flower arranging is sort of a technical art and i had no idea! i’m in Indiana visiting Joey’s family and my girlfriend-in-law Anne, showed me some flower arranging tips she picked up from working at a florist for a snap in high school. i blogged about fresh cut flowers before here, and how i definitely recommend making sure they’re local and bought from farmer’s markets.

choose flowers that suite your fancy, in our case we took apart some already existing large-scale arrangements to make shorter smaller ones to put on the dining table for a big family dinner. they can be any flowers that you like and think will look good together, you can always trim the stems to make them match in height.

materials: fresh cut flowers, clear gift wrap tape, scissors, vase(s).

how to:
– take pieces of the gift wrap tape the width of the vase and make a square grid with about 1″ square openings (see photo above, look closely the tape is clear! sticky side of the tape goes down to secure to the vase)
– trim flower stems with scissors to desired length
– place stem of flower through grid guides into the vase. the tape grid will hold the flowers in place and enable you to make a composed and professional looking arrangement!
– stick to one or two kinds of flowers and fill in all the gaps to make it look tight and contemporary (like the chrysanthemum/carnation arrangement above) or use different textures to create a more wildflower look.
– get creative, have fun and then stop and smell the flowers!