How to Make a Casket Blanket Step by Step
Sometimes loving the world through flowers looks like adorning a bride and her venue on the most important day of her life. Other times, it may look like harvesting a bundle of blooms to share at the local farmers’ market.
There are so many ways to love the world through flowers, but one way that is often overlooked is to design sympathy arrangements to honor a lost loved one.
From casket blankets to live plants, there are numerous ways to include flowers in a funeral service. If you’ve never designed sympathy arrangements before, it can be daunting even to know where to begin. Click here if you’re thinking about adding sympathy florals to your business.
In this article, you’ll learn how to make a casket blanket to honor a loved one or the loved one of a floral design client.
How to Create a Casket Blanket
A casket blanket arrangement rests on the casket and could arguably be the most important of all funeral arrangements.
If there is a viewing, the casket blanket frames the moment to pause and remember the one lost. And during the service, the casket blanket becomes the focal point as friends and family gather to say their goodbyes and celebrate the life of their loved one.
Because of this, you must communicate well with your clients to understand the essence of the one who has passed, as this information impacts your floral choices, the colors used, and the design.
For helpful tips on how to compassionately talk with floral clients who are grieving, check out this article.
Creating a casket blanket is an emotional and meaningful way to love the world through flowers.
Step One: Gather your materials.
You’ll need snips, a tarp (or a drop cloth to catch stems and water), and an ironing board (this helps put the arrangement at the height of the casket as you’re designing).
You’ll also need to determine your floral mechanics. For this example, a double casket saddle and Oasis flower foam were used, but you could substitute a moss roulade for the flower foam and use flower picks if you prefer.
Gather your materials before you design to be sure you have everything you need on hand.
Step Two: Begin with the greens.
Similar to a centerpiece or daily arrangement, start the design by using the greenery you’ve chosen.
The greenery will create a foundational framework to establish the desired height and length of the arrangement. Along the front and back of the casket blanket, be sure you insert stems from bottom to top to drape over the front and back of the casket.
Quick Tip: Using a mixture of greens (rather than just one variety) will add interest and texture.
Use your greenery to create your foundation—shape, height, and length.
Step Three: Add the line flowers.
You’ve created the structure for the casket blanket using your greenery. Now you can start adding the blooms!
Utilizing line flowers will help carry color to the ends of the arrangement. Add these in along each end, along the front and back, as well as throughout the middle to create movement and lift color to the top of the arrangement.
Line flowers will extend color to the ends of the casket blanket arrangement.
Step Four: Create moments of color.
Casket blankets are known for being full—full of greens, full of color, full of flowers!
Here’s where you’ll begin creating moments. Use stems of your filler flowers and some of your smaller focal flowers to do so.
If you’re using a monochromatic scheme, focus on creating points of interest using varied textures and shapes.
Vary the length of your stems so that the casket blanket becomes a 3D design rather than leaving all of the blooms flush with one another.
Step Five: Add focal flowers.
Traditional arrangements (like the example here) will include lilies and roses.
Think of your focal flowers as opportunities for the viewer to pause.
These should create lines of movement through the arrangement with their shape and color.
Focal flowers offer a moment for the viewer to pause and their eye to rest.
Step Six: Finish with fillers.
Slowly walk around the arrangement. Are there any holes? Can you see the mechanics? Are there pockets of color that should be broken up?
Use these last moments of designing to assess your work and insert final filler flowers as needed.
Your final arrangement should be full—full of flowers, full of color, full of your heart, and most of all, full of the one it is honoring.
When you create floral arrangements for funerals, you’re loving the world through flowers in such a significant way—even if it isn’t largely seen or recognized.
Find joy in knowing you’re bringing beauty to what is often a very sorrowful moment of someone else’s life.
Ingredients & Stem Counts Used in this Casket Blanket Floral Arrangement:
Leatherleaf Fern - 30
Teepee Fern - 20
Italian Ruscus - 10
White Snapdragon - 42
Mother of Pearl Rose - 40
White Spider Mum - 19
Pink/Purple Alstroemeria (or Peruvian Lily) - 25
White Lily - 16
Maroon Carnation - 20
White and Maroon Carnation - 17
Babies Breath - 10
Quick Tips for Designing a Casket Blanket
Typically, a casket blanket will not exceed a height of 24 inches. If you’re going to regularly design these, keep a yardstick on hand so that you can double check your height as you create!
Communicate with the funeral home about when services will be held and when you’ll need to deliver the arrangement. These pieces can be quite large, so be mindful of the weight, width, and height when transporting! You may need a second pair of hands to help you transport it safely.
Take photos! It isn’t common to see sympathy arrangements on social media, but having images on hand will come in handy when future clients need help deciding on what they might want or need.
