DIY Grocery Store Flower Arrangements

I mentioned a few days ago that I hosted my family for Easter this year...I wanted to make our table special and "springy" so of course I needed flowers!  I was planning to set my table with my Portmeirion Pomona dishes so I wanted to find something that complemented the colors in my plates. On my grocery store run that Friday before Easter, I found just what I was looking for at the Publix.

Well, there is a little more to the story.  When I first arrived at the store I found a beautiful bouquet.  It was just what I was looking for.  The catch?  It was $26.99.  I did not buy myself an Easter dress this year so I justified the flowers and put them in my buggy {do you call it a buggy?  a cart?}  I ran into my friend Stacey in the store and she even commented on how pretty they were, but as I cruised around the store, that $26.99 price was bugging me.  So I went back and looked again for something less expensive to replace the perfect bouquet.  I needed a big one because I was planning to split it in two to make two smaller arrangements.  I settled for a pretty enough $12 bunch and headed home.

Saturday morning I decided to go ahead and put the arrangements together {mainly to get the flowers out of my sink} so I headed outside to gather some "filler" greenery.  I cut two big leaves from my cast iron plants to go inside the vases and a few other things that looked like ivy that were growing on the ground in the woods behind our house.  I decided to use two matching cylinder vases that I had on hand.  Once inside, I split the flowers into two groups and was ready to go!

First, I put the cast iron leave in the vase to hide the stems of the flowers once they were in place...

 So where is the DIY you ask?  Well, I have seen this idea several time in magazines and online and finally decided to try it myself.  It's a tip for helping you arrange flowers like a pro.  You simply take clear tape and create a grid over the top of the vase like this....

it holds the flowers in place and check out the results! 

 My brother's girlfriend even ask me where I had the arrangements made!  

Success!