Building a Beautiful Calla Lily Wedding Bouquet

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It's simple: the calla lily is the epitome of elegance. If your venue was the set of Breakfast at Tiffany's, the calla lily would be Audrey Hepburn; if it was Monaco's pink palace, the calla would be Grace Kelly in a taffeta gown.

All fresh flowers are beautiful, but few offer the elegance and versatility of the calla.

Maybe you've thought of designing your own wedding bouquets, centerpieces or altar arrangements. In that case, the calla can provide all the style, color and beauty you've ever dreamed of.

One simply has to glance at a white calla to think of weddings. It occupies a strangely rich space that's both classic and totally modern. Fortunately, beautiful calla lily bouquets are easy to fashion yourself. Here's how to craft a few popular styles:

Create a Simple Hand-Tied Calla Lily Bridal Bouquet

For a bouquet that's both simple and elegant, use floral tape to tie together the stems of 10 to 12 calla lilies, about 6 inches below the bloom.

Once secured, using a wide satin ribbon that matches one of your wedding colors, wrap the stems to cover the tape, and finish it off with a simple "shoestring" bow. With this simple hand-tied posey starring the most sophisticated wedding flower, your stroll down the aisle will exude understated elegance.

But perhaps you'd like a little more color in your floral arrangements. In that case, consider the fiery mini calla. Slightly shorter than its willowy cousin, the mini calla offers a tremendous range of colors and amazing versatility. Depending on the season, you can find mini callas in fire engine red, flamingo pink, shocking yellow, sultry violet, and many other hues.

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Create a Dramatic Mixed Calla Lily Bouquet

This beautiful bouquet, combining full-sized and mini callas, offers great visual depth and dimension. To create it yourself, place five full-sized white calla lilies in the palm of your hand. Arrange the flowers into a rough arrow shape, with the middle flower being the tallest, and the rest gently sloping down. Now continue to fill out the arrow shape by adding eight mini calla lilies in pink, red, or yellow.

To finish the bouquet, gently close the palm of your hand to bring the stems together and tie off with floral tape. Complete the look by wrapping the stems with a wide satin ribbon of your choice.

A Striking Calla Combination

Callas look every bit as beautiful in combination with other fresh-cut flowers. Roses and callas are a tremendously popular pair, drawing every eye to your bridal bouquet or centerpieces.

Simply alternating roses and callas will make for a beautiful, simple hand-tied wedding posy. The flowers' contrasting contours and hues will add richness and visual interest to your bridal bouquet. Another popular look is to give your callas pride of place in the center and surround them with a contrasting bloom.

Don't be afraid to experiment with color. For the pastel atmosphere that fairytales are made of, surround your statuesque callas with a slightly lower ring of soft pink roses.

For a more contemporary and unabashedly bold look, surround your callas with the nest of green roses or lime green button mums.

A no-holds-barred romantic wedding calls for the crisp contrast of tall, white callas emerging from a garland of dark red roses.

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The Brass Tacks of DIY Callas

Perhaps one of the reasons why callas are so popular with DIY brides is their resilience. Like all fresh blooms, callas can suffer bruising or wilting if not properly cared for, but among the ephemeral flowers, callas are on the sturdy side and enjoy an unusually long vase life.

Caring for callas is much like caring for other flowers: immediately remove them from the box on arrival, and cut the stems under running water at a 45 degree angle, approximately an inch from the bottom, to prevent air bubbles from rising internally. Then place in cool water.

Part of the calla lily's beauty is its simplicity. Still, callas are so sleek and uniform, a bouquet composed only of standard-sized white callas can look one-dimensional. The best way to create a striking bouquet is to combine your full-sized callas with minis, either colored or white. White minis offer subtle contrast in the shape of the head and the shading, so even an all-white bouquet of full-sized and mini callas will look richer and more interesting than a bouquet made wholly from standard ones.

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What color combinations do brides most often buy when ordering wholesale calla lilies? This season, many brides are choosing a softly-colored arrangement of six to eight tall white callas surrounded by a complementary array of eight to twelve roses in white, pink or lavender.

How much less can you expect to pay for wholesale callas? The answer partly depends on the season, any unexpected setbacks in the flower fields such as storms or pests, and the number of businesses between the grower and your local florist.

But typically, you can expect to shave 30% to 50% off your bill by ordering direct. And with an exotic , tricky-to-grow bloom like callas (and a matching price tag), that adds up to satisfying savings. Just make sure you have the time — and the supportive team players — to help you pull them all together before the big day.

Christopher Yow is the CEO of Sun King Wholesale, a provider of fresh cut, wholesale flowers to florists, event planners, business owners and the general public.

In addition to overseeing the daily operations and marketing efforts of Sun King Wholesale, Mr. Yow also travels to Colombia, Costa Rica and Ecuador to inspect fresh cut flower quality, as well as strengthen relationships with the international business community. He lives in Miami, Florida with his beautiful wife Diana Ochoa. Published by special arrangement with FavorIdeas.com.



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11 Comments in 7 Threads.  Add a New Comment »

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Kristin wrote
on September 26th, 2008 at 12:37 pm



I’ve been looking around and every florist i’ve called has told me that red calla lilies don’t exist i know they do!!! Where can I find them?

Dawn P. wrote
on September 26th, 2008 at 1:24 pm



Kristin can you stand a touch of burgundy or violet in your red callas? Or you can also do the reddish orange ones. Some are pretty close to just plain red. Try:

Pacific Callas (various tints of red)

Flower Buyer - burgundy

Oregon coastal flowers — take a look at Majestic Red

HTH!

 
 
LizEL wrote
on July 29th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
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http://www.favorideas.com/smilies/yahoo_dance.gif …nice site!!!but i need more samples…plzz…esp. the flower buquets of the brides maids & maid of honor!!!

 
Shea wrote
on July 2nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
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I want to do a corset type ribbon around my calla lilly stems. Could you tell me how to do that?

 
LILLIAN wrote
on January 30th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
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How do you stop the bottom of the Calla Stem from curling, where it has been cut? Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

Blake@FavorIdeas wrote
on January 31st, 2008 at 1:00 am



Lillian, DenverPlants suggests dipping the bottom of the stem in wax or wrapping a piece of cottonball around it. They also have some other care suggestions which might be helpful.

 
 
Vaneir wrote
on June 22nd, 2007 at 10:37 am



I think Lilies are pretty– but they DON’T beat out roses. (SORRY)

 
Diane Francis wrote
on May 18th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
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What’s the best way to wire a calla for a bout so that it is not top heavy?

Melanie wrote
on October 28th, 2007 at 3:15 am
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Using a calla lily to do a groom button hole do I need to wire it? If so How?

 
 
glenda wrote
on September 28th, 2006 at 8:21 am



Would you please tell me how to handle the oozing from the end of the calla , does it stop after it is out of water for ashort time ? thanks any offer or suggestion i would appreciate glenda

Joni wrote
on January 17th, 2007 at 11:22 pm



Dip the calla lilies stems in wax!

 
 
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