DIY Sea Shell Bridal Bouquet

Materials:
Roses, preferably in pre-made bouquet form.
Shells, a variety to suit your style
Dried flowers, your colors. We used mini roses, babies breath and sea lavender
Tiny Sand Dollars (about the size of a dime or nickel)
Florists Tape
Bouquet wrapping material: lace, burlap, etc...
Floral Stem wire, Thin copper wire (optional)

First, evaluate your bouquet and make adjustments as needed. Spread the flowers apart and perhaps remove a few to make room for the shells...it all depends on the flowers you bought. If the flowers are "loose" and not pre-made into a bouquet, then you will need to arrange them as you see below and tape them securely with florists tape.

Next you need to glue wire to the shells. Make sure you use enough glue.

For the first shell placement, use spiral shells. Spiral shells are important to have as a design element when all the flowers and shells are basically circle shaped. After you have inserted the wires and are happy with the placements, use florist tape to secure them.

Next, add the rest of the shells. Shells can be awkward and heavy but keep adjusting until you like the placement. Make sure shells and flowers are evenly spaced throughout. Tape firmly with florists tape.

For the dried flowers you can either wire them individually or you can simply glue them to the shells and flowers. Hand wiring takes much longer and makes the already heavy bouquet heavier but the advantage of this method is that the flowers are easy to place exactly where you want them. Gluing is much faster but be careful to remove all the glue "strings".

Adding dried flowers "softens" the bouquet of shells, as shells can be "hard". Trust me, you need some kind of softening effect.

Now add the sand dollars, they should rise above the other flowers in the bouquet just slightly. In order to execute this design successfully, you need to remember to place the drieds slightly above the shells and silks. If you don't, you wind up with something that looks like a flowery basketball. Add curled copper wire last (curl wire around a pencil).

Wrap the bottom with lace, burlap or fabric. I used antique lace and glued a sand dollar on in lieu of a bow.