How to Make a Bow Bouquet

It's a very common tradition at wedding rehearsals for the bride to carry a bouquet composed of the bows saved from her various bridal showers.  You can find directions for different ways to make this bouquet on websites like eHow.com or marthastewart.com.  These instructions usually involve cardstock or a paper plate, either with bows stapled on to the flat plate, or with the plate made into a cone of some form.  Those plans seem much less sturdy than the option I'm about to describe to you, which treats the bows like flowers and is more on the attractive side of tacky.

You Will Need:

paper towel roll.  You could use a toilet paper roll, but that doesn't seem nice enough for a wedding rehearsal to me

white acrylic paint

paintbrush

bows saved from the bride's showers
extra satin ribbon (maybe)
scissors

stapler

Helpful Bow Diagram:

Are you enjoying my diagram skills? 

Directions:

Get a paper towel roll (sans paper towels).  Cut it to the desired length for your bouquet's "stem" or "handle".  Mine was about 6 or 7 inches long.

Optional: Paint the paper towel roll white.  You don't have to do this, because odds are you're going to cover the paper towel roll with ribbon later, but I think it looks nicer.

Also paint the inside of the paper towel roll in case someone decides to look inside.  Set the paper towel roll aside to dry.

Gather the bows you and your bridesmaid cohorts saved from the bride's showers.  Fluff them up so they look pretty like when they were on top of her presents.

The bows made out of wired ribbons with long "tails" that tied around the packages are going to provide the structure of your bouquet.  You might need to tie smaller bows to larger bows so they can be more easily included.  That makes nifty looking composite bows:

 

You might also need to staple smaller bows or sticky bows to the center of long ribbons so they will have "tails" or "stems" as well.

Begin gathering your bows by the "tails", right at the base of the bows. This is basically be the same process you would follow if you were making a real bouquet.  Just think of the tails as the stems.

You might need to sandwich bows made out of un-wired ribbon between bows with more form and shape.  The un-wired satin or plastic ribbon can drape over the top of the more rigid, wired bows.

Keep gathering...

...keep gathering until you feel you have a good handful of bows that is more or less porportional and shaped evenly like an rounded mound.

Next, take a long, un-wired ribbon (1" satin ribbon is what I used), and wrap it once around the cluster of "tails" about 3 inches down from the cluster of bows.  This ribbon will anchor your bows to the paper towel roll.

Now, take your paper towl roll, and thread the anchoring ribbon through it.

Slide the paper towel roll up the anchoring ribbon.

This is what's happening:

Keep pulling on the anchoring ribbon until the cluster of ribbon "tails" has been pulled into the paper towel roll, doubled over, until the bouquet of bows is flush with the top of the paper towel roll.  The anchoring ribbon will flutter out the bottom of the paper towel roll.  Staple each of the tails of the anchoring ribbon to the paper towel.

You will have extra loops and tails sticking out of one side of the top of the bouquet. This is fine.  Allow some ribbons to trail down if you like that look.  Cut others off so they blend with the cluster of bows.  Be sure to save a few dangling ribbons.

With the one or two tails you've saved, wrap the paper towel roll "handle" to make a more pleasing look and texture.  Staple the end in place at the bottom.

Ta da!  Admire your beautiful bow bouquet:

 

Give bow bouquet to the happy bride for the rehearsal.

You're done!

The great thing about this way of making a bow bouquet is that I know for a fact that you can make it in the car on the way to the church as long as you've practiced one or two times before (and pre-painted the paper-towel roll).  This method is also very sturdy.  This bouquet isn't going to fall apart on you. 

Happy bow saving!

Late note:  I've been noticing that this post has been getting more hits than my usual posts.  If you're finding this tutorial useful, or if you have any suggestions, let me know!

-Caitlin