Star Wars Boutonnieres

My husband loves Stormtroopers, so I had to tie a love of his into our wedding.  Well, we also came into the reception with the Imperial March playing - so he got that, too.  ;)  

Anyways!  This is a very affordable way to make your own boutonnieres and a way to make them COOL.

What you will need: 

boutonniere pins (buy anywhere online)
Star Wars plastic rings from a cake shop
real flowers or fake
(our flowers were from Michaels)
Hot glue gun

Step 1: Ordering the Parts.

Make sure that you order your boutonniere vases/pins a few weeks ahead of time, you never know what will happen with the shipping.  If you can't find the Star Wars rings at your local cake shop, try finding them online, they are out there and they are a lot cheaper than I expected.  I got mine in a Darth Vader + Trooper pack for 50 cents.  Amazing. 

Buy the amount according to who will be wearing what.  Here is what my plan was :

Fathers were to have Darth Vader boutonnieres, and my husband and his groomsmen were to have Stormtroopers.  When everything was said and done - my organization was on a different floor of the hotel and I had to be doing other things.  I was sad to see that everything got mixed up and my husband ended up with Darth Vader and it blended into his suit too much.  :(

Oh well! :)

Now, you can choose to get real flowers the day before, or the day of, and put them into the boutonnieres with a type of floral tape and or putty.  Or you can go the easy way, because no one will be sniffing the groomsmen to see if their flowers are real...buy them fake!  I picked out the color of flower that I wanted and I chose a cool leafy branch thing that would give them contrast.  

Step 2: Try Out Your Flowers.

If you get your flowers ahead of time, try different ways to situate them and see how you like them best.  Then you can wrap a wire or tape around them to secure the bundles the way you want them.  That way there is no fuss later on.

As soon as I got the little vases in the mail, I had to try them out and I just picked some flowers from the back yard to see how they looked.  I was really excited about these!

Once you know how you want them, just put some hot glue in the bottom of the boutonniere and shove your flower bunch in there (if they are fake), and hold for a couple seconds until they have set.  Easy!

Step 3: Attaching the Rings.

I tried a couple different ways to use the rings on the boutonniere itself, but only one way worked best.  What I did was:

Slip the ring up the tip of the boutonniere until you can't slide it up any further.  This will almost lock it into place, on my chosen type of boutonniere.  Just open the pin and place a dab of hot glue onto the split part of the adjustable plastic ring.  It's super easy and if you prefer a different way, you can go right ahead.  It doesn't matter.  :)  They will look amazing no matter how you adhere your Star Wars characters.

At this point, you're done.  Just do it for as many as you need.  Now you have some really cool things for the guys to keep after the wedding, and they won't feel so weird about wearing flowers.  ;)

Step 4: The Groomsmen!

I wasn't there, but the photos do all the talking.  They were handed the boutonniere to put on, and instead of jamming it into their tux, they studied them and smiled.  These are the moments that make your ideas worth-while.  :D  My husband loved them, his groomsmen were impressed and I even saw that my brother still had his displayed a year later.  

These are super-simple, really cheap *compared to most other boutonnieres*, they are way-cool and fun for the guys.

I say it's a win-win!  You can use this idea for any plastic rings, for any characters, for any theme.  Just a good tip - check cake shops for small, plastic decorations for your theme - on the cheap!