Designing your own wedding bouquet is one of the most personal and meaningful parts of wedding planning. When you choose artificial wedding flowers, you gain the freedom to create and perfect your bouquet well before your big day. We're thrilled to partner with Jen of Nectar & Bloom, whose unique approach blends poetry, artistry, and technical expertise to help you create the perfect artificial wedding bouquet!
Meet Your Floral Guide
While growing up on an organic produce farm in the Midwest, Jen and her sister started a small business selling hand-gathered bouquets at a local market stand from flowers they grew together on their parents' farmland. After pursuing her Master of Fine Arts degree and working as a university professor, she felt called back to her floral roots.
"I always think of my pivot into floral design as an unexpected revolution back home to myself," Jen shares. "Before flowers, I came from an academic career as a professor of English Literature & Composition, with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing & Poetry. Once I found myself enamored with floristry and building my own floral design studio, however, it all kind of made sense."
Understanding Color and Design: The Foundation of Your Bouquet
When approaching bouquet design, Jen brings her unique perspective: "Color for me is the entire mood of a design, and creating distinct and compelling color palettes is like finding the image that inspires a poem or the heartbeat inside any creative endeavor. My background is in creative writing and poetry, so composing with flowers has always felt akin to composing poetry to me."
Three Timeless Bouquet Styles
Romantic Blush
For this ethereal style, we recommend:
- Real Touch Fake Flowers Blush Peony - 27" as your focal flower
- Light Coral Faux Peony Flower Bundle - 21” for soft texture
- Light Cream Faux Ranunculus Flower - 37.5” for contrast
-
Cream Linen Faux Peach Blossom Branch - 41" for rich dimension
Classic Elegance
Create timeless sophistication with:
- Artificial Peony Flower in Taupe Mauve - 18.5"
- Dried Look Faux Fig Branch in Eggplant - 37" for a deep burgundy accent
- Artificial Blooming Hollyhock Flower Branch - 36" - for a pop of deep color
Rich Fall Palette
Embrace autumn's warmth with:
- Coral Faux Peony Flower Bundle - 21" for depth and vivid color
- Burgundy Red Artificial Dahlia Flower - 21.5" for rich texture
-
Artificial Nandina Leaf Branch - 39" for a hanging green element
Creating Your Bouquet: Step-by-Step Guide
Jen's approach to bouquet creation is both methodical and intuitive. "Looking through the myriad of stems Afloral offers, I started to gather collections of flowers by color, which I did by screenshotting each flower I wanted to use and arranging them into little mood board grids where I could see how the different shades and tones speak to one another."
Her essential steps include:
- "First, process your florals. Bend and curve the stems, play with the shape a bit."
- "Think of a garden, or how things bloom in a meadow."
- "As I build my bouquets, I watch the color movement and compose intentionally among the shapes, sizes, and tones of flowers I've assembled."
- "So much of it is feeling, so I always practice and often encourage my students to remember to breathe. Get into your body, and trust your instincts as you design."
Working with Artificial Flowers: Expert Tips
"Nothing compares to real flowers grown in nature," Jen reflects, "but artificial stems do offer an uplifting and inspiring impression of what flowers give us, the same way a photograph of a beautiful landscape brings inspiration and elevation to a room in a house by providing an impression of beholding that landscape in person."
For best results, Jen advises: "Get a heavy-duty pair of wire cutters, and wear gloves to protect your hands. Cut down stems to create more movement and variety within the flowers, which is what I recommend for working with real flowers as well. Especially when you have a 'spray' variety, a flower with multiple blooms on one stem, it helps to cut it down into multiple stems, rather than cramping all of those blooms together in an arrangement while still on one stem. It takes a bit more prep time and care, but it makes all the difference."
Looking Ahead: Wedding Bouquet Trends
Speaking about upcoming trends, Jen shares exciting predictions: "A few trends I see emerging for 2025 are soft and tonal palettes in different variations of pastels and deeper tones within the same color range, the return of the XL bouquet, more flower-heavy and romantic arrangements with minimal foliage, and more popup flower events like bouquet bars and flower trucks."
The Benefits of Choosing Artificial Wedding Flowers
"For me, the biggest benefits of using high-quality artificial flowers are that they are reusable, they last virtually forever and serve well in long-term floral installations in interior or exterior spaces, and they provide floral artists with a creative tool for design practice that can be used multiple times," Jen explains. This makes them perfect for wedding bouquets you want to treasure forever.
Start Creating Your Dream Bouquet
Ready to begin your design journey? Visit Afloral's wedding collection to start gathering your perfect bouquet materials. Remember, with artificial flowers, you have the freedom to take your time and create exactly the bouquet you've always dreamed of. Whether you choose romantic blush tones, classic white elegance, or rich fall colors, your artificial wedding bouquet will be a lasting reminder of your special day.
For more inspiration and to learn from Jen's artistic approach, follow her work at Nectar & Bloom, where she continues to transform the world of floral artistry through her unique blend of poetry, wellness, and floral design.
