how many flowers does it take to make a corsage???

because i just have SO MUCH TIME on my hands… i decided that it would be a great idea to make the prom flowers for my son and his girlfriend. RIGHT ;)

i’ve arranged flowers before – i did the table arrangements for my wedding – but i don’t think i’ve ever made a corsage before. i made mums in high school – does that count? anyway, little things like lack of experience and common sense were not enough to deter me! LOL!

i hit all the craft stores and spent i don’t know HOW much buying bits and parts not knowing what i would actually use and what would be going back to the store.

then, the day arrived for flower shopping. i thought about going to the flower market or wholesaler, but hey – how many flowers did i really need and HEB usually has really nice roses and such.

so i headed out early friday morning – IN THE POURING rain – and oh’ did i mention it was my 22nd wedding anniversary? i went into HEB confident i could get what i needed, confidence that quickly faded as i looked over what looked like mother’s day leftovers :( YUCK! so i waded back out to my car and went to ANOTHER HEB. on first glance, the flowers here didn’t look much better, but i noticed there were some unpacked boxes. so i asked, and FORTUNATELY, there was a fresh load of flowers. so i waited until they were unpacked and found pretty much exactly what i had in mind – except for any hot pink flowers. so i headed to ANOTHER HEB {at this point wishing that i went to the wholesaler or market}. but luckily, i found some small hot pink carnations – PERFECT!

so here’s my flower purchases for ONE corsage and ONE boutonniere…

think i have enough? LOL!

so after a 3 hour excursion for flowers, i settled down to make the corsage and boutonniere. i have to say, it went better than expected and i even got to take a short nap to refresh for an anniversary dinner with my hubbie. i had SO many flowers left, that i made myself a corsage for the event!

here’s the kids, all dressed up for prom – drew and his girlfriend naomi…

and here are some close-up shots of the flowers…

i didn’t think i did too bad. the theme of the prom was “bollywood”, so i thought the bright colors would work well as well as with their outfits.

i found the idea for the pocket flowers instead of a traditional boutonniere on pinterest and LOVED the idea. the hardest part was trying to figure out how to construct it. but thanks to some acrylic sheets i had {THANKS GRAFIX} i was able to rig up something. i had decided that a shoulder corsage would work best for naomi as the couple was going to the melting pot for dinner. i thought a wrist corsage would be bothersome. turns out that was a good decision as they spent 3 1/2 hours at dinner!

i was able to make 2 small bouquets for drew to present to friends whose graduation he was attending AND a HUGE arrangement for my mom and mother-in-law to enjoy. so NO flowers were wasted in this project – just ENJOYED!