I never counted how many ribbon roses I made before the wedding. Let's just say the number is probably somewhere in the mid-to high-hundreds, and I can now do them in my sleep! They started as something cool I wanted to have in my bouquet, and ended up being visible almost everywhere in the wedding. Basically every spare moment I had sitting in front of the TV was spent making flowers.
The original tutorial was found here. It's a pretty complete tutorial, so definitely check it out. They are super easy to make after the first few.
I played around with how tightly to wind the ribbon and got a large variation in the shape of the flowers. Approximate size is adjusted mostly with the width of the ribbon, so try a bunch of different sizes!
Here are all the different ways I used ribbon roses to decorate my wedding…
Bouquets
How to make semi-kanzashi-style fabric flowers (part 1)
I'm looking to make my bouquet for my wedding myself, and so I've been brainstorming ideas on how best to put together fabric flowers for... Read more
The bouquets were assembled just like a bouquet of real flowers: by working from the inside out, adding different flowers as I went. Then I twisted the stems together a bit and wrapped a little more floral wire around them to keep them in place. So that we wouldn't have to hold on to the sticky floral tape, I wrapped the stem of each bouquet with leftover ribbon and pinned it in place with extra pearl head floral pins that I used for the ric-rack flowers.
Boutonnieres
To go with the bouquets I made for myself and the ladies in our wedding party, I made floral ribbon boutonnieres for all of the guys. Using the same ribbon roses and ric rack flowers as the bouquets tied things together nicely. I had a ton of fun going through various purple quilting fabrics so I could get a variety of colors and patterns for the leaves. But my guy got his own special addition: a little 8-bit figure of Link glued to the front.
Reception decor
For the dinner tables I made bundles of 10 of each color flower and put them in jars to go around the table centerpieces. Each table had one bundle in each color surrounding a photo lantern centerpiece featuring our engagement photos. The fabric flowers on the front of each jar were made just like the bottom layer from this tutorial, and attached with hot glue.
For the dessert and guest book tables I used the extra flowers to make mixed arrangements that matched the bouquets. Here is a picture of one from our “guest book” photo frame table where we left a few photo albums people could look through.
Ring pillow
The tutorial I found for making the ring pillow of fluffy floraliness is located here, but I made a few small changes. I used raw silk as a fabric. Instead of fray-stop spray I used the kind you just paint on the edges. After hot gluing the petals together I glued them on a small pillow I made out of the same material and glued a ribbon in the center to hold the rings in place.
Tutorials
Over the course of my planning I spent some time looking through tutorials and trying different ones. Here are some good listings of tutorials for making fabric and paper flowers:
- Skip to my Lou: 10 Beautiful Flower Tutorials
- Tipnut: 50+ Paper Flower Tutorials and Templates
- Living Locurto: How to make Fabric Flowers
- Tipnut: 40+ Charming Fabric Flowers to Make
- Little Birdie Secrets: Fabric Flower Tutorial Roundup
My goodness, my fingers were tired just looking at the bouquets, but then realizing you did everything else?? Kudos to you! They all look great though. I might be biased since I love purple.
And by the way, “I’m a craft-crazy person who needs another project like I need a hole in the head.” <—Yeah, you too? LOL!
Wow those flowers are beautiful!! Thanks for the links for tutorials and your flowers are awesome inspiration!I recently embarked on a DIY wedding adventure of my own and this is exactly what I needed. They should make a DIY porn section on this site just for you! lol
Beautiful! I especially love the bouquets! Thank you for all the helpful links in one place!
I would never have the patience, and I applaud your motivated sticktoitiveness – so pretty!
These are so lovely! My flowers were by far the biggest DIY project I took on (I used cardstock). I had originally planned to use ribbon, but it was so frustrating. I ended up with strings of mangled, ratty looking ribbon and zero flowers… so paper it was! I was always more of an origami girl anyway… 🙂
I’m so glad you all enjoyed seeing the flowers. I hope the tutorials are helpful for people looking for flower projects! I thought I would never want to make another one ever again, but my sister just asked me to make her a bouquet in red for her July wedding. SO EXCITED!!!!!
I was wondering which tutorial you used to make the little flowers that looked like daisies. I started working on the roses and I’m getting those down, but I really like the other flowers in your bouquets as well.
Thanks!
Beautiful bouquet! I’m making these for my sister’s wedding, she loved them so much! I have a bias for purple too. I’m going to try and do these in green, yellow, and orange. Citrus colors!
I looked over the tutorial for the rose flowers, but I didn’t see one for the daisy-like flowers….did you figure out that one on your own or is there a tutorial for that one as well?
I have mastered the roses :D, but I’m also looking for a way to make the daisy-like flowers, can’t seem to find a tutorial on them anywhere.
Hey Kirstin,
Have you heard a reply from the author? I haven’t. Just though that I see if she sent a response.
Hi Sarah and Kirstin, I am so sorry it took me so long to get back to you! (I totally thought I clicked the “notify me of follow-up comments” box, but apparently I didn’t. Apparently I am super spacey post-wedding because I thought the daisy-like flower tutorial was up there too. You can find it here:
http://www.handsoccupied.com/2011/03/homemade-wedding-bouquet/
Good luck with your flowers! I hope this comment reaches you in time for it to be helpful. Feel free to ask me anything else, and I should be quicker this time. (I checked the box this time!) Also, thanks to arielmeadow for pointing your comments out to me!
Thanks! Ill try the tutorial today!
Thank you so much for the daisy info! My sister and I have been trying to figure out how to attach the wire stem to the daisies and roses. We have been trying with floral wife and floral tape. Do you have any tricks that helped you attach the stems?
Hi Sarah, the daisy tutorial should have pretty good step-by-step instructions for making the stems with wire and floral pins and wrapping with floral tape. I did the same thing with the roses minus the pins. I tried to stretch the tape kind of tight so that it grips itself (kind of like plastic wrap), but it does get frustrating because it is so sticky. I found that starting an inch or so away from the top, wrapping upwards towards the top and then back down to finish helped to keep it from unraveling. I will be making some more this weekend for my sister’s bouquet and will try to take a few more pictures of the stem-making process for you. Stem post coming soon! 😀
I did some work this weekend on my sister’s bouquet and tried to take some pictures of the stem-making process. If you are on tribe you can see a tutorial here: http://tribe.offbeatwed.com/journals/2013/05/flower-stems
If you are not on tribe let me know and I can try to email you a pdf of the tutorial.
Hi there!
I was wondering if you could send me the stem tutorial pdf?
Hopefully I’m not too late!
Beautiful work, by the way!
Could you please email the instructions to me at [email protected]? Beautiful job!
Hi ya,
I wanted to know about how many flowers did you used for your bouquet (the brides) and how many for the brides maids?
Thanks
Hi Ayah,
It was a long time ago, but I think I used about 30 large (1.5″ wide ribbon) roses, 15 small (0.75″ wide ribbon) roses and about 15 of the daisy flowers for each bridesmaid’s bouquet. Mine was either twice or 2.5 times as many.
Hi,
These are absolutely beautiful! As a fellow PhD scientist with a PhD scientist fiancee, I am trying to figure out fun and crafty ways to have a more personalized wedding.
The colors of ribbon you used are exactly what I would like to do as well. Any idea where I could get them online?
I’ve been making the flowers for my wedding. I’m doing bouquets in tin cans with a green polka dot bow tied around it. All types of fuchsias, greens, and oranges.
I actually have done my bouts. differently. I took flat pins (almost like a bobby pin/hairpin) and glued a flower onto it. That way, the gentlemen can push it onto the jacket through the lapel slit.
There is something for making the flowers yourself. I have bonded with my bridesmaids, with my fiance. That and these give the wedding the “us” touch. I rather like that.
How did you do the stems?
Love this! I crocheted my bouquet, boutinnaires, coursages, cake card holder and ring bearers jewelry box. Now I’m looking for ideas to help out with my friend’s wedding. Great ideas. Thanks for the link.
Hi sorry if someone else has already asked the same question, how did you make the gold flowers i see in the first pic of you holding the bouquet? I couldn t find the link to the tutorial. ..thanks!
found it! thanks 😉
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Hi, these look so lovely! Just wondered if you could tell me what kind of ribbon you used for the roses? I’ve tried the tutorial you linked to but I can’t quite seem to get it right, my ribbon just unravels at the end, is there a trick to it?