In case you haven’t noticed, there was a small explosion in popularity of dried foliage. Being flower obsessed, but also wanting to be conscious of my budget (sometimes)… this is making me very happy. I’ve decked out areas of our home with dried pieces of old arrangements. While I LOVE having fresh flowers, this trend is making it easier for me to add floral/foliage touches around the entire house without always having to buy out the flower section at Trader Joes. Now I can focus on creating something gorgeous for my coffee table instead.

Now that we’re looking ahead to holiday entertaining, I wanted to bring this trend to the table. I love the idea of beautifying your place settings, but not with something you will throw away. So we created dried bouquets that you can set your table with AND let guests take home at the end of the night.

A dried bouquet starts just as a fresh one would. I always put something fairly sturdy and large in the back as the base. Next I will add a few of my favorite flowers. Tuck in a few filler pieces, this can be more foliage, smaller flowers, or whispy longer branches. Continue adding, moving down slowly so that when your bouquet is laid flat, you can see all of the different elements. If you keep them all at one level, you will only see the florals that you added last.

You can tie your bouquet with twine or ribbon, or place on a small piece of butchers paper and tie. For place settings, it’s great to finish them off in paper so guests can take them home (and also so they don’t fall apart on your guests plate!). Add a pretty name tag and you have a sweet reminder that friends and family can take home.

Here are my favorite places to find dried flowers and foliage:

• Save on crafts - they have EVERYTHING. If you are in a rush I would definitely order here because they have great shipping options. A lot of smaller shops won’t be able to accommodate rush orders (I feel like this needs to be said because we are all in such a rush these days:)

• Mayesh - I just visited this wholesaler last week and they have some really cool and unique foliage. You do have to have your sellers permit though to set up your account.

• Dried Decor - The name says it all. It’s what they specialize in. I ordered a ton of stuff from them for an event and everything was really nice. One bundle goes a long way. You will only need 3-4 different types of foliage. So this is a great project to do with friends as you will likely have a lot left over.

• Foraging - Do it yourself! It’s an added step but there is no reason you can’t forage and dry your own florals/foliage. I keep a lot of branches from old arrangements that I know dry well. You can easily dry eucalyptus, pampas grass, protea, hydrangea, baby’s breath, palm fronds, etc.

Anytime you can mix decor, a favor and a place card into one thing, it’ll make setting your table much easier, and more fun. And while this is a great project for fall, it can be used year round. Just change out some of your stems for something more summery like dried palm fronds to make it season appropriate!