How to use Sola Wood Flowers for your Wedding Bouquet

Sola Wood Flowers are all the rage right now, and rightfully so. It's a beautiful alternative to spending thousands of dollars on real flowers that die within a week while adding a creative touch that appears much more realistic than the majority of silk flowers. These sola wood flowers — technically a plant called Aeschynomene Aspera — are all hand made using thin sheets of the plant. Another major attraction to choosing to use them instead of real flowers is the option to resell them on trade sites after your wedding!

So, in this article, I will discuss your three options for using Sola Wood Flowers as your wedding bouquet:

Option 1. You can purchase them premade from Etsy

Option 2. You can buy them wholesale and assemble the bouquet yourself (fairly simple DIY)

Option 3. Or you can even make the flowers entirely from scratch (a ton of work!)

Option 1. Buy a Premade Bouquet:

If you're not feeling in the DIY mood, or you simply just don't have the time, the best places on the web to find premade Sola Wood Bouquets are found on Etsy. Here are some of the most trusted shops selling these beautiful arrangements. Keep in mind though, the prices of these premade bouquets can potentially cost even more than just buying real flowers — unless of course, you try to resell them later and recoup some of the costs.

The Backyard Gardener

Make sure to check Etsy for so many other beautiful options!

Option 2. Buy Sola Wood Flowers wholesale and assemble the bouquet yourself

The best way to save money on sola wood flowers is to buy the flowers wholesale and then make the bouquets yourself! The majority of the cost of wedding bouquets — whether they are real, silk, or sola wood — is paying for the time it takes to make the bouquets, not the flowers themselves (for example, I actually DIY'd my own REAL wedding flowers for a total $450).

One bride said, " I used them and everyone loves them! The easiest DIY project I’ve ever done. "

So if you're interested in going down the DIY route, here is a quick tutorial on how to do it —SO SIMPLE!

As for buying the sola wood flowers wholesale, there are many places you can purchase them from:

Oh So Lovely on Amazon

And don't get discouraged if your wholesale flowers come a little squished. By dipping them in water, you can easily reshape them! This is a tutorial on how to do that:

Also, if you're wondering how many individual flowers you will need, the answer will be based on the size of the bouquet you desire. Oh So Lovely offers the following quantity recommendation:

Small bouquet - 30 sola flowers in 2" sizes

Medium bouquet- 27 sola wood flowers ranging in 2-3" sizes

Large bouquet (around 12" in circumference) - 48 wood flowers ranging in 2-3" sizes

You'll also want to buy a few extra though, especially if you are new to dyeing the flowers. You may need to practice on a few before you find the perfect color you like!

Here's also a visual from another Etsy seller, measured based on the diameter you desire:

3. Make Sola Wood Flowers entirely from Scratch

Last but certainly not least, you could —depending on your level of creativity and amount of time you're willing to spend — completely make your bouquet from scratch! In order to do this, you'll first have to buy the sola wood paper in bulk and then make them into a flower! It first starts off in these thin sheets, which you can buy from craft stores or even as low as $6.25 (25 g) from this Etsy seller if you're willing to wait a little longer on shipping:

Here is a great tutorial on how to make a flower!

You'll then have to dip dye them yourself as well, which can take 2-3 days to dry:

Or you can also Airbrush them:

All that to say, Sola Wood Flowers are a beautiful alternative to buying real flowers! I, however, did not use them for my own wedding, because I found that buying real flowers from Trader Joe's was actually more affordable for what I was trying to accomplish (read more here!). So you'll just want to make sure you examine all your options before committing!