How to Arrange Flowers

Mike’s Chicago Fire Department Academy Banquet was last weekend. When the discussion around centerpieces came up, Mike told his team he had someone that could do them for the event. That “someone” was ME! 

So, I dusted off my flower creating hands and enlisted the help of my mom (once again). After I was told that I would be doing all of the centerpieces, I asked Mike how many I would need to create. His response was “45”. My response was “You volunteered me to make 45 centerpieces?!?!?!?!?!?!”. Things have been pretty busy around here lately, so when I heard this number, it immediately brought me back to my wedding and the stress that came along with it! I took a deep breath and started planning.

I was told the colors were red, gold and black. I wanted to make sure I incorporated these colors, so I began my search for inspiration. I knew I wanted to keep the arrangements simple for my own sanity, and the sanity of my Mom! I went with tall vases filled with Hydrangeas and gold glittery sticks. I placed the vase on a red charger surrounded by votives with gold decorative circles decals.

When I finally landed on my design, I began to search for the best price for flowers. For my wedding I purchase my flowers from Jewel, which were reasonable until…….I found LW Direct!  Okay, first off, Larry is amazing! He was super quick to get back to me and his prices were exceptional! His location was even more perfect because it was located across the street from my office! Score!

For my vases, I was originally going to purchase all of them through www.saveoncrafts.com. When I saw how much the shipping was going to be for these bad boys, I decided to rethink my purchase. About $300 of my budget was going to go towards shipping! Ummm…I don’t think so! So, I ended up stumbling upon a flower design studio (in my office building!). I know, talk about luck! I was able to rent the vases for WAY cheaper than if I had purchased them. Oh, and Ryan at StemLine Creative was the sweetest! He gave me tips for my flowers and centerpieces, which was so nice!

I used gold branches in my vases and placed the vases on red chargers for extra detail. These red charges and gold glitter branches are similar to the ones I used.  I thought it was a pretty good value for what I got.  Thank God for my mom! She stored the large boxes of branches and charges for me. My tiny little apartment would have been taken over by these boxes! I bought my tealights and votives from Ikea.

When all was said and done, my 45 centerpieces ended up costing $24 and some change a piece. Not bad if I do say so myself!

To assemble my vases, I had my mom cut my branches down about 10 inches.  I cut my flowers so they were just barely above my vase. Each vase had 4 Hydrangeas and 3 branches. My mom took a patterned punch, punched adhesive vinyl, and stuck the decals on to the clear votives. Then, I placed the charger down, added the vase in the center, and placed 5 candles around the vase on the charger. That was it. SUPER simple!