Festive wreaths make a fantastic addition to your home and making your own allows you to create one that suits your tastes, whether you want traditional, modern, floral or something completely different. At Cheltenham & Gloucester Flowers, we carry a variety of floral sundries perfect for professional florists and hobbyists alike to use for their own wreaths, including foam products, dried twigs & fruits, pinecones, artificial flowers and even ribbons. But how do you create your wreath once you have your supplies? Find some tips and tricks as well as a simple guide below:

Top Tips

• Wreath Size – The first thing to consider is the size of your wreath. It should suit the location where you intend to hang it, whether that be on your front door or in a window. Just remember that you will be building onto the wreath frame, meaning that your wreath will end up a couple of inches bigger.
• Less is More – When there are so many lovely materials to feature on your wreath it’s easy to want to use it all. But it’s important to remember that less can be better than more. Particularly if you’re not very experienced with wreath making, you shouldn’t go straight for anything too complicated.

What You’ll Need

• Wreath base
• Glue gun and refill sticks
• Florist wire
• Festive decorations –flowers (artificial or real), pinecones, dried fruit, dried twigs, baubles etc.
• Ribbon to add a bow

Choosing a Wreath Form

First you want to start off with a wreath form. Many wreath makers will use a foam wreath base or a wire wreath, but you could also use dried twigs to create your own. You should consider how much weight you are planning to add to your wreath as a twig base won’t be as sturdy as a wire one.

Before You Get Started

If you’re using a foam wreath, you’ll need to soak it in a little water, but not so much that it is dripping. Also, if you plan on using real flowers, you’ll want to trim your stems so that they are short enough for the flowers to sit nicely on the wreath form.

Before you attach your decorations to your wreath, remember to attach some florist wire to create a loop, or attach a hook so that you can hang your wreath up when it’s finished. It will be a lot easier if you do this now before you start covering it in flowers and pinecones, trust us!

Attaching Your Decorations

Once you have everything prepped you can start to attach your materials. This is where you can really let your creativity flow. Typically, you’d start with a neutral base such as some greenery. This gives you a nice plain canvas to then add pops of colour to.

Once you’ve covered the base, you’d then probably want to add your flowers. If you have opted for a foam form, then you can push the flower stems into the wreath. If your stems aren’t long enough or if you have chosen to use a wired base, then you can wrap florist wire around the stems to lengthen them and push into the foam or to wrap around the wire wreath form.

Next up you can add the extra little details such as pinecones, dried fruit, and even baubles. You can attach these using florist wire, similar to your flowers. If this is too fiddly you could also use a hot glue gun for wire and twig wreaths. Remember, this is where you can really make your wreath your own. Each wreath will be unique with different combinations of materials and this is what we love about floristry.

If you choose to, you can even add a bow made from ribbon or even twine, giving it that extra special finishing touch.

Hang It Up!

With your wreath completed, you can use the loop that you made earlier to hang it pride of place in your home or on your front door – you’ll be the envy of all your neighbours!

We hope that you have found this guide helpful. If you have any questions or are looking for supplies for your business or hobby, please feel free to get in touch and we would be happy to help!

And don’t forget that wreaths don’t just have to be for Christmas. You can easily adapt this guide to create wreaths throughout the year, including using spring flowers, summery decorations, or autumn colours – the possibilities are endless!