Briley Studdard, owner of Oh Deery Floral, regularly makes flower design look easy with her unstructured designs that are literally bursting with color, texture and natural elements. Here she shares her steps to her perfectly imperfect arrangements. But, first things first. She says, “Before anything, consider your color palette. Something I do when I go to the wholesale market is grab things in the color family that I'm working in and put them on a shelf together. Look at them in a big bunch.”
Now onto process and prep.
Process and prep the flower. This includes taking leaves off of the stems. Flowers will last longer if you don't have any leaves touching the water. Cut all of the ends of the flowers at a severe angle. Take thorns off the roses.
1. Start with oasis foam held down in the vase with oasis tape. (Inside secret: Briley used a vase from Target.) Place greens like this autumn eucalyptus. This builds the base and establishes your shape.
2. Add to your base. Snow berries give more structure with a wooden stem. I like to cluster things because it will look more like foliage does in nature.
3. Add a base cover like sedum. This covers the foam so no one can see it. I usually use a bulkier and cheaper flower for this. This goes really low in the arrangement.
4. Use a cheaper base flower that covers the bottom and adds another color like carnations. Cut the stems at varying heights, and layer the flowers to create more depth. I do one really low and one right above that’s higher. That’s how flowers grow in nature, so it looks a little more natural.
5. Place a focal flower like this café au lait dahlia. This adds on weight to the arrangement and draws your eye in. I like to have a star-shaped flower. If everything is round, it will look stiff. 6. Add texture. This is brown amaranthus. This adds a fall feel with a golden color.
7. Finish with a floating flower coming up above the arrangement. This makes it look wider and like it has more movement. Every organic style arrangement should have a floating flower. This scabiosa repeats some of the other colors in the arrangement.
HOW TO...