Bridal buffet tables have lots of food, so get the flowers up high.
By Craig Kojima, Star-Bulletin

There are fancier ways of wording the question, but the problem is there. Weddings can be incredibly expensive, even small ones, but there are some budget soothers.

Unless you are having a very small and informal wedding, and have special talents in these areas, baking the wedding cake and sewing the wedding dress are not options of most brides.

But one place you can cut corners is with the flowers. A piece of advice - unless you are an experienced flower arranger or have an aunty or friend who is, leave the bridal bouquet to the professionals. It will show up in all the photographs and videos of the wedding and could be a lifelong reminder that flowers that aren't expertly anchored into a bouquet will fall out.

But many of the arrangements and accessories can be done by novices.

Patsy Gibson, an award winning flower arranger and professional wedding designer, gave a demonstration last week on do-it-yourself wedding flowers.

Patty Gibson
"The first thing to remember about wedding flowers is that they are for one day, and only one day. So you can work with flowers that will close or wilt the next day," Gibson said.

She showed the class a sprig of privet with a cluster of tiny white blossoms. "Tomorrow they'll be brown," Gibson said, "and that's why haku lei makers won't use privet flowers, but they can be used in weddings."

Start with the boutonniere, the flower worn in the jacket buttonhole by all the male members of the wedding party and the fathers of the bride and groom. (This flower can also be made for your prom date.)

Gibson used a white rosebud on about a 3-inch stem, and privet greens. She started with a 6-inch piece of size 22 florist's wire, available at craft shops. She poked the end of the wire through the fleshy base of the rose, leaving equal lengths of the wire on each side.

The wire ends were twisted together around the base of the flower and down the stem. Then the privet greens were taped to the base of the rose with stretch floral tape, also sold at craft shops. The floral tape was then wound around the wire holding the rose bud to cover it entirely, and the end of the wire made into a small loop.

Try it; it's easier than it sounds.

To make mock orange swags to hang between the church pews, Gibson uses cotton clothesline and the green wire twisters used on plastic garbage bags. "Make the swags in 12-foot or shorter lengths, never longer or they unravel. Don't use plastic clothesline because it's too slippery."

Mock orange can be picked up to five days in advance. Fully submerge the cuttings in water for five minutes, drain them on towels and seal them into plastic bags that can be refrigerated. Wind the twisters through the leaves and stems, around the rope.

The sprays of leaves must all be anchored in the same direction. The foliage should be heavy enough so that the mechanics don't show, and you'll have a mock orange swag about 4 inches in diameter.

For the bridal buffet table, Gibson created an arrangement in a footed vase. "Bridal tables have lots of food, so you want to get the flowers high."

She taped a soaked block of florist clay inside the bowl to anchor it. Then she arranged a small number of stargazer and Casablanca lilies - each sells for about $7 a stem.

"Buy them two days in advance so that some of the flowers open, but you still have a few buds."

The lilies provide the focus of the arrangement, and then carnations and alstroemeria (available at most supermarket flower stands) help to fill in the space.

"Always strip the leaves off alstroemeria," she said, "because they turn yellow almost immediately."

She also used leatherleaf fern and white dendrobium orchids. "Dendrobiums do more for an arrangement than anything else you can buy," Gibson said. " If they start to get droopy, submerge them in warm water for a minute or two."

Gibson suggested that brides consider carrying arm bouquets, a long sheaf of flowers held in the crook of her arm, rather than the traditional round bouquet or lei held in both hands.

"The wedding dress is the most expensive thing in the wedding, so why cover the front of it clutching a bouquet?" she asked.

If roses are used either in a bouquet or in an arrangement, she stressed that the heads must be wired or they will droop. Our hot climate is to blame. Roses are grown commercially in Kamuela, not in Waianae.

If your roses were ordered from a florist, they will be wired. If they were bought in bulk, you'll have to do it yourself. Using florists wire, poke one end into the fleshy bottom of the blossom and keep the head erect by winding the wire around the base of the flower and the stem for several inches. Roses should also be dethorned so that they can absorb more water. If they begin to droop and you catch them soon enough, they can be revived by being submerged in warm, not hot, water.

Gibson said that these arrangements and several others that she demonstrated used about $100 worth of flowers, bought at retail prices. That should put a smile on the face of the bride's father.