DIY Prom Bouquet

Prom season is just about over for this year, and this year was my son’s junior prom.  Have you checked the prices on flowers for prom and homecoming lately?  It usually costs me upwards of $80 to get a corsage and a boutonniere from a florist.  And have you noticed the trend of girls who are carrying bouquets instead of wearing a corsage?  His prom date is a senior this year, and I decided that she needed a bouquet, but I knew it would cost me even more than a corsage, so I decided that I would try my hand at making one.  I was pretty confident that I could do it, and luckily I pulled it off.  So today, I wanted to share with you how you can make your own DIY prom bouquet for around $50! And bonus!  I was also able to make a cute little boutonniere from the same supplies I used for the bouquet, so double win!

Not only did I pull off making this bouquet myself, but I was very observant at the other bouquet’s the girls were carrying, and if I do say so myself, the bouquet I made was every bit as beautiful, if not even better!  So I was very pleased with myself.  But I do want to make mention that my daughter helped me from start to finish, so this really was a two person collaboration, and together, we made something really beautiful!

I purchased all of my flowers for this bouquet from Krogers.  Yes, you read that right, a grocery store is where I got the flowers.  I called them and found out when they got a fresh shipment in with flowers, and I made sure to go that day.  The woman who works in the floral department was very nice and happy to tell me when would be the best time to come to find the best selection.  I ended up purchasing three different bunches of flowers.  Some hydrangea, some roses, and then a bunch that had red roses and various other things.

How to Make a DIY Prom Bouquet

You may want to purchase your flowers a day or two before the prom so that they will have time to open.  I purchased mine one day before, and I placed them in a cool place in our downstairs family room in a bucket with a few inches of water in it.

Start by separating all of the different types of flowers and greenery into piles of things that are alike.  Make sure to remove most of the leaves and any thorns that are present.  My bouquet had very few leaves, just because that was the look I was going for.  When I was in the planning phase of this bouquet I went crazy on Pinterest, pinning lots of inspiration.  That helped me tremendously to figure out what look I wanted this bouquet to have.

Needed Supplies:

Corsage pins

Gardening snips

Floral wire

Floral tape

Flowers and Filler of your choice

Ribbon of your choice

The way we worked this bouquet was for me to hold the bouquet, and my daughter kept adding the variety of flowers and filler, one by one.  I frequently checked in a mirror what the bouquet looked like from all angles, because I wanted it to look perfect from any angle when she was holding it.  We left the stems long until the very end, before we cut them to the length we wanted.  That made it easy for us to adjust any of the flowers or filler throughout the process.

I purchased two different kinds of white ribbon for this bouquet.  One was a plain wide satin white ribbon that I used to wrap around the stems, and then a more fancy shear ribbon trimmed with tiny white pearls to make a simple bow.

I started with two large hydrangea as my base.  Hydrangea give great volume to the bouquet, and you can thread the other flowers down in between the hydrangea blooms, which is what we did.  It may look like there are more than two hydrangea in the bouquet, but that is because we placed other flowers in between the blooms.

We simply went around and around the bouquet adding in flowers one by one, while I held them in my hand, my daughter would add them one at a time.  We would check in the mirror and adjust the height of th bloom by looking after each flower was added, and then decide where we needed another and what color to add.  Because we waited until the end to cut the stems, we were able to adjust the height of each flower as we went.

We basically eyeballed this entire bouquet from beginning to end and just went with the mix that we liked, and added and took away until it looked the way we wanted it to look.  It was not rocket science!  After we had it the way we wanted it, we wrapped all of the stems as tightly as possible with floral tape to keep it secure.

We then wrapped the stems with our white satin ribbon, and secured it with three floral pins.  Once it was all wrapped and secure, we added the fancy ribbon with the beads and tied it into a simple bow.

We didn’t let the bouquet get too large, because it’s not her wedding day, its prom!  And it looked so great with her red dress.  I knew what the dress looked like before I ever selected the flowers, btw.  Make sure you know this information!  I wanted there to be red in the bouquet, but I didn’t want the entire bouquet to be red, I wanted it to have a fresh and spring-ish look, and I think it did for sure!

We also had enough flowers left over that I was able to make a lovely arrangement and put it in a vase to enjoy at our home. for the week.

I think she loved it!  At least she told me she did.  My daughter was a little jealous that I didn’t do this for her.  And I sure do wish I would have now that I look back.  But at the time, the thought never occurred to me that I could make something like that.  But since she has graduated high school I have made a few wreaths and other things for my home decor, and I guess my confidence just grew with these types of things.

I am so glad I gave it  a try!  You never know, I just might make her bridesmaids bouquets one day.  But not her bridal bouquet, I will still leave it to the pros!  Here are a couple photos that were taken of my son and his date with the bouquet.  One of these was not taken by me, but I thought it was a really cute shot, so I included it.

I used my daughter to model for me when I photographed this bouquet.  You know, just in case you are wondering who the drop dead gorgeous girl is, hehe!  She was happy to do it, and we had fun making this bouquet together.  We will definitely do it again next year for my son’s senior homecoming and prom.

If you like it, then you wanna put a pin on it!

What do you think of my DIY prom bouquet?  It was so much easier than I thought it would be!  And so much more budget friendly.  I made this for around $50.  And I couldn’t have bought one for that cheap from a florist.  Plus, it has a more personal touch and it was a gift to my son’s girlfriend that came from the heart, so I hope she appreciated our creativity!  I think she did.  So if you have never thought of doing something like this, I would encourage you to give it a try!  You can definitely do it!