How to Attach Flowers to a Chair for a Wedding

Wedding ceremony in a beautiful garden

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Flowers surround your wedding guests with life and color when you attach the flowers to the ceremony and reception chairs. Although florists traditionally use special clips to secure flower arrangements to the chairs, other options enable you to tie in your wedding theme more creatively. The clips restrict your flowers to the backs of the chairs in many cases, but using ribbon broadens your choices.

Using the Sash

When you dress up the chairs with a fabric sash, tucking flowers in it adds pizzazz. For sashes that tie in the back, slide single stems of large flowers such as Gerbera daisies through the tie, or slip a small hand-tied bouquet between the chair back and the knot. If there isn't a convenient knot, use large corsage pins to secure the flowers to the sash. This gives you the flexibility to attach the flowers to the sides of the chairs as well as the back.

Tying the Flowers With Ribbon

Various types of ribbon help you attach flowers to wedding chairs not covered with fabric or a sash. Satin and fabric ribbon works well, or use a material that matches your wedding theme, such as raffia for a shabby-chic-style or rustic wedding. Ribbon helps you attach single stems, small bouquets or containers to the chair backs or sides.

Decorating With Containers

Containers help complete a wedding theme while holding flowers in place and providing them with water. Think creatively when attaching containers to chairs. Instead of using standard vases, grab mason jars for a country wedding. To attach the mason jar, tie ribbon tightly around the neck and put on the jar's lid without the insert. This leaves the top open for the flowers while securing the ribbon to the jar. Use the ribbon ends to tie the jar to the center or outside edges of the chair backs. Nearly any container works, including ceramic vases or antique punch glasses. Use only small amounts of water in the containers so they don't spill if guests accidentally bump into them. Add elegance by gluing Spanish moss to the inside of a vintage picture frame and poking short flower stems into the moss in an attractive design, then attaching the frame to the chair with ribbon.

Creating Garlands and Wreaths

Small wreaths easily hang from chairs with posts on each side rather than rounded backs, or you can attach a wreath to the back of a chair with ribbon. Using simple grapevine wreaths, attach a few flowers in a bunch near the bottom or cover the entire circle with flowers, securing them with florist wire. Garlands can drape the chairs dramatically. For a flowers-only garland that looks similar to a lei, cut the stems just below the blooms and use a needle and thread through the center of the flowers to connect them. When using greenery, connect the greenery pieces in a line using florist wire, then thread flower stems into the greenery and secure them with wire as well. Circular garlands might stay on chair backs by being draped around them, but linear ones require the help of ribbon or florist wire.