behind the scenes: the “glamelia” bridal bouquet

I’m so thankful that I run a business in the age of the Internet.

You see, every now and then, a client calls with a special order and I don’t even know how to begin to make it happen for them. But I must make. it. happen. If I don’t, someone else will, right? {Sometimes this gets me in trouble, and I bite off a little more than I can chew.}

But I love a good design challenge. C and I call them, “cake boss orders.” Because if Buddy can build a life-sized replica of his wife out of buttercream and modeling chocolate, I can make a guitar out of styrofoam and chrysanthemums — which I did once!

Case in point: When a sweet bride, Niki, stopped in the shop before Valentine’s Day and showed me a picture of a bridal bouquet that looked like a giant rose, I was determined to give it to her (without the slightest clue of how I was going to do it). I gave Niki my most confident smile and said, “I can totally do that for you! It’s going to be awesome!”

As soon as she left, I ran to my head designer (who has 30+ years of floral design under her belt) and asked her what I’d gotten myself into…

She told me it was a popular bridal style many years ago, and that they were made with a special cardboard form by gluing the petals in rows. I’m kind of a design snob… the thought of a flat bridal bouquet made of cardboard and glue made me turn up my nose; and I knew there had to be a better (and more dimensional) way. We turned to our friend, Google, with nothing more than a picture in our heads and a name — Glamelia.

It didn’t take long to find this tutorial. In an easy to follow photo step-by-step, the ladies of Natural Beauty Florals walked me through it. The tutorial suggests using 75 roses for a large bouquet, but I used 25 large-headed pinky lavender Faith roses and found it to be plenty.

The trick to creating the Glamelia is time and patience. It’s one of the most labor-intensive projects I’ve taken on, because you have to wire individual petals together and sculpt them together layer by layer. But watching it “grow” is pretty exciting, and the final product is just stunning.

I finished it off with some large salal leaves under the base to cover the mechanics, and a stem or two of seeded eucalyptus for texture. One important thing to remember about the Glamelia bouquet: there’s no water source, so I gave the bride a spray bottle and directions to gently spray the petals every few hours to keep them fresh. You can also use floral clear coat spray, like Design Master’s Clear Life to help preserve the petals.

I’ve since added Natural Beauties Floral to my blog reader, along with my other floral faves, Honey and Poppies and Cori Cook. Do any of you follow floral blogs? I’d love to hear your favorites!