Wreath Tutorial

This is a picture of one of the wreaths I will be hanging on the church doors for the wedding. After the ceremony, we'll be moving this to the doors of the reception venue (gotta love decor that does double duty!). This isn't the greatest photo, but the initials will be centered in the middle of the wreath before the big day.... I guess I should get on that!
Here's how I made them.

Supplies:
1. Rectangular sheet of styrofoam. I got mine at JoAnn Fabric.
2. Hot glue gun
3. Silk flowers, and lots of 'em! My colors are pink and green, so I used silk hydrangeas in shades of these colors. As you can see from the photo, I used mostly pink with green as an accent color.
4. Initials of the bride and groom. I found these at Michael's. They are made out of a smooth, sturdy styrofoam.
5. Paint for initials
6. Ribbon
This was one of the first projects I did for our wedding. They can be made WAY ahead of time, which is great!
Steps:
1. Cut styrofoam into desired shape and size. Mine are about 10 inches square. The craft stores sell a fancy expensive styrofoam cutter; don't waste your money on it! I just used a knife to cut my styrofoam. It leaves the edges kind of rough, but it doesn't matter since they will be nicely covered with flowers.
2. Pull the flowers off of the stems with the plastic center of the flower still attached. I tried to get a picture of this, but all I got was a blurry blob. It's a good idea to have that plastic center attached; you'll see why in the next step.
3. Add a dab of hot glue to the back of your flower, on the plastic part. Stick the plastic into the styrofoam. Repeat this step a zillion times until your wreath is covered. I recommend placing the flowers close together so none of the white styrofoam shows through. Make sure to cover the sides of the wreath. Also, if you are going to be using your wreath on a window or glass door, do the back, too. Don't worry about the stringy hot glue stuff; it is easily removed when you are done.
4. Once the wreath is covered, attach ribbon to the back. I used hot glue for this because the back of my wreath won't show. If you are covering the back of your wreath with flowers, attach the ribbon first.
5. Paint your letters in a color to compliment the wreath. I wouldn't use the same color as your flowers, because you want it to stand out a bit.
6. If you want your initial centered in each of the wreaths, use fishing line hot glued to the back of the wreath. (this is the step I haven't done yet, despite the fact that I've had these wreaths completed since January!)
Feel free to email me with any questions.... cshel829@gmail.com. Have fun!