Making a wreath might sound daunting, but I promise you, it's easy, fun (especially with a glass of wine) and doesn't take too long to complete! Come along as I walk you through the simple steps for creating this adorable Saint Patrick's Day wreath!
Wine, Food and Crafts
It would be sinful if I didn't highlight our amazing Estate Meritage, which recently received 91 points from Wine Enthusiast! It's so delicious, with notes of spice and vanilla, and it pairs fantastic with a huge array of foods, including Corned Beef! This is a St. Patty's day special, and we actually did a twist on the traditional recipe and used some of this Meritage to cook the corned beef in! It turned out AMAZING! Click here learn all about it! Also, we made an adorable St. Patrick's Day Bunting banner too so you can expand the decorations this year! Click here to learn step by step how to create that too!
Select Your Wreath
The first step is selecting the type of wreath you want. I selected a wreath that has large branches and was on the darker end of the color spectrum. There are a HUGE selection of wreaths out there, so find what you vibe with and go with that. They come in basically every color and size, so if you want to buy a green wreath, go for it! Totally up to you. Another quality I was looking for was these large individual branches. The flowers are attached using wire so having each branch be segmented and substantial helped a lot...but more on that next!
Materials
For this project, I simply used a pair of wire cutters, needle nose pliers, floral tape, floral wire, and a collection of fake flowers. Again, the theme today is Saint Patrick's Day so I bought mostly green flowers, foliage and a few white flowers for that pop factor! I also purchased a "focal piece" for this, which I couldn't resist. This adorable Leprechaun just jumped out at me and came along for the ride! Oh, and of course, you can't forget the wine!
Attaching the Greenery
You want to create a base for your wreath, full of lush and vibrant greenery. This is particularly true for a St. Patrick's Day Wreath since the name of the game is "GREEN" but this is a good rule of thumb for most wreaths. The greenery is there to be the structure and help fill the wreath out and give it the nice full body everyone loves! Start by cutting the greenery off of the stems. For full details, watch the video above to see how I go about this process. The fake flowers you get at the store will have a plastic exterior, but a wire interior so use those wire cutters! Trim each branch off and then figure out how you want this wreath to look. Feel free to stage them on top of the wreath to get a "lay of the land" so you can see what you like and don't like before you go through the trouble of attaching them. Once you get everything staged, it's time to attach them to the wreath!
Attaching
The assembly process is the same throughout the entire wreath.
Step 1: Cut a small section of wire and loop it through one of the branches of the wreath
Step 2: Twist the wire to hold the stem securely to the wreath
Step 3: Trim the excess wire and push the twisted section down so it isn't very visible.
Go through this process until you have attached all of your greenery. Again, this is such an important step! You should be happy with how the wreath is looking by the time you are done with your greenery, the flowers are just to pop on top of it!
Once you have all of the greenery added and are satisfied with how it looks, it's time to add the flowers! For the small white flowers I used, it is the exact same process as the greenery as they are also on a large stem and need to be attached accordingly (see image above that specifically shows me attaching one of those white flower stems.
That said, the large "feature flowers" are a bit different. Because we want the flowers to face forward (instead of to the side like we have done with the greenery and white stems thus far), these do NOT need to be attached using wire! You simply cut the stems to give you a inch or so past the flower base to work with, and you literally shove the flower into the wreath! Again, because of the type of wreath I have selected, this process is very easy and extremely satisfying. If the flower doesn't feel secure, it's because it isn't. You will need to pivot, move the flower to a different spot or different angle until you find a spot where the wreath will naturally hold the flower in place. Continue accordingly until you have all of your flowers just the way you like them!
And there you have it! A beautiful wreath already, but there is one last step to make this truly "St. Patrick's Day" themed!
The last step is attaching our "focal piece" to our wreath! I used floral tape for this step, as the wire might have caused the piece to slide down the branch over time where as the tape holds the piece in place much better. Simply rip a section of the tape off, figure out where you want the piece to go and wrap it around the branch until it is secure. And there you have it! Done! This is a fun, easy, enjoyable project that any one can do, whether new to floral arranging or a seasoned pro! So join me, pop open a bottle of wine and let's get creative! Cheers!
If you'd like to see other St. Patty's day fun head to our other posts/videos below:
