Friday, 20 April 2012

How to make a Wedding Candlestick Table Centre


You might have seen this tutorial recently as it featured on  Alison Tinlin's blog of Plans & Presents - wedding planner extraordinaire and all round lovely lady.  Anyway, if you didn't catch it, here's another chance to:-




Making these dramatic table centres couldn’t be simpler with my step-by-step guide, which will create high impact on your guest’s tables.

You will need:-

A candlestick and candle!
1 x 10” foam wreath ring
½ a block of oasis foam
Scissors
Floristry wire


Flower and Foliage Material

½ a carrier bag of sencecio
½ a carrier bag of hebe
4-5 stems of eucalyptus cincerea

3 x Sweet Avalanche Roses
5 x Avalanche Roses
7 x Rose ‘Video!’
3 x stems of Eustoma (lisianthus) piccolo pink
3 x stems of Eustoma (lisanthus) piccolo yellow (cream)





Assemble all your materials on the workbench.  Place your candlestick on top of your half brick of oasis, using this as a guide cut your oasis to fit, so the candlestick will stand on top of it securely.


It should look like this!


And stand securely like this! This will ensure that the final design is raised up to the right height and not lost beneath all the foliage.

Next bevel the edge of your wreath ring


Do the same with the inner edge of the wreath ring and then smooth everything off by gently rubbing the oasis foam.  It comes off quite easily, so it’s best to do over a bin.  Also beware of getting the dusty particles near your eyes. Then thoroughly soak the wreath ring by placing it upside-down in a sink of water.



Next assemble all your foliage, its really good to use a number of different foliages with opposite textures for good visual interest – ie furry senecio, next to the hebe and smooth eucalyptus.  I've chosen all silvery blue foliages, but dark greens such as ivy would look just as good.

Making sure that all your stems are clean and free from stray leaves, and starting at the base of the wreath ring, push the foliage into the wreath ring at an angle so that the foliage points downwards – this will make sure that the base of the wreath ring is completely concealed.



Keep working round the design in groups of threes.  Don’t worry too much about filling the centre of the wreath ring as the beauty of the design is that the centre is concealed by the candlestick!
Continue until the wreath ring is covered with foliage




Place your focal flowers (biggest/most dominant flowers) into the foam at an equal distance apart – I’ve used Sweet Avalanche because they’re huge and just gorgeous and create great impact!



Continue working through the design by adding the other flower materials – in my case pink and cream lisianthus and Avalanche and Video! Roses.  It’s place them at angles, with some pointing up, some straight and some downwards – this creates a nice random look throughout the wreath.



Your design should look a bit like this.



And that's it!  Hope you enjoy making this design, let me know how you get on.  It's always lovely to hear your DIY stories and a pic or two wouldn't go amiss either!

Next up on the blog - some proper photography from Niel Stewart - unlike my poor attempts using my iPhone!

'til then, enjoy!

Tracey x

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