Creating a DIY Build-Your-Own Bouquet Bar – Fun Flowers for a Birthday or Special Event
Building your own bouquet inspires creativity and brings joy, no matter if you go to a pick-your-own flower farm or an establishment with buckets full of flowers. For a coworker’s birthday, I created a flower bar brimming with buckets of blooms in so many shapes and colors. The build-your-own bouquet station worked out great as a surprise workplace birthday celebration. Everyone got involved and we had a blast!
If you would like to host a similar work gathering or a surprise flower station for a party, shower, school, or church event, a pop-up flower bar is a really easy activity to plan! The toughest part is finding cheap enough flowers that you can still get an amazing variety of colors and styles. Of course, if you are a gardener, growing your own flowers can be such a rewarding and economical experience.
How to Set Up a DIY Flower Bar for Arranging Bouquets
If you’ve now got your heart set on a bouquet building station, look no further! Here are the exact steps and tips I used to plan my coworker’s surprise flower bar. You can pull this off with minimal planning as long as you know where to go for the goods!
Materials for DIY Bouquet Bar:
- Selection of Cut Flowers
- Selection of Greenery
- Variety of Vases
- Selection of Ribbons
- Water
- Buckets
- Scissors
- Trash Can and Trash Bags
- Table
- Optional – Paper Plate Holders (with openings)
Some great flowers for this kind of event may include roses, daisies, pompoms / chrysanthemums, sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and others depending on the season when you host your event.
I purchased these flowers at Produce Junction in Mont Clare, PA. You can get flowers at a good price at Produce Junction stores, at Aldi, Lidl, and other discount grocers. You may also find good connections for flowers in your local Facebook Marketplace groups, at local Pick-Your-Own flower farms, and even at the local Vo-Tech schools.
Of course, growing your own flowers is a cheap and rewarding option, as well!
If you have other great spots for cheap flowers, please share them in the comments so we can all benefit!
Setting Up a Pop-up Flower Bar
While no true rule exists for how to set up your DIY bouquet bar, it helps to keep in mind the size of your group and the number of flowers and volume of supplies you’re setting up.
- First, choose a space with a large enough area for your group to spread out.
- Set up a long table. The table should be big enough to accommodate vases, flowers in buckets, scissors, ribbon, and anything else you deem necessary.
- At one end, set up the vases in a lovely display. I chose a variety of different colors and styles of vases and glass jars so participants could choose the style that spoke to them.
- Next to the vases, set out some scissors and ribbon.
- Place buckets on the table at the other end. Spread them out to allow the flowers to fan outward.
- Fill each bucket with several inches of water.
- Optionally, you may use a slotted paper plate holder as a way to get the flowers to separate and fan out from the buckets. Simply place it on top.
- Place the flowers through the openings in the paper plate holders or simply place them in the buckets. If possible, plan for one variety of flower per bucket. For greenery, you may wish to place all of those stems in the same bucket.
- Give the table one last look and tidy up the arrangement of all the flower bar supplies. You should be ready for guests now!
Running a Build-Your-Own Bouquet Event
Once you have your flower stations set up, you can relax and await the bouquet building fun to begin. Simply bring in your guests and let them get started!
Consider these steps to help your friends, family, coworkers, or attendees build beautiful bouquets.
- Invite each guest to select a vase.
- Offer for them to decorate the vases with ribbon or other adornments.
- Let them know they should fill their vases halfway with water.
- Allow guests to begin selecting flowers. Usually, a mix of showy blooms and feature flowers look fantastic with a blend of background flowers and different mixed greens like ferns, tropical leaves, and even accents like baby’s breath.
- Make it extra fun and take a group photo with all the party guests and their bouquets!
Spring flower bars may accommodate peonies, tulips, and daffodils. Later seasons make room for roses, lilies, and other featured blooms.
What are your favorite flowers to include in a flower bar teambuilder event or special party or shower attraction? Let’s chat in the comments!
