Fold, cut, wire, fold, cut, wrap, snip, fold, lather, rinse, repeat.

I’m getting into the home stretch and I’m almost done all the crafting.  Just about everything’s made, I just have to assemble now.

With rose boutonnieres costing $12 apiece, I decided that DIY boutonnieres were something we could do pretty easily on our own without spending huge amounts of money.  The only thing to remember is to create a focal point, and find some decorations to bundle around it at varying heights.

So without further ado, and since my brain’s too focused on other wedding stuff right now to think about witty words of widsom, here’s a tutorial on making boutonnieres.  They were a lot easier than I thought.  I banged out six of ‘em in an hour.

‘Cept since I’m banned from posting the final products now, nobody will see how they’re finished until October 1.  Blame E for that.

You will need:

• A couple of flowers.  One per bout. I bought a bunch of wooden roses from the Lavender Cart at $10 for a dozen.  The storefront is based in Pickering, but they will do local pickup around downtown Toronto too
• Various feathers. I had leftover guinea fowl feathers from my bouquet and picked up some additional electric blue feathers in sprays from Michaels
• Fancy shmancy beads
• Floral tape
• Floral wire
• Wire cutters

Since I bought my feathers pre-made in a spray, I had to take the spray apart.  It was fun and destructive.  If you end up doing this, don’t worry about the bottoms looking ugly, they’ll be covered by tape anyways. So destroy to your heart’s content.  Growl if you want. I won’t judge.

Cut a piece of floral wire about the length of your hand and start wiring your feather.  Make sure the feather is secure while giving you enough room at the bottom to bundle with the rest of your boutonniere.  Do this with three or four feathers.  Or whatever floats your boat.  Some people like fuller boutonnieres.  The more feathers, the more fullness.

Note: Some of the real crafty ones out there will tell you to cut off the downy bits at the base for a neater look.  I am not that skilled (read: I was too lazy).

I decided to also make a beaded spray.  I only did three beads ascending in height.  These will cradle the flower and add more variety. Remember what I said about height?

Start bundling!  I started with the flower as my centre and wrapped everything around it.  I found it helpful to wrap a few and check in the mirror to make sure everything was sitting where I wanted before adding more.  Some of the super crafty people will tell you to use floral tape for each piece that you put on the flower to make it more secure.  Again, I was too lazy, and they all seem to be staying put so far.

Tape up! Grab your floral tape and start wrapping from the base of the flower down the stem.  The beauty about working with so much wire is that if things shift slightly while you wrap, you can bend it all back into place later.

And finally, snip snip!  You only need about two to three inches of stem – cut the rest of your straggling wires off and give that floral tape a good twist to make sure everything stays in place.

How you want to pin it is up to you.  I bought some large safety pins and used my trusty floral wire to tape it in place.  Again, hold the boutonniere in the mirror so that you make sure everything will arrange the way you want.  Traditionally, the boutonniere sits on the left lapel of the suit jacket. Alternatively, you can just buy some regular pins to use on the day of your event.

And that’s it!  Easy peasy.

Total cost: I have to guestimate because everything was bought in packages or rolls.  With the flowers being the most expensive at $0.83, I would guess the whole thing cost less than $1.50.  Now that’s beautiful!