I made these for my wedding because I wasn't interested in carrying flowers. They were easy, beautiful and I could make them exactly the colours I wanted.
I wouldn't recommend throwing it, but it'll keep forever as a memento or gift.
Tip: for your colours, pick one clear, one or two matching colours, and then one contrast colour. I used clear, amber, and amethyst (purple) on gold wire; and pink, yellow, green and clear on silver wire.
Times and quantities are for one bouquet only. If you're making more than one, get a friend or two to help you, as it's very repetitive work.
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Cut your wire into straight lengths with pliers/clippers. We used 24 gauge (0.5mm) wire and cut it into 25 inch lengths for my bouquet, 20 inches for the bridesmaid's bouquets.
We found that 28 gauge wire was too flimsy to hold up a bead, and larger sizes would have been difficult to fit through the bead-hole.

Thread the wire through the bead, to the halfway point. Fold the two sides of the wire together, and give them a couple of loose twists.
If you don't have a cordless drill, here is where you just keep on twisting that wire until it's wound all the way along itself. The drill does give a more polished look, which we preferred. It's also a lot faster, so I really recommend trying to borrow one if you don't have your own.

When you've made enough stems, hold them together the way you'd like them to sit. Duct tape around the base of the bouquet. We found this easier to do with two people, one to hold the wires together in a bunch, and one to wrap the tape. Make sure you cover the end, otherwise the ends of the wires will stick out and be too scratchy, or catch on your clothes.
Bend the wire into whatever shape you like - we had grand plans of shaping them into a dome shape, but settled for spreading them out a bit. The wires are nice and springy, but they will twist around each other.

Wrap ribbon around the stem to cover the duct tape. This can be done by one person if you like, as the wires will stay in place now. We used about 2 or 3 metres of ribbon, but this will vary depending on how wide your ribbon is and how long you want the trailing ends to be. We used a bit of floral tape to stick the ribbon on at the top and bottom.
Tie bows, or not, however you like. We liked the look of a simple double knot.

The final product. Approximately 150 stems. The bridesmaids' bouquets were shorter, with fewer wires, and the flower-girl's bouquet was shorter and smaller again.
To make 1 bridal bouquet, 3 bridesmaids' bouquets and 1 flower-girl bouquet, it took approximately 10 hours with 3 or 4 of us working as a production line to get to the duct tape stage. This includes time for snacks and glasses of wine :) It then took 2 of us maybe an hour to wrap the all the stems with ribbon.
It took our flower-girl only 5 minutes to completely unravel her ribbon. If you give one of these to a child, either stick the ribbon down completely so it can't come off (floral tape is good for this), or don't stick it down at all so that repairs are easier :)
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Jasmin N.
Jan 16, 2008 1:10pm
oh pretty
Might do that for my wedding, when ever it is i get married, but add some ribbons to it to make it a little more girlly.
Darling Niki
Jan 16, 2008 1:15pm
Absolutely gorgeous! OOOhhhh I think I will make it with colored artistic wire for a centerpiece on my coffee table :-)
Cat Morley
Jan 16, 2008 5:12pm
This is really beautiful, thanks for sharing!
athenamat
Jan 16, 2008 9:36pm
These are really pretty .. but I ahve to ask, why didn't you want to carry flowers?
Erika A.
Jan 16, 2008 10:30pm
Wow these are quite elegant.
Congratulations on your marriage!
Julie G.
Jan 16, 2008 11:54pm
Thanks everyone! What I like about this idea is that it's so customisable: more ribbons, centerpiece, double the stems, bend the wire into shapes. Whatever you like, it's easy to mix it up.
athenamat, I'm just not a floral kind of girl. I did look at some, but didn't feel comfortable carrying them. But I still wanted to carry something or else I'd end up biting my nails :) Also, in my area, a lot of flowers are grown elsewhere then transported in, which isn't the best for the flowers or the environment. It just didn't seem like a good fit for me or the occasion - I don't have anything against flowers in general :)
Nix Sidhe
Jan 17, 2008 3:09am
That's really gorgeous. I'd love to do an autumn theme one.
Michelle Ames
Jan 17, 2008 2:16pm
I made these for my wedding in 2005. My bouquet had 300 stems and the bridesmaids each had 150. The flowergirl's stems were stuck into styrofoam in a basket that she carried. I, too, used gold wire, with crystals, pearls and pink and amethyst accents.
I made a silk flower bouquet to throw. :-)
Julie G.
Jan 17, 2008 11:46pm
Michelle A, your bouquet is beautiful, it looks so lush!