As an event designer, my clients expect me to infuse personalized, unique details into every aspect of their wedding. While bouquets and boutonnieres are often very beautiful, being able to make them completely custom with personalized ribbon creates an instant heirloom. The ribbon can then be kept after the wedding, glued into your scrapbook, handed down to your daughter to wrap around her bouquet. It's these personalized details that make wedding decor so important - to be able to create traditions and heirlooms for the new family that you are creating by getting married to your partner. Here are my favorite two techniques for tying ribbons around bouquets and boutonnieres:
Cut an 18" long length of the 1/4" wide personalized ribbon. Tie the ribbon in a knot around the boutonniere stems near the bottom of the flowers.
Wrap the ribbon ends around to the back of the boutonniere stems, crossing them in the back.
Wrap the ribbon ends back to the front, crossing them over each other.
Continue wrapping the personalized ribbon like this until you get near the bottom of the stems. Tie in a knot at the back of the boutonniere. Cut off the extra ribbon.
Now let's wrap your bridal bouquet. As the base, I used the 1 1/2" double faced satin ribbon in Champagne. Cut a 12" length of the satin ribbon and use a corsage pin to attach it to the bouquet stems.
Wrap the ribbon around, leaving a few inches of stems at the bottom. Fold in the end of the ribbon and secure it with a few corsage pins.
Now we are going to add the pretty flowing ribbons on the bouquet. Layer 18" lengths of personalized ribbon, 1 1/2" satin ribbon, and 5/8" satin ribbon.
Fold the group of ribbons at about the 4" mark. Use a corsage pin to attach to the bouquet.
Create another grouping of ribbons that is slightly longer, around 22" long. Fold this group around the 6" mark and attach to the bouquet with a corsage pin.
Cut the ends of the ribbons at a diagonal. Hold the bouquet up and cut some ribbons shorter than others, creating a pretty layered look.