Fresh flower crowns.
I love summer... the hot, long, sunny days, kids playing outside in the park all morning, Eric and I sitting out on the patio with a refreshing drink in the evening... it's the perfect season! When visiting my parents in Ottawa this past summer, we happened to venture out for a long walk through some wild fields. We picked so many interesting looking grasses, leafy twigs, and wild flowers of all sorts. We brought them home and immediately I got busy making pretty crowns. I instantly became so nostalgic, as sitting there with my lap full of flowers brought me back to my childhood when making wild flower crowns was something we did all the time, just laying around, lazily passing time.
When I make these crowns just for fun, I don't use any additional materials. I simply wind the stems to secure the flowers in place. However, for customers for weddings, birthdays, baptisms, and other special occasions, I always use a wire loop as the "skeleton" for the crown and attach the flowers to it using fine wire. This ensures that the flowers in the crown are secure and the wire skeleton allows the crown to be shaped, if desired.
The life span of the crown depends on the flowers and how well they hold up without being in the water. Keep this in mind when considering what type of flowers you'd like in your crown. If you are having a fresh flower crown made for a special event, or are doing so yourself, it's a good idea to have it done the day of your event to ensure that it is fresh and not wilted. If, however, you bring it home the day before, the best way to store it is in the fridge. I like to lay out a couple of pieces of paper towel well saturated with water in a large plate and lay the crown on the towel. A very light mist of water on the crown is also helpful. On the day of your event, a fine mist of extra-hold hair spray will help the flowers stay looking fresh longer.
