Blooming branches are so amazing this time of year. They add life to any room and they last forever (these were shot 3 weeks after I bought them… and lasted 6 weeks total).

Common blooming branches this time of year are quine, cherry, apricot and plum (these are quince). To ensure a long life, use a hammer to smash the ends of the branches to allow for proper water uptake. Place in a tall vase with water and change the water weekly. For a wedding, blooming branches work well for tall ceremony arrangements, welcome table or seating card arrangements, and on a dinner table as they add great height to a tabletop design. In your home, any buffet or console table will make them look great. And there you go, a little piece of spring inside your home.

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I love mixing seasonal produce in floral arrangements, here blackberries on the branch add texture to this pink, purple and red arrangement.

I used a mix of clematis, hyacinth, ranunculus, anenomes, sweet pea, hellebore, and blackberries to create this wild and organic look. To re-create this look:

Start with a low bowl, using clear floral tape, tape a grid across the top of the bowl. Go around the rim of the bowl with another piece of tape to secure your grid to the bowl. Begin placing the berries to create your base shape. Follow up with placing: hyacinth, hellebore, sweet pea, anenome and clematis. You will need approximately a half bunch per flower type. Happy arranging!

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I love this simple and sweet boutonniere that matches the bouquet and doggy ring bearer ideas. To make a boutonniere, simply hold a ranunuclus, sweet pea, and clematis leaf between your fingers. Use stretchy green floral tape and wind it around the flowers. Cover with a length of ribbon and pin or hot glue to hold it in place.

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I love unexpected color combos and this spring bouquet, with its mix of purple, red, and pink, definitely fits the bill. I wanted the colors of this bouquet to almost be a transition between the holiday colors of Valentine’s Day & Easter…

I layered two ribbons, a gauzy purple/red ribbon over soft lavender.

Deep red ranunculus were contrasted against dark purple sweet pea.

To create this bouquet you need:

-1 bunch purple clematis

-1 bunch purple hellebore

-1 bunch red ranunculus

-I bunch pink anenomes

-1 bunch dark purple sweet pea

Begin by placing 3 flowers in your hand and then adding more flowers, going around the bouqet to maintain a round shape. Finish by winding stretchy floral tape around your stems to keep them together. Then wrap lavender ribbon to cover the tape, and pin with a pearl headed pin to hold the ribbon in place. Then cut two lengths of ribbon, lavender and purple/red, and wrap around the bouquet and tie into a bow. And now you have a perfect spring bouquet!

To see more bouquet arrangement tips & ideas click here.

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I love brass (its way under-used in weddings in my opinion) so I thought it would be fun to do a collection of brass containers that I could see used on the seating card table or on a bar.

All the containers I sourced at various antique stores, the tall urn is actually from my sister’s wedding and I lugged it back to the states in my suitcase. The shorter taper candle holder is actually an old fire nozzel that I repurposed here. And the smaller urn shaped container is an old golf trophy, I love the shape of it!

To arrange taller centerpieces, I start with the tall filler foliage, mondara, to create a nice shape (asymetrical is always nice and dynamic). Since these containers are pretty tall, and after you place the taller foliage pieces, you end up making a natural frog for the flowers to go into. Place dahlias, scabiosa, cosmos, at different heights. Also, since this is meant to mostly be seen from the front and the sides, you don’t need to put flowers on the back side of the urn (aka, this is a 3-sided arrangement, front, left and right sides). For this arrangement you will need:

-A mix of containers in different heights

-2 bunches of red dahlias

-2 bunces of  brown cosmos

-2 bunches of  red scabiosa

-2 bunches of mondara

-Floral shearers, water, flower food

Happy arranging! And to see all Flower Chic posts click right here.

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So last week we made a headdress with the gorgeous clematis flower. This week I’m making a matching bouquet inspired by some fun plaid ribbon I found at a fabric store. You will need:

Flowers:

-2 bunches of light pink sweet pea

-1 bunch of liliac

-1 bunch hot pink ranunculus

-1 bunch cappuncino ranunuclus

-1 bunch geranium

Tools:

-flower tape

- floral pick or wire

-ribbon (2 yards of each, mine are from Michael Levine)

-pearl headed pins

Begin by cleaning your flowers and taking off leaves. Trim you flowers and let them hydrate and open for a day. Use pruning shears to cut a trim the lilac and cut a slit in the bottom to allow for water uptake. Once your ready to arrange wire the ranunuclus as needed (the heads tend to be floppy and sometimes need additional support).

Start by gathering a handful of flowers, rotating as you add stems and place flowers at different heights for texture. Its helpful to use a mirror to ensure your bouquet looks good from all sides. Use floral tape to hold your bouquet together. Then over the tape, use your colorful ribbon and wind it around the bouquet. Finish by pinning the ribbon to the bouquet. Here, I added two additional trailing pieces of hand-died silk ribbon for additional color.

Cut your ribbon, and keep it long if you like that trailing look. Put on your clematis headdress and you’ve got a very colorful, and slightly bohemian, wedding day look. And to see all Flower Chic posts click right here.

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I’m  so excited to introduce a new column, floral chic with photographer Nancy Neil. Today, I’m going to show you how to make a floral head wreath using gorgeous clematis. You will need: 6-7 stems of clematis, 20 gauge floral wire and pliers.

Start by measuring the circumfrence of your head and twist two pieces of the wire together to make a circle. Take your first piece of clematis and a small piece of wire (about 2″). Using your pliers, wrap the small piece of wire near the head of the flower to secure it to your circle. Since clematis is a vine, you can take the stem and wind it around the circle to cover your wire base. Secure with additional 2″ pieces of wire where you need to.

If you’re making this ahead of time, you can put the stems in floral water tubes to keep the flowers hydrated. Once you’re ready to wear, take the stems out the tubes and clip any extra stem length off. Next week, I’ll be making a coloful bouquet to match our headdress.

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