making ceremony decorations
Ceremony decorations need a good water supply. Blocking in Oasis florist foam for your altar flowers is the first step. Once the brick is completely saturated in water treated with a cut flower food, you'll need to place it in the florist urn and cut it to the proper shape.
One brick of foam is sufficient for a large floral design that fits nicely as an altar spray. Super large designs may require blocks of Oasis (which is equal to the size of 6 bricks) rather than single bricks.
Push the brick firmly down into the urn. For different sizes of containers you can trim with a knife, but these urns are a perfect size for one brick and need no trimming.
The foam will extend high above the rim of the container as shown.
Inexperienced designers cut the foam level with the rim of the container, but this means that all your stems have to stick upward and outward.
It's better to cut a couple inches ABOVE the container rim. This allows your stems to be inserted horizontally and at a downward slant, giving a more pleasing look to your completed design.
Continuing our altar flower tutorial, you'll need to make a couple of cuts trimming the florist foam brick to a usable size before you begin to green in your design.
Using a flat bladed knife, cut the foam a couple of inches above the rim the the urn container.
I like using a great deal of foam for this type of design. Remember - the foam holds the necessary water to feed your flowers and keep them fresh. The more foam you have, the longer the flowers will last.
Using the top portion you cut off the brick, make a diagonal cut into the left over piece, creating two wedge pieces.
Place the wedges on both sides of the brick still remaining in the urn.
Push down firmly, so that the sides of the foam is packed against the standing brick. You don't want any air pockets that may leave a stem of a flower in empty air space.
Don't be afraid to pack it down firmly, filling the sides of the container. You don't want to crush the brick - but you do want to be sure that the container is filled with foam.
Do the same on the other side of the brick with the remaining Oasis foam wedge.
Pack it firmly into the side like you did with the first piece.
