Weddings + Showers: 18 Eco-Friendly DIY Wedding Bouquets and Flowers

DIY Wedding Ideas
rose bouquet with chalkboard sign image via Shutterstock (1 of 1)
rose bouquet with chalkboard sign image via Shutterstock

Worried about the ethics of the floral trade?

Struggling to find organically-grown, fair trade cut flowers?

You may want to skip the politics altogether, and simply make your own DIY wedding bouquets and other floral pieces for your wedding. You’ll invest more time in the process, definitely, but you’ll definitely save money, and your wedding will be all the greener for it.

Even if you just add a few handmade elements as accents to your DIY wedding bouquets, you’ll still be saving resources (your own and the environment’s!) by not choosing all hot house-grown, exotic flowers.

Check out this list of the best DIY flowers and bouquets that you can make using natural and recycled materials, and figure out which ones you’re going to put on YOUR bouquet!

18 DIY Wedding Bouquets

  1. hand-wrapped bouquet: You can assemble this bouquet yourself, or set up a station for all your bridesmaids to make their own using the same selection of flowers.
  2. paper roses: Make these from a copy of the first book you read out loud to each other, a romantic book of poetry, or even the textbook from the class you sat next to each other in when you first met. Dye the paper for more impact.
  3. magazine flowers: This alternative is modular, and surprisingly bright when made with the right magazines.
  4. solar-dyed bouquet ribbon: Dye your accent pieces using natural solar energy.
  5. flower crowns and corsages: These are upcycled from other formal pieces, but you could also make them from remnants of the fabric used to make your wedding outfits.
  6. T-shirt flower bouquet: I’m shocked at how realistic these upcycled T-shirt flowers look!
  7. fabric flowers: You can upcycle even more special fabric for these flowers–your partner’s baby clothes, perhaps?
  8. pinecone flowers: Make pinecones into flowers for an autumn wedding.
  9. tin can roses: These would be a fun wedding favor, especially if silver is one of your colors.
  10. flower crown: Make the flower girl a flower crown.
  11. plastic bag flowers: The idea sounds awful, I know, but the results look REALLY cool.
  12. Easter grass: A dish of real, growing grass can be nicer than a vase of cut flowers as a centerpiece.
  13. button flowers: These would make a cute child’s bouquet, or you can re-use the buttons from your mother’s [ugly?] wedding dress to add to the bridal bouquet.
  14. maple leaf roses: There are definitely benefits to an autumn wedding!
  15. crocheted pull tab flowers: This is another flower that would look cute held by a kid, or as a wedding favor.
  16. leather flowers: Thrift old leather coats for these–find one of those puffy-shouldered, 80-era leather jackets that are NOT coming back into style. Ever. Please.
  17. recycled flower garland: You can paint it with your wedding colors.
  18. soda can flowers: These look especially cute (and completely unrecognizable as soda cans) when they’re teeny-tiny.

If you’ve got more ideas, or have links to how you’ve created DIY wedding bouquets for your own wedding, please share in the Comments below!

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