Summer Flowers || How To: Mix Dried + Real
With 10+ years of experience in the wedding industry, and a life-long passion for all things creative and beautiful, styling floral arrangements has always come pretty second nature to me. Whether I am hosting, or just want some fresh blooms around the house or office, I love how the perfect arrangement can breath a little extra life into a space!
[more on my flower obsession here].
While fresh flowers will forever be my go-to, I have been using dried flowers a lot lately — incorporating them in everything from my recent place card DIY and my favorite styled shelves, to an extra touch on my coffee table or a table setting.
Mixing fresh and dried flowers has recently become my absolute favorite. I feel like the dried element immediately elevates my go-to palette of lots of white and coral/pink with some more earthy hues and a little unexpected texture. I wanted to share how to easily mix your dried pieces with fresh flowers. Not only does this achieve a specific look, it’s also gives your debit card a break. I keep all of my dried pieces and use them over and over for different arrangements. As you build your collection, you may only have to pick up 1-2 bundles of fresh flowers! Here’s how we created this one.
DRIED ELEMENTS:
Pampas grass
Trimmed Palm Fans
Queen palm leaves (I found on our street ha!)
FRESH FLOWERS:
Blush roses
Basic foliage
HOW TO BUILD YOUR ARRANGEMENT
I started by placing my pampas grass into the vase to create the silhouette (I almost always go asymmetrical). Next, I placed a trio of roses in a triangle (always try to work in triangles if you can). After the roses were in, I began to tuck in the greenery and dried palms to fill in gaps and continue building the shape I set out for with the pampas grass. Finally, I added a few more roses to fill in the holes, and the queen palm leaves for a fun accent.
You can get a little more dried + fresh mix inspiration here — a simple bouquet we threw together to create some recent AFF Creative Library content.
WHAT ELEMENTS DO YOU LOVE TO ADD TO YOUR FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS?
Images by Kimi Domino
