I am SUPER excited for today’s DIY Wednesday tutorial feature coming to us from Lindsey of Elusive Photo Design. You all know how much I love the unique, different, and offbeat when it comes to weddings [especially in the Washington, DC area], so naturally, I jumped out of my seat when Lindsey sent me this:

DIY Origami Paper Flower Bouquet

From Lindsey:

These kusudama origami bridal bouquets are remarkably simple to make, and can be made to your taste using a variety of different types, colors, patterns and sizes of paper. I recommend doing a few practice flowers with pre-cut, thin origami paper first. Once you’ve become more adept, try cutting squares out of magazines, vintage books — not antique (!!!), just old — or using thicker scrapbook paper for a different “look.”

As someone who didn’t use live flowers in my own wedding, I am always pumped when I find other ideas for non-floral bouquets. Other than the vintage brooch bouquet, I haven’t seen any other newer, alternative wedding bouquet ideas, so I am just so excited to get to share something to unique, but also new & fresh!

I love how unique this bouquet is, and that it’s a DIY bouquet! I can just imagine smaller ones being held by all the bridesmaids too!

So now, here is the best part ~ Lindsey has given us the actual DIY Tutorial, including step-by-step instructions and a TON of pictures, so that you can make this totally unique & alternative wedding bouquet too!

You will need:

Paper (most patterned paper will do! You can get this from a craft store, or buy paper like this Origami Patterned Paper on Amazon)

on Amazon) Wooden Dowel Rods (like these Wooden Dowels )

) Craft Glue (our favorite is the Elmer’s Craft Bond Fabric and Paper Glue )

) Paper Clips

A Foam Ball

Read more to get the full-on tutorial, with step-by-step pictures to make your own, DIY Origami Paper Flower Bouquet!

Step-by-Step Instructions & Pictures on how to make the Origami Paper Flower Bouquet:

1. Begin with a perfectly square piece of paper …

… and (if the sides aren’t the same colors) place it pattern/color side down on the table.

2. Fold corner to corner, and crease firmly.

3. With the open end facing away from you, take both bottom corners of the “triangle” and bring them up to the top-center point creating a “diamond” shape.

4. Fold the center edges (both sides of the paper that meet in the middle of the diamond) in half to meet the outer edges, creating points that protrude from the diamond to the right and left sides.

5. Open these folds completely, and “smush” at the middle fold to flatten out what should now look like two awkwardly shaped diamonds on top of your squatty square-diamond.

6. Bring the top points of your outer diamonds down “into” your fold and crease until it is level with the rest of your paper.

7. Fold the outer edges both back in on themselves.

8. Now you should be able to bring the edge folds together to “kiss” each other in the middle, creating a loop of paper, that you’ll soon discover looks like a flower petal.

…place a line of glue on one of the inner folds, and then paperclip together while it dries.

This is one out of five petals you will need for your flower! Repeat steps 1-8 to create the other four petals.

9. Squeeze a line of glue along the inside edge of one of your petals, and stick it to another petal, setting them gently on the table to dry, and allowing them to prop up together. Do this with four of your petals.

10. Once those are relatively dry, you can glue four of them together, using paperclips as you go. Once you have a few of the petals together and semi-dry, you can squeeze a line of glue down the center of all the petals, and place in a wooden dowel. Once all of the petals are glued to the dowel, you should have a flower!

From there, you can break off the dowels and stick them in the foam ball, or use them with the long dowel “stems” in a vase! :)

There’s endless possibilities of uses for these awesome little flowers. The DIY bouquet shown here was made using the 1/4 size of standard origami paper from Michaels. I’ve found that the martha stewart craft glue has the best tip for making these, and that you should choose your dowel size based on the size of your paper/petals.

I cannot thank Lindsey & Elusive Photo Design enough for sharing my absolute favorite DIY Wednesday, DIY Tutorial yet. This alternative bouquet is my absolute favorite thing right now. PLEASE let us know if you make this origami paper flower bouquet for your own wedding!!!

