My First DIY Trial: The Carnation Bouquet

This is something I was really excited to do, and I must say I am pretty pleased with the results. I just attempted my first carnation bouquet. I'm intending to make 4 carnation bouquets for my bridesmaids. Why carnations? Well 1) they're cheaper, 2) they're easy to work with and 3) I really love the fullness and vibrant color of the flower.

I went to Conroys and bought 10 carnation flowers for $16.  This trial was done on a spontaneous whim, so I could have gone to a wholesale florist to save money, but I wasn't ready to buy bulk. Afterall, I was only making one bouquet.

I bought scissors, floral tape, corsage pins and ribbon from Michaels (supplies we can definitely use again)

Using the tutorial from Mrs. Flamingo's post on WeddingBee, I clustered my flowers together, wrapped them snug with floral tape and covered the tape with an off-white satin ribbon.

Here's my first attempt:

Ok, so the ribbon is a little crooked and some floral tape is peeking at the top, but not bad for a first attempt. I think I could use 5-10 more flowers to fill it out a bit, but I think this can definitely be a suitable bridesmaid bouquet.

One thing though, some flowers started to snap. I taped up the injured ones with floral tape and hid them in the middle. Can't tell, can you?