Lori with her Mom, 1/2 of the Guests of Honor

Good style, beautiful style, imo should include being a rockin’ hostess.  A stylish gal should know how to throw a party.  Right!?  She should know how to make her guests feel like they are the most important people in the world, not to mention the guests of honor.  That is my M.O. when ever I throw a party, my goal in it all anyhow.

We Threw a PaRtY!

Cake, champagne, orchids... beautiful!

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary last month, so we had to, of course, throw them a party.  We made it a surprise party and I wanted it to be extra special, on some kind of a budget.  It was an evening garden party soiree with hor’s d’ouvres and dessert.  To save on the money, I did virtually everything myself (plus the help of some great family members) including some minor landscaping in the back yard, the cake and the flowers.

Flowers are Expensive

No doubt.  Having beautiful flowers at the party was important to me, but I did not want to break the bank so I did my own.  This can be a rather intimidating task so I thought I would break it down step-by-step for you.

Elegant and Beautiful!!!

1. Use what you have - Scour your house for creative containers you might already have, vases, bowls, plates, buckets, glasses, etc.  For my centerpieces I used 6 large glass chargers that I already owned and 6 large glass hurricanes that have been hanging out in my garage since our wedding.  I filled the hurricanes with purchased pillar candles and some crystal candle sticks.  I also used a silver candle abra I already owned for one of the indoor arrangements.
2. Do it Right – Be sure you have the right foundation set in your container to hold the flowers in place.  For my purposes I needed floral foam rings to go around the outside of my hurricanes.   I made the mistake of assuming this was something I could pick up at Michael‘s.  I was WRONG!  They do sell floral foam bricks, but no other shapes.  And I quickly found out that florists won’t sell you them either.  So unless you have a good florist friend that can hook you up (which I eventually found, thank the Lord!), plan ahead and order what you need online.  This is the type  I used. I soaked the rings in water before adding my flowers.  Note:  floral foam is a very soft, very porous foam that holds water.  It is not styrofoam or the hard green foam used for silk flower arranging.
   

   Step #3

3. Pick your flowers – I bought a bunch at Costco and Trader Joes.  I got a lot, and I thought I may have over done it, but in the end I had JUST enough for everything.  Give yourself a nice variety of shapes and textures if you are going for a look like I did, but I was pretty much dominated by what I could find at the stores in the colors I wanted.
4. Separate your flowers – I began by sorting all of my flowers into sort of categories: Greenery, large structured flowers, roses, smaller filler flowers, accent colors etc.
   

   Step #4: Sorting

5. Work on all pieces at the same time - I set up an assembly line because I wanted all of the pieces to be cohesive.  They did not all have to look exactly the same, but by doing them in phases all at the same time, I was able to evenly distribute the varied flowers amongst them.
6. Start with Greenery – Begin by cutting up and filling in all around your pieces with greenery.  I had a difficult time finding flowers with greenery in them, so I resorted to using some of the leaves off of the roses to help fill things in.
   

   Steps #5 & 6: My Assembly Line

7. Use the larger structured flowers first -  After the greenery was in, I next added in the larger, structured flowers.  Some flowers I did not have enough of to include in all of the arrangements so I used them in arrangements that I new would be isolated from the others or were in a place of distinction.  It is not necessary at this point that the placement of the flowers be balanced.  If you only have 1 large flower for each arrangement, you can later balance it out with clusters of slightly smaller flowers later.
8. Add Balance With Medium sized flowers -  Next I used clusters of roses and other medium sized flowers to balance out the larger structured flowers I had placed in the arrangements.
   

   Step #7: Large, structured Flowers

9. Filler flowers – At the end fill in any holes or bald spots with the lighter weight filler flowers.
10. Accent Colors – I dispersed the brighter accent colored flowers evenly throughout the arrangements.


Steps #8 & 10: Medium clusters with some Accent Colors



Step #9: Filler Flowers

Step #10: Accent Flowers

And Voila! Beautiful Centerpieces! I made 6 of these for about $150. You could pay a florist that just for 1!

Have fun throwing your next party!