Arranging your own flowers is often a daunting task– one that may send you running to a local floral boutique to pick up an expensive arrangement to leave on your dining room table as the centerpiece of the week.
Instead of throwing down tons of cash on pre-arranged flowers for your favorite tablescape, use the blooms in your backyard with the help of Jacqueline Elfe, Founder & CEO of Stellar Style Events in New York.
“I worked with Randy Fenoli providing him wedding bouquets for his book It’s All About The Dress. After it was published, I created more bouquets for Randy for his Martha Stewart segment during his book promotion tour. I’ve also had the opportunity to work with Marchesa and some A-list celebrities.”
Flowers are just Jacqueline’s thing, and she wants arranging your own flowers to be your thing, too. Here are a few of her favorite tips for making buzzworthy arrangements on your own:
1. Start with the right flowers. Jacqueline says hydrangeas, peonies, and roses are the sturdiest and easiest to work with for floral novices.
2. Stick with one bloom and use it in abundance to provide easy balance with your flowers. Remember different blooms have different sized heads and some are full (ex hydrangea) and some are long (ex cymbidium orchids). You must know how to mix the two combinations to acquire symmetry. Beautiful blooms in a great vessel with size proportion to the amount of blooms you will look like a floral superstar without paying the cost.
3. Don’t touch the flower petals or blooms for any reason. Hands off! “Refrain from touching the flower heads too much while arranging. This could cause bruising to the petals.” Nobody wants petals tinged with brown.
4. Purchase blooms from a reliable source and be sure to not have the blooms fully open. This will offer a longer shelf life. Or just pick not-quite-bloomed flowers from your yard and leave the stems long so you can easily mold the arrangement.
5. Add a few drops of bleach to your vase. The bleach kills bacteria, and bacteria build up is one of the main reasons blooms go kaput after a few days.
6. Change the water every 2-3 days.
7. No food coloring or added dyes. “I wouldn’t recommend any food coloring or dye if you want the flowers to last or not change from its original color. Remember, the stems will be drinking this water and will change colors to the coloring inside the vessel.”
