Supplies:

1. 18 gauge floral wire
2. Flowers
3. Greenery and any extra berries or babies’ breath
4. Hot glue
5. Floral tape
6. Magnets or pins for boutonniere
7. Ribbon, felt, and cardboard for corsage

If you would like to learn more about how to dye/color sola wood flowers, then watch this video at about the one minute mark. If you would like to learn more about adding glycerin to your solar wood flowers to help make them less bridal, then head to this post and scroll down to the bottom.

Steps for boutonniere:

1. Prepare flowers. I dyed my sola wood flowers and attached a stem to them. If you use silk flowers, then you may need to attach the 18-gauge floral wire to them and possibly cut off the flower or section of flowers you would like.
2. Prepare greenery. I trim off the pieces of greenery I would like to use and attached an 18-gauge floral wire to the end with hot glue.

3. Arrange greenery in the back and flowers in the front. Bend flowers at a 90-degree angle so they are visible when worn. I used two different types of greenery in my boutonnieres.

4. Wrap floral tape around all of the stems. Floral tape becomes sticky/activated when it is slightly stretched.

5. Apply any extra baby’s breath, small flowers, berries, or other small pieces where needed. I attached these items with hot glue. I also use hot glue to help hold pieces in my desired location.

6. Trim off any long stems.

7. Wrap ribbon around the stems. I try to end when my ribbon is at the back of my boutonniere. I also end my ribbon by folding over the end of the ribbon and gluing it down with hot glue. This way my uneven ribbon end is hidden and will not unravel.

8. Use hot glue or gorilla glue to attach magnet strip or a pin to the back of your boutonniere.

Steps for corsage:

1. Prepare flowers. I dyed my sola wood flowers and disassembled a hydrangea bundle. If you use silk flowers, then you may need to cut off the sections of the flowers you would like to use.
2. Prepare greenery. You may need to cut different types of greenery down to the size you would like.  
3. Measure and cut ribbon to desired length. Make sure it will wrap around the wear’s wrist and be able to tie in the back.
4. Fold ends of ribbon in half and cut at an angel to create a nice end.

5. Cut one small square of cardboard, it does not have to be perfect. The size will depend on the number and size of flowers and greenery you want to add to your corsage as well as the wear’s wrist size.

6. Use your cardboard square to measure and cut two pieces of felt slightly larger.

7. Use hot glue to apply one felt square to the top and one to the bottom of your cardboard square. You can sandwich your ribbon in between the felt squares along with the cardboard square or you could glue this piece on top of your ribbon. Try to glue it in the center of your ribbon.

8. Glue all ends of the felt squares together, so the cardboard does not show at all.

9. Play around with your flowers and greenery until you are happy with the arrangement, then glue everything in place on top of your felt square.

• I placed a small piece of greenery to each corner of my felt square, then I bunched three small hydrangea flowers together and glued them on top of my greenery. I finished it off with a few pieces of baby’s breath. The amount and size of flowers and greenery you add will depend on the size of the write of the person wearing the corsage. The ones I made were both for women with smaller wrists.

I was worried about the corsages and how they would hold up on moving wrists, but they held up perfectly.  The boutonniere had a little damage, but overall, they were still in good shape after the wedding. The guys forgot about the boutonniere and squashed the flowers a few times when they hugged people. My wedding was also in the middle of July, which meant it was a very hot day. Hot glue does remelt in very hot temperatures. So, just something to think about when making anything with hot glue for an outside event. I also highly recommend adding glycerin to your flowers if you use sola wood flowers and they will be touched a lot. You can learn more about adding glycerin to sola wood flowers here.  

I also made a few floral pieces to go on my wedding cake. I glued toothpicks to the back of my floral pieces so they could be stuck into the cake. Overall, I was very pleased with how well everything held up and how everything looked. I was nervous about making these pieces, but they actually came together quickly and looked nice.