because it turned out simply perfect! 

This project started off a few months ago when Dennis' best friend Bianca asked us if we would do the honour of making her bridal bouquet for her Springtime wedding. Bianca wanted something extra special for her big day and something handmade and heartfelt definitely seemed to tick all boxes.

Dennis and I put our heads together to brainstorm ideas.  We wanted to create something elegant, sophisticated and above all, gorgeous. 

We looked at traditional wedding bouquets, made of real flowers. 

We considered using  felt, fabric or already made silk flowers, but of course settled upon the craft we know best.....crochet!

Bianca had given us an idea of her wedding dress colours, so we tried our best to incorporate these into her bouquet. 

Soft vintage pinks and traditional cream were the foundation to this project. With the colours at hand Dennis and I got going in working to gather to make our ideas become  a reality.

With a variety of colour appropriate embroidery floss, Dennis and I got to work making some cute crocheted flowers

We added some pure woollen flowers to the mix and we were on track to wedding bouquet bliss!

We bought a selection of pins that would be used to secure our crocheted flowers when the time came to form the bouquet.

We bought a selection of polystyrene shapes that we had decided to use as the foundation of the bouquet.

With our basics in place, we got to work creating crafty havoc!!

We crocheted flowers by the dozen!

Adding pearled pins to the smaller flowers added a nice touch.

We covered cardboard with crocheted chains and ribbon making a smooth seam to the construction of the bouquet.

A round of crochet picot trimming not only covered the join between the cardboard base and the polystyrene body, but also added a beautiful and delicate contrast to the ribbon.

We also covered the polystyrene body with crocheted chains. This was a fast but effective way of covering the polystyrene. We chose to cover the polystyrene just in case any of it could be spotted through the arrangement of flowers. 

Now to the fun part.....
Adding the flowers!
We pinned each flower to the polystyrene to check the arrangement before properly securing them.

With the flowers added, we had a rather splendid looking arrangement. The base was looking all neat and pretty...

and the join from the base to the arrangement was clean and flawless.

Now onto the finishing touches.
We weaved some ribbon, which was rather fiddly but had pleasing results.

We attached it to the stick that was to be the handle of the bouquet. We then wound the stick with ribbon and secured it with fabric glue to create a rather elegant baton.

Finally we added the baton to the arrangement and our creation was finished!

I don't mean to blow my own trumpet, but I'm so pleased with it and know that Bianca will love it!!

It is detailed and pristine in it's assembly.

It's pretty and frilly. Above all it's personal! We added a little silver anchor as a symbol of Bianca's future husband who is a marine.

Of course we had to have a little photo shoot to celebrate out creation, before we pass it onto Bianca so she can celebrate her special day!

 

I hope that it's everything that Bianca was hoping for. A memento of the love that Dennis and I put into making it, but also a lasting memory of the love that her marriage will be built opon. 

I'm feeling a little soppy!!!

OOOOOOH I love a good wedding!!

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