How to Hold Your Bouqet

How many weddings have you attended where the bride and bridesmaids walked down the aisle like they were lugging bowling balls, not an artful arrangement of blooms? I don't know why wedding planners or florists aren't teaching wedding parties how to hold their bouquets properly. After all, the planner's job is to make you look great!

Look and Feel at Ease with Your Bouquet:

• Make sure the bouquets aren't so heavy that you really can't hold them comfortably for twenty minutes or longer.

• Hold your bouquet around belly button height.
• Rest your hands snug against your stomach (which offers you support in holding the flowers ... and hides any shaking hands!).

• Hold the blooms toward your guests, not the stems. No one wants to see those stems, no matter how beautifully they're wrapped.

• If you're carrying a sheaf of flowers, let them rest in the crook of your left arm like a baby.
• Borrow a good friend's baby (or a solid pillow) and practice a bit. Scan old movies with pageant winners.

Special Ceremonial Pointers:

• During the ceremony, have a small table with a receptacle to hold your arrangements while you need your hands.
• Make sure the vase is heavy enough to hold the flowers without tipping over. (Pour some stones or glass marbles in the bottom.) You might want to hand off your flowers, but many of today's bouquets are so heavy, it's a bit much to ask a bridesmaid to hold two.

• Whisk that same vase to the reception, so you can show off those flowers to their full advantage. Set vases in front of the attendants' seats, too.