You may remember this post from last year about making my own Christmas wreath with The Flower Fairies, my wedding florist. My Mum and I enjoyed it so much that we decided that our doors just wouldn't be the same without another wreath this Christmas so decided to book onto a workshop again. Whilst we know how to make our own now, we still wanted to go back to Charlie's course for the huge selection of the best materials she has on offer and her expertise in bow tying! It's also a lovely excuse for a morning out together and now marks the start of the festive season for us both.

Last year we had never made a wreath nor wired anything before. Since then we've made two! {last Christmas here and an autumn hydrangea wreath here} so we felt like we had a lot more confidence this year. The method was the same which was good for our brains on an early Saturday morning, we started with a pre-soaked oasis ring and then had to tie a loop with brown string so we could attach to our doors. Then we could get started on the making. The base is made with Christmas tree off-cuts - blue pine that you strip the end of the needles off of and stick it into the oasis going round in a sweeping circle. 

New in this year was a lot of metallic pre-sprayed foliage in on-trend copper as well as silvers and glittery whites. Charlie had made an incredible wreath out of these bits the day before. 

The only hard part was choosing our combinations. We then started wiring our favourites to attach them into the oasis, Charlie encourages you to position them on both the outside and the inside to make it all more three dimensional and avoid being flat. You can buy floristy wire from eBay and for things like dried oranges and pine cones you just stick the wire through it, twist it around the straight piece and then push into the oasis. It's much easier than it sounds, especially once you get the hang of it. Once we'd finished that part it was onto the ribbons! A whole box full of ribbons, again with every possible texture and colour. I went for two cream pieces that Charlie tied into a pretty bow for me and then pierced the wire through the back of the knot to attach into the oasis. 

Being pre-filled with water means the material should last well into the end of December and most of these materials will look good once they start to dry too. The good thing about oasis is that if any bits fall out you can just push them back in again!

My Mum has a black stable door so went for a bigger version and used silvery colours with some burgundy. I love that there was a ribbon perfect to match too that tied everything together. 

To hang on the door I looped some brown string through the hook I'd tied at the start and then pinned it a couple of times to the top of the door. Well actually I got Ben to do this for me. Much easier than me trying to hold it and jump up to reach the top of the door. 

She now hangs there in all her glory! You can see with the close-up pics the materials I've used. Dried orange slices, limes, pine cones, whole dried oranges and dried lotus heads as well as the pine and different types of eucalyptus. 

We had such a fun morning and I'm sure we'll be back next year! You can find Charlie's website and flower school here. She was such an incredible wedding florist too, I really can't recommend her enough. But if you don't live nearby hopefully you'll feel inspired to go out and make your own wreath from foraging in the woods or garden to see what festive treasures you can find. 

Yay for Christmas and an excuse to go all out with prettying everything up!

R <3 xx