A Wreath-Making Party

My fabulous friend Laura is probably the most creative person I know. So when she says she's going to throw a wreath party, you know it's going to be good.

To entice moms to volunteer for our upcoming school fundraiser and show them how cool it is to work with the fundraising committee, several moms got together and threw a wreath-making party. We invited school moms to come to a local clubhouse, bring a bag of fresh greenery from their yard and learn how to make a wreath. And who knew it would be so easy to make a gorgeous wreath for next-to-nothing (I'm talking the kind of wreath you pay $75+ for in the stores and nurserys)...

The clubhouse didn't have much to work with, so we got creative and wrapped the bookcase filled with trophies - and we went tacky on this in case anyone thought we were serious...but the centerpiece was the best. Laura found it at Anthropologie I think and bought it right off of the display...

We also had a cute little hot cocoa bar available for everyone, which was a lot of fun! Thanks goodness for Pinterest - how did we throw parties without it!!

When the guests arrived, we gave each of them a wire wreath frame and some floral wire we'd pre-cut at about 8 inch lengths and showed them how to make individual bundles (to ensure you have enough to go all of the way around) and then wire to the frame. It was wonderful to see how different the wreaths turned out - all using stuff from our yards!

*Edit - How did we know how to make a wreath? Well, we did a test the week before to try it out! It's so easy - you really just take some of the greenery and make small bunches and wrap the wire around the bunches. Then you can lay them around the wreath frame to see how it looks before you actually attach it to the wreath - making the little bunches is key because you'll know how much you need and how it looks before you go through the trouble of attaching the greenery to the wreath form.

Here's a pic of the work area - all you need is wire, a wreath form, some garden shears, greenery and gloves if you want. One of ladies went to another wreath party and they used these great wreath forms that you just clip the greenery to - no wire required! I think I'm going to buy one of these next year to try! (Excuse the iPhone pics...)

Here's my final product...love how it turned out!! I used boxwood from the front and back yard, pine, holly and pine cones that are trying to take over my back yard! Then I just wired on a bow I made from a roll of ribbon!