Weddingbee Blog

Today’s DIY guest blog is by Brenda, a long time Weddingbee reader and aspiring floral designer.  She’ll be teaching us how to make our own floral wreath centerpieces!

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So you wanna make a wreath? Well, you’re in luck! I made a little DIY tutorial on how to make a floral wreath made out of fresh flowers for a wedding or event. It’s pretty easy to make, and you can use just about any flower your little heart desires as long as you properly process your foam and flowers.

First you need to figure out what you want your wreath to look like. You’ll need between 30 to 40 flowers depending on the size of the head of the flower. Gerbera Daisies take up more space than, say, regular white daisies. You only need about a dozen peonies to make a nice wreath. So keep in mind the design you are after when you’re choosing flowers.

For our first wreath, I used Carnations, gerbera daisies, orange tiger Lilies, a few billy buttons, and a couple kermit mums and a few yellow alstromerias.

Step 1.

Buy a foam floral wreath from a floral store or flower market. I used the one with a tray glued on because it’s easier to place an object in between without having to get a separate tray or worry about water possibly dripping onto linens.

If you want to make a hanging wreath for a door, then you would buy one of these foam wreaths instead (below), without that center tray. Save on Crafts has them, but a local flower market always has them cheaper. I think I bought mine for about $7.

Step 2

You must submerge and saturate the floral foam in water and, like all foam, you must let it sink on its own. DO NOT push it down, or else you may inadvertently create air pockets, and when you go to stick your stem in, your flower will have no water source. You might end up with mysterious sections of your wreaths that wilt faster than the others. So since I had a tray attached to mine, I flipped it upside down and let it sink on its own, and kept it there for about 5 minutes. The water that I used was treated with floral food, following the instructions on the package.

Step 3

Pull it out and let the excess water drain. I then let it rest for a few minutes before I get started.

A brief note: see how the carnation has a little “nub” (for a lack of better word)? Its like a knot that appears in carnations every 2 inches or so? Well if you cut it right at the knot, the flower will not get any water. You need to cut at that nub, or a bit below it, in order for the stem to drink water.

Step 4

Start cutting the stems about 2 inches from the head. I started with a few so that I could get the length right. Once you poke a stem into the foam, that’s it. You cannot pull it out and re-insert it because it’s not a sponge, so it doesn’t spring back. There will be a huge gaping hole that you cannot fill unless you stick in a bigger longer stem into it, but even then, it’s not going to be perfect, so take your time. The idea is to start designing a pattern that you are happy with. I started with the darker carnations and spaced them out.

Then I filled it all in with more flowers.

Here’s a close up of the spacing between each stem.

Here’s a top view to show you how the inside will look. I always leave a space to be filled in later once I have the final glass/candle piece in place in the middle.  That way I can fill in the holes, so that you can’t see the floral foam. You never know what angle the photographer will be taking pictures from, so make sure you face your flowers upward, and leave a space for whatever will go in the center, Here I used a small vase as a stand-in.

Here’s the final picture before transport. I wasn’t feeling the mums in this one, so for the wedding I pulled them out.

Here she is in action with the bride and grooms memorial candle on the sweetheart table.

This is another floral wreath I made for the wedding, for the sign in table. I used red spider daisies. About 35 of them went into this wreath. People kept asking me if they were real! 

In the center, I placed a vase with submerged daisies in them and used black rocks to weigh the vase down so it wouldn’t tip over in case someone bumped into the table. They were transported separately.

Here he is in action!

You can make these about two days before the event. Just shower them with water in the sink and drain a little water out. They should be fine, and can last beautifully in this wreath for about a week, as long as you continue to water it every other day.
I hope you found this helpful! If you have any questions, ask away in the comments!

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