Bright bouquets are always fun and the way the different shades of purple travel around this design from Floral Designs by Jacqueline Ahne is mesmerizing. Once a month she brings us a beautiful and inspiring Bouquet Blueprint and explains all the things you’ll need to know about it; care, availability of flowers, design tips, boutonniere ideas and more. Always keep in mind the seasonality of the flowers that you choose for your wedding. If your favorite flowers are in season – terrific! If they aren’t in season, some flowers simply might not be available while the price of others can skyrocket. If you are absolutely dead set on a specific flower, you might want to consider setting your wedding date around it’s season! The good this about this bouquet is that the flowers are available year round. It would not only make a terrific option for the bride but it’s also great option for bridesmaids. Or maybe the bride can carry it and each bridesmaids bouquet can be made up entirely of one of the flowers in it!? If you used this combination it would make an amazing ombre effect!

Availability

All of these flowers are available year round! The dahlias are in peak season from summer through fall but can be purchased the rest of the year with a more limited availability. It is always best to preorder all your flowers to ensure they can be sourced.

Care

Dahlias are a thirsty flower and work best if designed within a bouquet holder. The beauty in the stems of this bouquet are made from segments of gladiolas stems which can only be used with a bouquet holder. The handle of the bouquet holder is covered in the stems from the dahlias and gladiolas that are tightly bound and covered with a satin ribbon. To make sure all the mechanics are covered, grey preserved Spanish Moss was glued underneath.

Designing With A Bouquet Holder

There are many advantages to using a bouquet holder when creating a wedding bouquet and this bouquet is a perfect example! In a hand tied bouquet the flower stems need to be long enough to be gathered and bound. This can create a lot of wasted blooms when using certain line flowers such as orchids and gladiolas. Both are such beautiful blooms it’s a shame to waste them! When using a bouquet holder, shorter stems can be used and placement can be more exact. This is a great way to create “bulk” without having to use a high number of flowers.

Recipe

• 10 stems Dahlias
• 4 stems Lavender Gladiolus (fully bloomed, more if not fully bloomed)
• 3 stems Dendrobium Orchid stems
• 5 stems Lisianthus

Boutonnieres

Each of these boutonnières are created from one flower type. This is a great way to create a clean and masculine look for the Groom and his men. They are created from the Lisianthus and Gladiolas blooms and are covered in Spanish moss to coordinate with the brides bouquet. The finishing touch is that they are wrapped in fine purple wire, which accentuates the moss and adds a great texture.

Bouquet Blueprint Credits

Photography: Something Turquoise Photography for Something Turquoise // Florals by: Floral Designs by Jacqueline Ahne // Styling: Jen | Something Turquoise // wedding dress courtesy of: Justin Alexander #8635 // serving board: A Sunny Afternoon