Creating A Cascade Wedding Bouquet: Step-By-Step Guide

A cascade wedding bouquet is a stunning, dramatic choice for a bride. This style of bouquet is designed to flow down from the bride's hands in a long, natural, free-form waterfall shape. It is possible to make your own cascade bouquet, either with fresh or artificial flowers, and this can save you money. You will need a bouquet holder, flowers and foliage, scissors or secateurs, ribbon, and any decorative accents you wish to include.

Choosing your flowers

Choosing the right flowers for your cascade wedding bouquet is a very important step. You'll want to select flowers that reflect your personal style and complement your wedding dress. Here are some tips to help you choose the perfect flowers:

Number of Stems

When creating a cascade wedding bouquet, you will typically need around 15-18 stems of a long-stemmed flower as your primary blooms. These will be the focal point of your bouquet, so choose a flower that you love and that goes well with your wedding theme. You can use a single type of flower or a mix of different ones. In addition, you will need 10-12 stems of smaller accent flowers to fill in the gaps and add more variety to your bouquet.

Flower Type

When selecting your flowers, consider the style you want to achieve. If you're going for a traditional look, roses, peonies, hydrangeas, stargazer lilies, anemones, ranunculus, and dahlias are all excellent choices. For a more bohemian or relaxed style, bright wildflowers or a mix of white roses and greenery can create a stunning and natural look. Orchids, wood flowers, and ivy are also great options for adding a cascading effect to your bouquet.

Flower Colour

The colour of your flowers is an important consideration. If you've already chosen your wedding colour scheme, try to incorporate those colours into your bouquet. You can either match your flowers to your scheme or choose complementary colours that will create a beautiful contrast. If you're looking for an unusual colour combination, you can add artificial elements like wire, ribbon, or beads in the desired colour.

Fresh vs. Artificial Flowers

Another factor to consider is whether to use fresh or artificial flowers. Fresh flowers are traditional and can be very beautiful, but they will need to be kept in water and handled with care. Artificial flowers, on the other hand, are more sturdy and will stay looking fresh throughout the day. They are also a good option if you want to create your bouquet well in advance. If you're unsure, you can always mix fresh and artificial flowers to get the best of both worlds.

Filler Flowers and Greenery

In addition to your primary and accent flowers, you'll need some filler flowers or greenery to add volume and texture to your bouquet. Baby's breath, ferns, snapdragons, silver ragwort, poms, delphinium, and Queen Anne's lace are all great options for filler flowers. For greenery, you can choose from options like myrtle, ivy, silver sage, spirea, lemon leaf, or eucalyptus. These will help to frame your bouquet and enhance the cascading shape.

Creating the cascade shape

Now, it's time to start adding the greenery. Insert the two longest greenery stems at the bottom front of the holder, with the tips pointing down. You can use myrtle, ivy, silver sage, spirea, lemon leaf, or eucalyptus for this. Add more greenery, cutting it if necessary, so it's shorter at the top and longer at the bottom. Imagine creating an upside-down teardrop shape that's rounded at the top and narrow at the bottom.

Once you're happy with the greenery, it's time to add the primary blooms. Place the largest and prettiest flowers in the centre of the arrangement, with the top flowers pointing straight up and the longest stems cascading downwards. Trim the stems as needed, making the flowers on the bottom the longest and those on the top the shortest. Continue adding your main flowers, working them around the bouquet holder.

Finally, fill in any gaps with your accent flowers and additional greenery. You can use baby's breath, ferns, or other small flowers or foliage to ensure the bouquet holder isn't visible and to secure the grid formed by the interlocking stems.

Adding the flowers

Now it's time to add the flowers! Start by arranging your primary blooms. Place your largest, prettiest flowers in the centre of your arrangement as the focal point, then work the remaining flowers all the way around the bouquet holder. You want the top flowers pointing straight up, the blooms around the outside of the holder to be horizontal, and the longest, cascading stems to be pointing down.

As you're arranging the flowers, alternate between the top and the sides so that the stems interlock in a grid pattern, helping to keep the flowers secure. Space each type of flower evenly throughout the bouquet, as asymmetry will detract from the cascading effect. If you have a flower with a weak stem, pierce the head with a pin, wrap the stem with wire and floral tape to stabilise it.

Trim your flower stems so that the shortest are on top and the longest are on the bottom. Cut thicker stems at an angle to make them easier to insert into the bouquet holder. As you place each flower, trim them to the length you want, customising your bouquet as you go. Cut the top and middle flowers so that they extend slightly past the greenery.

Once you've filled in the bouquet with your primary blooms, place your accent flowers around them. Continue to alternate between the top and sides of the bouquet, criss-crossing the stems to secure them. Don't worry about making the bouquet look perfectly full yet, but do space your accent flowers evenly.

Finally, fill in any remaining gaps with baby's breath or greenery. Look at the bouquet from all angles and use your filler to cover any gaps. Depending on the size of your blooms, you may only need a few sprigs, or you may need to tuck small sprays throughout the bouquet.

Prepping your flowers

To prep your flowers, you'll need to start by cutting the stems on a diagonal. This is true for both fresh flowers and artificial flowers. However, if you're using fresh flowers, you'll also want to keep the stems in water before adding them to the bouquet.

For a cascading bouquet, you'll want to leave the stems as long as possible to create that dramatic waterfall effect. You'll also need to remove some of the leaves so you have bare stems to work with at the base of the bouquet. This will make the bouquet easier to arrange and create a comfortable handhold for your wedding day.

If you're using silk flowers, you can improve the look of your bouquet by choosing your foliage carefully. Some silk foliage looks obviously fake, with plastic backs that are a different colour from the front. Instead, opt for the more realistic kind, or add some real foliage to your bouquet. Certain ferns, for example, last well out of water, and you can buy a potted plant and snip off bits to add to your bouquet.

If you want your bouquet to look natural, gently bend the stems of your silk flowers with your warm hands. Natural stems are rarely straight, so this will help your faux stems look more realistic.

Adding fillers and greenery

First, choose your fillers. Delicate fillers like baby's breath, ferns, or other small flowers, greenery, or ferns will work well. You can also use snapdragons, silver ragwort, poms, delphinium, or Queen Anne's lace. Next, mix the fillers with your flowers to achieve an aesthetically pleasing look. Then, use the greenery to frame the bouquet. Use the longest pieces of greenery to emphasise the cascading shape. You can use ivy, myrtle, silver sage, spirea, lemon leaf, or eucalyptus for this.

Finally, fill in any remaining gaps with more greenery or filler flowers. Look at the bouquet from the top, front, and sides, and use your filler to completely cover up any gaps that are left.

Frequently asked questions