How To Make A Boutonniere

Preparation

Making a boutonniere on your own is much easier than it seems, and it saves a lot of unnecessary expense. Why bother spending the money when you can do it yourself? All you need are:

• A bit of ribbon,

• Some flowers,

• A pair of scissors,

• A pair of stem cutters,
  

• A pair of wire cutters,

• Boutonniere pins,

• Some floral tape.

For flower selection, see the section below. And to pick out all the others, head over to your local arts and crafts store or florist’s shop. If you’re not sure about how to make a boutonniere, they’ll be sure to help you out and assist you in finding exactly what you need. It’s not hard at all, and if you have the right supplies and a “can do” attitude, you will be amazed at what you can create! Best of all, it will be a uniquely you look that nobody else can completely replicate.

Making Your Flower Selection

When making a boutonniere, especially if it’s your first time doing so, it’s a really good idea to have extra materials and flowers around in case something goes awry (or, on the positive side, in case you want to experiment!). 

• The most practical way of going about getting a decent selection of flowers for your boutonniere is to use the leftovers from making a bouquet. Especially if this is an event where your boutonniere is meant to match someone’s bouquet (we’re looking at you, grooms to be!), it makes the most sense for you to use flowers that are left over from an already made bouquet – after all, single flowers are expensive!

• Once you have picked out a focal flower that you want to use as your center piece, go through and choose some sprigs of other things to add to the boutonniere. You should aim to pick out two different flowers that have different colors and textures from the focal flower you chose, but to make sure that they integrate well into the color scheme.

• Take a look at the color of the suit jacket, shirt, and tie you are planning on wearing with this outfit to make sure that it all fits in together nicely. The last thing you want is for your boutonniere to make you look tacky!

• Experiment with flower combinations that you like! Some good accent flowers are green mossy balls or yellow billy balls. They add a dash of contrast to your focal flower without taking up too much attention. If you have plenty of time ahead of your big event, you can make a bunch of different boutonnieres and then decide on which ones suit you once they’re all done.

Now we got everything ready, let’s show you how to make a boutonniere.

Assembling Your Boutonniere

Now that you have all three of your flowers assembled, you can start putting everything together for your boutonniere.

• Remove damaged petals, excess foliage and thorns if there is any. The stems of the flowers should be about 2 inches long, use the stem cutter to cut off the extra stems at an angle.

• Line the flowers up like a tiny bouquet.

• Tape them around the stems firmly with the floral tape.

• Wrap the boutonniere with ribbon – ideally a plain green color that matches the stems of your flowers.Hold the ribbon at the top of the mini bouquet’s stem, and then fold the ribbon under the bottom of the stem and twist it while still holding the top part. This should create the perfect effect, even if it takes a couple of tries.

• After you’ve got it arranged to your liking, make sure that you secure it by putting a boutonniere pin up the end of one of the stems (ideally, the stem of the focal flower, which will probably be stronger). Then, you can go ahead and cut off any excess ribbon.

Voila! You have mastered how to make a boutonniere and it’s ready to be put on. Just make sure you don’t poke your finger on a boutonniere pin!

Putting On Your Boutonniere

Be careful when you put your boutonniere on your lapel! Enlisting help might be your best bet with this endeavor. It is absolutely no fun to stick yourself with a pin, especially if you’re on your way to an important event. If you want to keep your boutonniere looking fresh for the event, consider putting it in the fridge, but first make sure that there is not open food inside – if there is, the flowers will wilt much more quickly.

If you are attending a long, long event, it might even be a good idea to make more than one nearly identical boutonniere and to sneak off to the refrigerator to replace them as they get a little limp. After all, you want your boutonniere to look as put together as you are! There is no point in having good style if you aren’t willing to be meticulous and dedicated to making every element of it come together cohesively.