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May 30, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



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THE RETAIL 



FLORIST 



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BRIDES' BOUQUETS. 



The Effort for the Unusual. 



When the florist is called upon to 

 make a bride 's bouquet, his first 

 thought is to turn out a bouquet which 

 is above the commonplace. He realizes 

 that the best is expected of him, and the 

 bouquet which is to attract notice at 

 the wedding ceremony will in a measure 

 be a standard by which his capabilities 

 will be judged. Often in the eflort to 

 excel himself he goes too far, and the 

 result is the failure to achieve the very 

 end in view, the creation of a bouquet 

 which shall be of special excellence. 



Do not be led away from correct prin- 

 ciples by your desire to build a bride's 

 ' ' bunch ' ' that shall be notable. Re- 

 member that your recompense is neither 

 in proportion to the size of the bouquet 

 nor the quantity of flowers used. In 

 times gone by the bride's bouquet was 

 flat, crowded and edged with a solid 

 circle of green. The effect was heavy, 

 tiresome and just what one would ex- 

 pect from the effort to get results by 

 the use of quantity. Get away from it; 

 use fewer flowers, arrange them loosely, 

 and the result will be grace. 



Size of Bouquet. 



Size does not make excellence in a 

 bride's bouquet, and size should be gov- 

 erned, more than by anything else, by 

 the physique of the bride. A slight, 

 girlish figure calls for a bouquet in 

 keeping; you could send a much bigger 

 bunch to a buxom bride, but too fre- 

 quently even the bride of such propor- 

 tions as to give promise of being able to 

 keep the groom well in hand through 

 life is started on her matrimonial voy- 

 age bearing a bouquet which, instead of 

 adding to the beauty of her wedding 

 gown, seems to partake of the nature of 

 a burden. It is better to err on the 

 side of having the bouquet hardly large 

 enough than to have it too large and 

 heavy looking. 



Particularly, you should know the 

 stature of the bride if making a shower 

 bouquet, else you may make the shower 

 too long or too short. Also you should 

 consider the general character of the 

 wedding. The more elaborate the other 

 features, the more elaborate your bou- 

 quet may fittingly be. 



Material. 



The finest bride 's bouquets are made 

 of orchids, but the year around valley is 

 used for probably seven out of ten. 

 Sweet peas have been largely used this 

 spring. White lilac is popular for this 

 purpose in winter. For a big brunette 

 you could well employ tight buds of Chat- 

 <Miay, Kate Moulton, Wellesley or simi- 

 lar roses, formally arranged, with ribbon 

 or simple embellishment. Fine foliage, 

 like asparagus or adiantum. ninkcs a 

 good border or edge for tlio top bunch. 

 Even a ^vi(le fringe of adiantum will 



not make the bouquet too heavy. Val- 

 ley largely supplies its own foliage. 



For a good bouquet there will be re- 

 quired from 100 to 200 lilies of th'e val- 

 ley, whether it is proposed to have the 

 full shower effect, or the round hand 

 bouquet with the partial shower effect. 



Form of the Bouquet. 



The top of the bouquet should be 

 round, but not like a ball. It should 



the valley is used, all the leaves should 

 be separated, so that they may be low- 

 ered a little below the level of the flower 

 spikes. This is done so that the finished 

 bouquet will look like a mass of white 

 flowers and not like a bouquet of green 

 and white. The handles of bouquets are 

 made as small and as short as possible 

 that they may be conveniently held, and 

 when holding them the stem will be en- 

 tirely unseen. The use of green in 

 bouquets of valley should receive careful 

 attention. Generally speaking, the less 

 used the better. 



The Shower. 



Material for the streamers in the 

 shower may be fine strands of green, 

 like smilax or asparagus, or a cluster 

 of dift'erent lengths of narrow ribbon, in 

 gauze, satin taffeta or velvet ribbon, 

 white or cream. The gauze or chiffon 

 tasseled ribbon is a dainty shower ma- 

 terial. Avoid tying many knots in the 



The Bride's Bouquet. 



not look crowded, but loose and grace- 

 ful, the outline biokon every once in a 

 while. The tying of the flowers so that 

 they will fall into the right position 

 necessitates the cleaning of part of the 

 stems, and rhe lengthening and shorten- 

 ing of them its required. When lily of 



streamers by tying the tlowers on with 

 tiny bows of 4-inch to o-inch lengths of 

 the same width ribbon. Catch two 

 streamers together and drape slightly in 

 two or three places in the shower. 



When a scarf is added, as in the il- 

 lustration, it always should hang behind 



