How to Create French-Style Floral Arrangements

Relaxed and informal yet captivatingly elegant, flowers arranged in the French style are fun to create on your own!

Unless you’re a florist, chances are you may have never heard of French-style floral arrangements. However, you’ve probably seen such arrangements in local flower shops or in a movie, TV show, or magazine. You’ll notice that flowers arranged in the French style have a certain je ne sais quoi: They tend to be a bit more relaxed and informal than your typical bouquets while still maintaining a captivating elegance.

France has a rich history of using floral displays in everyday life, from political stages to flower vendors on busy street corners. The modern French-style floral technique has an intentionally casual look and feel that comes from incorporating some slightly imperfect flowers into the mix, and keeping the varieties of colors and flowers that you use to a minimum. Of course, there’s more to it than that, so read on for tips on how to create a no-fuss yet chic French-style floral arrangement.

Focus on Your Flower Selection

It might sound obvious, but the flowers you select for the bouquet are very important. While you shouldn’t get wilted or dying flowers as part of the arrangement, don’t shy away from slightly imperfect flowers. The unevenness and imperfection can add charm to the bouquet. When deciding what flowers to use, look around to see what is blooming, and incorporate these into your bouquet.

You shouldn’t have more than three flower varieties — any more will distract people. When it comes to choosing what flowers to use, remember these three words:

Focal: Your focal flowers should be round, so think roses, poppies, or even tulips.

Textural: Add in some textural elements like branches with berries or pointy flowers.

Foliage: Add some greenery. Just avoid adding too much as it can make the bouquet look “weedy.”

Avoid Too Much Color

Don’t mix too many different colors as they can overpower and muddle your bouquet. Instead, try to go for a more monochromatic look by using varying shades of pink, red, green, yellow, etc. This gives the feeling of relaxed and intentional informality while also keeping your table cohesive. If you can’t find flowers in a monochromatic palette, look into other color schemes that might work. Some options include:

Analogous: This uses color combinations made up of those next to each other — orange and yellow, blue and purple, etc.

Complementary: Don’t be deceived by the name; complementary color schemes mean combining colors on the opposite end of the color wheel — purple and yellow, red and green, etc.

Triadic: Although this isn’t the easiest, it’s a great option if you want to go outside of one hue. This scheme combines evenly spaced colors on the color wheels — like magenta, green, and yellow.

Tetradic: Also known as a double-complementary scheme, this is made up of two complementary pairs such as red, green, purple, and yellow. This scheme is also known as rectangular colors as these colors can be found by creating a rectangle on the color wheel.

Prepare Your Flowers

Once you’ve gathered the flowers you plan to use, you should get them ready for the bouquet. Remove the leaves from the flowers for a polished look. If you’re using roses, make sure to remove the thorns as you don’t want anyone accidentally pricking themselves!

In addition to preparing the stems, you should take the time to pre-hydrate them. Cut the stems at an angle and let them drink water for half a day before you arrange them. This will ensure your flowers look healthy and are in full bloom.

Create Your Bouquet

Once you’ve prepped your flowers, it’s time to put the bouquet together. Start with your focal flowers, adding the largest bloom in the center and then the second largest at about 30 degrees. Turn the bouquet and then add a few textural/accent flowers of your choice to create an “X” shape. When making the bouquet, keep an eye on the balance of the color and shape. You’ll want to add your flowers all at the same angle to get that nice circular shape.

After you have a good handful, trim the stems a bit and then tie everything together with a ribbon. Starting from the back, wrap the ribbon around the arrangement as tight as possible a few times. Make sure that everything is bound tightly and no flowers are wiggling around. After that, make a small knot and then clip the strand short. For fresh flowers, you’ll want to put your tie a bit lower to give them room to bloom.

The French-style flower arrangement is a perfect option for everyone as all you need are some flowers from your backyard (or local farmer’s market), some textural elements, and a bit of foliage. You don’t need to use exotic or expensive plants for these arrangements. The French-style bouquet is a lot more relaxed and informal than your typical bouquet, making it an ideal option for those who grow flowers in their garden.