I came across the Peppermint Cloud Etsy shop this morning and just fell head over heels in love with these wonderful handmade boutonniere and thought I would share them with you.

Each piece is lovingly handcrafted and I think they are absolutely gorgeous. They even have their own emotive names like Everybody Loves Creamsicle Boutonniere, In this Neck of the Woods Boutonniere and Orange You Glad to See Me Boutonniere to name just few.

After spending too long trying to decide which ones I should showcase I have just thrown caution to the wind and put them all up here for you to be inspired by.

Not finished yet!

…and these ones

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.