Holiday Wreath DIY

This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend a local wreath workshop at Weatherlow Farms in Westport, Massachusetts. Not only was it a moment of zen in an otherwise hectic holiday season, but I also picked up a few awesome holiday wreath pointers from Kim of Greenlion Design and Phoebe, the Weatherlow Farms floral designer. It was amazing to see how fifty or so people could come up with completely different designs when presented with all of the same materials. Here’s a few things that I picked up:

• Forage, forage, forage. I was crazy impressed that Kim and Phoebe pretty much found 97 percent of the branches, pinecones, greenery and grasses locally. Keep your eyes peeled when you’re on a walk or even in your own backyard for materials to make your wreath.
• If you’re a beginner, I’d recommend using a grapevine wreath over a wire wreath form. With a grapevine wreath you can use the base to stick your greens and branches in, you’ll barely need to use wire. It’s a little easier.

• One of the hardest decisions will be what to use where. Putting together your greens, grasses and materials in a bunch just to look at how they look together can help you figure out what to add or take out.
• Work in layers! Start with layer one of greens and then add-on. It sounds like a no-brainer but it gets really overwhelming if you try to just get everything on there.
• Pre-cut floral wire rocks! It minimizes the work your hands are doing. So you’re not cutting pieces from a roll of floral wire. I also cut down the pre-cut wire even further when I needed it.

For my wreath I used eucalyptus, thistles, dusty miller, and eastern red cedar.

If starting completely on your own feels like too much you can also start small and add to a pre-made wreath. If you’re looking for a little more instruction and you’re in the New England area, I can’t recommend Greenlion Design’s workshops enough. Not only did I get some tasty appetizers, a festive atmosphere (the Weatherlow Farms barn is gorgeous), a very cool apron and ace instruction—it was just the afternoon I needed to get me into the holiday spirit.