Gabbi Hall
I am not a crafty person. Creative, sure, but not crafty. Generally, I’m excited when I remember to buy some daisies at the grocery store to put in my Hobby Lobby vase. I definitely haven’t put together a flower arrangement before. That is until last week.
Itz Spritz hosted a launch event at Tapestry (great restaurant in the Fenway neighborhood) to celebrate their new distribution in Massachusetts. They partnered with Alice’s Table to teach us how to make flower arrangements while we tried the new lightly sparkling, gluten-free seltzer alcoholic beverage. (Very tasty btw.)
Step 1
While I sipped on the Elderflower Citrus flavor bu Itz Spritz, we began arranging in a short, clear and circular vase like this one, and we lined it with a waxy leaf paper to hide the stems. The next step is to use four pieces of thin clear table to create a tic-tac-toe grid across the top of the vase and add water, so that flowers stay hydrated as you put your piece together.
Step 2
Our instructor Traci had us start with foliage. This surprised me because, in my uneducated mind, those would be added accessories at the end, but in reality, foliage is like the frame. We used ruscus around the edges and a few in the center square. It’ll probably feel fuller than you expect, but it’ll work well to support the other flowers.
Step 3
Flowers! Specifically, we used (in this order):
2 White Hydrangeas
5 White Tibet Roses
3 White Spray Roses
2 Yellow Calla Lilies
2 Billy Balls
2 Green Hypericum
Pro tip: Put the hydrangeas toward the center. Their size and weight will make them fall to the outside naturally. Then you can fill in the other flowers around them.
The best part is that there’s no wrong way to arrange the flowers. Once you have a good framework in place, the bouquet takes on a life of its own. You simply add the roses, calla lilies, billy balls and green hypericum as you see fit. You do have to use shears to cut down the stems to fit the vase. Traci recommended cutting them to about twice the height of the vase. You’ll also want to remove large leaves and thorns from flowers like the roses, which take up unnecessary space.
Pro tip 2: Cut the roses at a 45-degree angle and be sure to put them in water immediately. Roses can scab up quickly and stop absorbing water, which shortens their lifespan.
While making the arrangement was relatively straight forward, it does take time. That fact coupled with nice flowers explains why buying flower arrangements can be so pricey. Now, I can attempt to do it at home!
It was hard to appreciate the true beauty of the bouquet in the dimly lit back room of the restaurant. It wasn’t until the morning as it basked in the natural light of my apartment that I could really take it all in. The bouquet really livens up my living room, and how magical does it look next to my unicorn mug?
Needless to say, this was a Tuesday night well spent with Itz Spritz. Until next time, here goes nothing.
Full disclosure: While I was not paid to promote of any of the above mentioned brands, this was a free launch event for media and, obviously, because of that, they encouraged us to share our experience. I decided to write about the event because I genuinely enjoyed the drinks and flower arranging.
