Normally I'm a pretty simple setup kind of girl, but I love fresh flowers and wanted to make something a bit extravagant for some mini sessions I did. I decided to make a flower wall out of fresh hydrangeas. Hydrangeas have always been my favorite flower, so I was happy to have an excuse to order a bunch of them! I ordered my hydrangeas from Sam's Club wholesale, I think it was around $200 including shipping for 86 of them. Generally they're around $4 a stem at florists, so it was worth it to order them. I had them delivered a couple of days ahead of the event so they would have time to soak up some water and open more after their journey in the shipping box.

The flowers arrived pretty scrunched in boxes, we unwrapped them, cut the stems, and put them in water. This is my 8 year old daughter helping.

For the board of the backdrop, I used an insulation board from the hardware store. It was about $20. The board was approximately 4 ft by 10 foot, I cut it down so it was more like 8 ft long. It is made out of a styrofoam material and is easily cut with a knife. I also spray painted it a dark brownish green so it would match the color of the moss around the edges. Here is the board spray painted.

I used spray glue to get moss all around the edges. The moss I used was sheet moss I found at JoAnn Fabrics. It was about $4 a bag and I used 3 bags of it.

Next I pushed florist vials through the board. I just randomly put them in, trying to do it close enough together so that not too much of the board would show through the flowers. I also put them in at an angle with the opening angled up and the water reservoir angled down so the flowers wouldn't fall out of them. I found the florist vials on Amazon, it was about $20 for 100 of them.

I waited until the morning on the mini sessions to put the flowers on the board. I used a turkey baster and a large needleless syringe to fill the vials with water. I cut the stems of the hydranges and pushed them through the holes on the caps of the vials.

:Lilly took this photo of Tyler and I in front of the backdrop.

I was very concerned about how the flowers would hold up because I needed the backdrop for two full days of sessions. After about 8 hours, the hydrangeas started to look a bit droopy and I checked the water vials and they were empty, so I refilled them all. It was a somewhat cool day so I think that helped them stay fresh. I left them outside overnight in the cool air, and refilled the vials again the next morning. They looked great all day, it was a much hotter day and in the evening I noticed they were starting to wilt even if they had water, I think it was from the heat.

In all I ended up spending about $250 on the flower wall, but I used it for 10 family minis and 10 boudoir minis so it was worth it! It was really easy to put together. In hindsight, I wouldn't have put all the vials on the board. Instead I would put them on as I put the flowers on to get the spacing right, I ended up pulling some out to reposition as I put them in.

This definitely could have been done with fake flowers but I really dislike the look of fake flowers so I wanted to use real ones.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Fresh Flower Wall Backdrop