Crafterateur

In today’s special Mother’s Day post I’m sharing a DIY that my beautiful Mama taught me how to make: boutonnieres and corsages! Growing up, I used to watch her make these for all her special events — club galas, church celebrations, birthdays…. So for my wedding, I wanted to make all the wearable flowers with my sister and our queen lady.

I gathered flowers from the Temescal Farmers Market in Oakland and eucalyptus from Berkeley Bowl (my favorite market place!). Aren’t these ranunculi gorgeous? And check out my Mama’s flower hand modeling skills below.

Materials and supplies were basic. We used floral tape, ribbons of choice (blush and ivory to match my wedding colors), and scissors. We made a boutonniere/corsage for each wedding guest. For the gents we made boutonnieres in shades of pink with eucalyptus leaf accents and blush ribbon. For the ladies we made larger corsages with white flowers and accent flowers, and longer strands of ribbon.

How to: Position your flowers and accent leaves. Wrap with floral tape leaving some stem showing at the bottom. You can build upon your design by adding additional floral accents and more floral tape. When you like the way it looks, wrap the boutonniere/corsage with ribbon to cover the floral tape. Knot and trim the ribbon as you wish.

Here they are all lined up! Since we made these two days before the wedding, we kept them in the refrigerator on damp paper towels and covered loosely with plastic wrap so they would look just as fresh on wedding day.

These were so fun to make, especially with Mama and Sister! Since we live 400 miles apart, we don’t get to spend much time together, but when we do, it’s always the best time!

My creativity and fondness for handmade? I got it from my Mama! To all the beautiful mamas out there – Happy Mother’s Day!