I’ve been hinting at our top secret centerpieces for the past five months, but now that they’re all done (!!) I can finally share them with you! I used the same paper flower technique as our tissue paper pomanders, but this time I made wreaths!

Supplies:

1. 16″ styrofoam wreath

2. hot glue gun

3. 48 sheets of 20″x30″ tissue paper (or two 24 packs)

4. needle nose pliars

5. pen

6. 20 gauge floral wire

7. scissors

8. yardstick

upholstery needle (not shown)

Back in May I had guessed that at the most 100 guests would be attending our wedding (out of 150), and I knew that each table seated 10 guests, so I planned to make 10 centerpieces. That way if less people came I’d still be prepared, and if more people came we wouldn’t be rushing at the last minute to crank out a bunch of extra centerpieces. So when I found a coupon for 50% all styrofoam at Michaels Derek, my mom, and I were the first ones beating down their door on a Sunday morning five months ago. In case you aren’t aware, styrofoam is pretty expensive so I was pretty jazzed to have found that coupon! I decided to use 16″ wreathes because I knew the flowers would add about 6″ of thickness around the wreath and I needed enough room for my cake stands to set in the middle (what? I know.. just wait!)

The construction of these wreathes is very similar to the pomanders, except that the wreaths require WAY more paper flowers. As in 140 per wreath. I knew I wanted a slight variation in color to give the flowers a more natural look, so after figuring out which colors I would use I headed down the street to the local party supply store to pick up 20 packs of tissue paper in twelve different colors (each of my six colors with a shade lighter/darker to compliment it). When all was said and done, we would end up making 1,400 paper flowers. Phew! We decided that doing one color at a time would help make things a little easier and not get too crazy. Once one color was done, we’d make a wreath and hang it up to make room for the next batch of flowers. Let’s just say we got through the entire series of Parks and Rec, Walking Dead, halfway through Dawson’s Creek, all of Twilight (several times), and rewatched some Mad Men, all while making flowers! After an entire color was made I went ahead and bent all of my flowers’ “stems” to make them short enough to poke into my styrofoam (about 3/4″).

Once all of my stems were bent I was ready to go!

To make the wreath first I used my upholstery needle to poke a hole where my first flower would go. With dense styrofoam like this, this step is important.

Then I had my helper (either bridesmaid Lauren or my mom) dab a drop of glue on the end of my stem, and stuck the flower into the hole I had just made.

Then I continued doing this until one whole side of the wreath was covered.

Once one side was completely covered, I flipped the wreath over and continued sticking my flowers in using the same method.

Out of all of the wreathes I think that the light pink and the green turned out the best. With the light pink you can see a very subtle change in color when you get close enough.

I continued this same technique for the remaining nine wreathes.

Now that all ten wreathes are complete and my cake stands are painted, my centerpieces are finally starting to come together. I don’t want to give everything away just yet, but here is how one of them will look.

Not all of the animals will have paper flower afros, but this giraffe is actually from an oil and vinegar set and already had a hole in his head so it kind of worked out as a makeshift vase. Several of my ceramic animals are also vases so a few will have a little pop of color on top, while others will be solid white. And here is the holding area where the wreaths are currently being stored:

Right now it looks like we’re going to have about 9 tables so I’m probably going to not use one of the darker pink ones (they’re my least favorite). I’m so excited to see how the whole room will come together. I understand that this isn’t for everyone, but it’s not your wedding ;)