Happy December! If you're looking to create some centerpieces as part of your holiday tablescape, today I'm sharing the same "fun size" burlap wrapped bouquet from Farmgirl Flowers arranged in two different ways:
one medium centerpiece, or
if you want a little more flexibility with respect to space, as well as the ability to split these up/mix and match, one set of 3 mini centerpieces.
For anyone who isn't familiar with Farmgirl Flowers, each arrangement comes as a wrapped bouquet in a box via FedEx, so it's up to the recipient to arrange the flowers and put them in a vase of their choice. (Some orders do include a beautiful selected vase that is also packaged within the delivery, so please check out the product description to confirm; either way, it's up to the recipient to give the stems a trim and into water.) See below for a quick DIY overview for: (1) one medium centerpiece and (2) three mini centerpieces:
DIY FLORAL ARRANGEMENT STEPS FOR ONE MEDIUM CENTERPIECE
Step 1: Gather supplies: a water-filled vase (floral food optional), a pair of garden shears or sharp scissors, and of course, your beautiful blooms.
Step 2: Take inventory of your florals and greenery, if any:
Step 3: Decide on the shape of your arrangement (round vs. v-shape, etc...), or for more free flowing fun, simply start trimming and seeing where your artistic eye takes you. I've been working on my asymmetrical v-shaped arrangements, so I started by building a base of greenery that was higher on one end and slightly lower on the other.
Step 4: Measure your stems against the height of your vase to make sure you're not trimming any of them too short. If you like the more "wild" look of heavier blooms closer to the lip of the vase, and more airy and lighter pieces reaching out and away from the center, start with your heavier stems, and save your taller and lighter pieces for after you've built out your desired shape with the heavier stems.
PRO TIP from Farmgirl Flowers: Trim every stem at a 45 degree angle to allow the stem the maximum surface area for absorbing water. If any stems are out of water for more than 10 seconds, give it a fresh trim. Repeat for each stem.
Step 5: Build a foundation base by criss crossing stems. As you trim each stem, look for any damaged or spoiled leaves or petals and make sure to remove them gently so that the rest of the flowers and greenery don't get contaminated. Remove any leaves that are below the waterline to keep the water as clean as possible.
Step 6: Keep building out your desired shape, all the while making sure there's enough room for each flower to breathe and that they're not packed in too tightly.
Step 7: Now that we've created a shape, we can use the taller and lighter pieces to emphasize the shape and fill in any gaps:
Step 8: Find a nice spot in your home that's out of direct sunlight to display your newly minted masterpiece! Change the water every 1-2 days to extend the life of your centerpiece. Bonus: give your stems a fresh trim every 2 days; check and remove any flowers that start to wilt.
DIY FLORAL ARRANGEMENT STEPS FOR THREE MINI CENTERPIECES:
Step 1: Gather supplies: a water-filled vase (floral food optional), a pair of garden shears or sharp scissors, and of course, your beautiful blooms.
Step 2: Take inventory of your florals and greenery, if any. Here are the exact same florals, but with 3 bud vases instead of 1 medium vase:
Step 3: For bud vases, since the vase openings are much smaller, I didn't focus as much on the shape of my arrangements, but I still started by building a base of greenery.
Step 4: Measure your stems against the height of your vase to make sure you're not trimming any of them too short. Again, I started with the heavier blooms and saved the taller and lighter pieces for later.
Step 5: Because the bud vase openings are much smaller, it's not as critical to build a foundation by criss crossing stems. Here I just focused on what colors I thought would look nice next to each other and adjusted the stem heights accordingly:
Step 6: Keep building out upward and outward, all the while making sure there's enough room for each flower to breathe and that they're not packed in too tightly. Because there's limited space in bud vases, it's even more important not to overcrowd (could cause mold and damage to the stems).
Step 7: Now that we've created a shape for each bud vase, we can use the taller and lighter pieces to emphasize the shape and fill in any gaps. I tried to keep the two smaller bud vases somewhat symmetrical ("sisters" and not "twins" as Farmgirl Flowers would say).
If you're curious what the back of the center one looks like, here's a shot of the center one turned around. I'm still working on making my arrangements 360 degree appropriate, but it's definitely a work in progress!
Rudy seems to approve of this set of 3:
For our holiday champagne tasting, we kept the two side centerpieces (the smaller ones) on our table, and opted to keep our coffee table simple with just the one small mini, since our guests would want space to set down their food and drink.
We had an assortment of sweet and savory, so of course we had to include some delicious baked treats from Simply Sweet Cakery: refreshingly well-balanced lemon bars, delicious "brookies" (salted chocolate chip cookie squares with brownies on the bottom), and our absolute favorite "very berry" (triple berry) cake, which was our wedding cake 6 years ago but the one we keep coming back to!
Thank you Simply Sweet Cakery for always making our holidays so special and delicious! If you're interested in adding a little extra sweetness to your holiday season, Simply Sweet Cakery's holiday shop is open!
Hope you enjoyed this quick overview of how to arrange two different types of centerpieces! For a more detailed walk-through, check out my step-by-step DIY floral arrangement here. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions, or any thoughts on what else you'd like to see in a walk-through.
Wishing you and your loved ones a warm and joyous holiday season!