Think of building a floral arrangement like you’re cooking dinner: you have food in the fridge, you can throw it all into a bowl and maybe it will turn out alright, or you can look at a recipe to see what ingredients work together. After you figure out what foods to use, then you can go back to the “throwing it into a bowl” plan, or you can follow the instructions to make sure it turns out the best it can. Flowers work the SAME WAY (gasp!).
You can walk into any grocery store and grab a bunch of those petally, leafy things and call it a day; or you can pick out certain flowers that go well together and follow a plan to put them together. First thing’s first: how do you pick what flowers to use??
Floral Arrangements, whether you’re building a centerpiece, bouquet, or even something more complex, all have three basic properties:
- Color
- Size
- Texture
Let’s break it down…
Color
Colors should complement each other! For a basis think some light, some dark, and some middle toned. You can choose complementary colors (colors that are near each other on the color wheel) or contrasting colors (colors that are across from each other on the wheel). One tip when choosing contrasting colors, try to have colors that tie each other together. For example, having pink and blue flowers and incorporating some purple as well.
Size
Size works the same way as color: think one big, one medium, and some small. When you have all the same size nothing sticks out and the individual flowers don’t get the attention they deserve.
Texture
Adding some texture elements means maybe using some greens or flowers with atypical petal structure. If they’re all the same shape it tends to blend together and it’s hard to tell where one flower ends and another begins.
Now you’re ready to pick out your flowers! Happy Floristing!
Sincerely,
Savannah Wichman
Mountain Mama Florals 