Advent wreath

 On wednesday, the pastor asked me to help make the Advent wreath for the church.

Because it was going to be outside, they were not going to use the wreath that they had for use inside the church, which used real candles. They wanted something smaller.

A couple years ago, I made a lot of wreaths with Dollar store materials, for a fundraiser.

So I'm experienced making Christmas wreaths.

I could have bought a ready-made wreath, but I wanted to make my own.

I went to Michael's and got some pine-looking garlands, and a few other things.

Michael's was completely sold out of wreath forms, so I had to use the wire from the potted succulent wreath I made a few weeks ago.

I'm sure I'll put it back together again someday, and better.

I added some of this cheap Dollar-store type garland first:

To fill out the wreath, I cut up these picks or "bunches" of fake pine:

I used floral wire to attach everything to the wreath frame.

Little by little, I built up the wreath.

I was going for a natural look.

Here it is mostly finished.

Since it was going to be outdoors, the pastor decided to use these kind of battery candles.

I didn't take pictures, but to make them the appropriate colors, I wrapped the candles with ribbon.

I could have added a lot more swag to the wreath.

After messaging the pastor some pictures, we decided to add the poinsettias, but not the berries.

I tried to make the wreath as large as possible, to be seen on the big outdoor altar.

There wasn't much room for it on the stage.

I was still happy to contribute a little bit, to make the altar look a little more like Christmas.