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Boutonniere – some inspiration and how to pin ‘em on!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Boutonniere.

Most of us can hardly pronounce the word let alone spell it but all the important men in your wedding party will need one.

Boutonniere is a French word and basically just means buttonhole and was worn in the buttonhole on the left lapel of the man’s suit jacket. Not there just to look pretty – the boutonniere was worn to ward off disease, bad smells and evil spirits – (but of course!).

Obviously suits used to have buttonholes (and even stem loops) sewn into the left lapel – not necessarily so these days which is why the agonising job of pinning the boutonniere to the lapel came into play.

So how do you pin a buttonhole on?

1. Begin by holding the stem of the boutonierre in one hand and the pin in the other.
2. Position the flower on the left hand lapel approximately 4 inches in from the tip of the left shoulder.
3. Make sure that the arrangement is pointing up and angled out slightly to point to the tip of the left shoulder.
4. Push the pin through the lapel (from the underside) up and through the back of the taped stem of the boutonniere for a distance of at least 1 inch.
5. Push it back through to the underside of the lapel and fix.
6. Make sure you have pinned it really firmly and there you have it.

Sounds easy but take it from me it’s actually not that simple. Everytime I have tried to put one on someone else it ends up flopping and pointing in completely the wrong direction… so you may want to have a bit of a practice run before the big day.