Make a Lily of the Valley Floral Headpiece for a Wedding, Bride or Flower Girl

Imagine you are walking along a nature path and suddenly notice a fragrance that reminds you of the perfume store. You peek down into the greenery and see rows of little white bells. Lily of the Valley is such a unique flower and also one of those rare flowers which can be found in nature in almost the same form as when it's purchased from a wholesaler or flower shop. It grows wild where I live in Nova Scotia and so I chose it to create this Flower Crown Headpiece, suitable for a bride, bridesmaid, flower girl, or just because you want to feel special and get up close and personal with Lily of the Valley!

A little backstory on Lily of the Valley

• The delicately sweet fragrance of Lily of the Valley, is among the most sought after scents in history. One of the most famous perfumes inspired by this tiny but very fragrant flower is Diorissimo designed by Edmond Roudnitska as a tribute to fashion designer Christian Dior's most loved flower. Reportedly, Dior had the image of the tiny flower on his lapels, stationary and many of his designs.^[1]
• It was the favorite flower of Russian composer Tchaikovsky who wrote the timeless Nutcracker Suite!^[2]
• It most recently made many headlines as the starring flower in Royal Princess Kate Middleton's bridal bouquet! Kate did have many other meaningful flowers in her bouquet as well but Lily of the Valley was featured.

For this Headpiece arrangement, I've also used Honeysuckle flowers and greens, Vinca Vine, and it's flower the Periwinkle.

Lily of the Valley There are many meanings associated with Lily of the Valley^[3], but the most significant meanings associated with weddings are purity and sweetness.^[4]
Vinca vine and Periwinkle Vinca vine and it's flower the Periwinkle gently embrace their surroundings in nature, and represent fidelity and deep bonds.^[5]
Honeysuckle Honeysuckle signifies happiness, strong love and devotion! This Flower Crown Headpiece is appropriate for the pure angel in all of us!

At your next party, surprise them with flower crowns! Show them how to make them and then let them have fun coming up with their own flower crown masterpiece! Also it can be a fun craft for children to let them make their own colorful flower crowns for their friends! Though these techniques are a little advanced, with a slight modification, the idea can be easily taught. Also, please keep in mind that children should always be supervised when handling any type of wildflower as some can be poisonous. Though the technique for wiring Lily of the Valley is a bit different from many other kinds of flowers, this basic idea can also be done with most any small flower, such as sweetheart roses, mini carnations, baby's breath and daisies. You will need a few supplies and tools, here they are:

1. 1
   Some sort of wire

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   About six pieces. Many exist such as paddle wire, but try to choose wire strong enough to support the flowers in your design. Here I've used about a '26 gauge wire for thinner work on the flowers, and a thicker '21 gauge wire to create the sturdier headband framework.

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2. 2
   Flora-Tape

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   Different from Floral Tape, Flora-tape is unique to floral design in that it is used chiefly for wrapping stems and wires. It creates the appearance of stems and unifies untidy ends.

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3. 3
   Six stems of Lily of the Valley

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4. 4
   A few breaks of Vinca vine, some with Periwinkle flowers

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5. 5
   2-3 pieces of Honeysuckle flowers/buds with small part of greens attached.

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6. 6
   A small piece of ribbon or Raffia if desired but it's not necessary if it's not available

   .

   The flowers are their own wrap!

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7. 7
   Wire cutters and scissors.

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1. 1
   First I've taken three pieces of 21 gauge wire

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   • Connected them by twisting them together about four inches in to make the flower crown base both longer and stronger.
     
   • Usually I use 21 gauge wire mainly for thicker sturdier work, and on the thinner side, a 26 gauge wire for most other work.
     

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2. 2
   Next I'm covering the wires with Flora Tape, which is also referred to as Stem Wrap

   .

   

   • It's not really a tape in the traditional sense, but has a gentle adhesive property.
   • When gently pulled and twisted around a stem or wire, it adheres to the stem and wire and creates a bond and closely resembles stems
     

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3. 3
   Holding the end of the Flora tape around the wires, you pull and twist the Flora Tape tightly around the wires, releasing and wrapping just a little bit at a time

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   • You may notice after pulling it slightly that it feels a little sticky, this is how it sticks to itself and stems/wire etc.
   • It takes a few tries to get the hang of using Flora Tape, but once you get the feel of it your design work will go much more quickly.

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4. 4
   Once I've finished, I measure it around the person's head who it's intended for and create hooks for holding securely

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   • These hooks can be fine tuned and if you find that you don't have enough wire, you can use ribbon to make up the difference and this is actually quite pretty as well, so it's a matter of preference.
     

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5. 5
   Now I'm placing my Lily of the Valley roughly where I plan to attach it to the wire form I've made.

   

   • I've placed the stems where they will be Flora Taped in place.
   • Sometimes I would also wire and flora-tape the individual flower stems before attaching to the crown form.
   • But in this case I decided to attach the stems directly, in order to keep the weight and size of the crown small and dainty.
     

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6. 6
   Once I've moved them into place to be sure I will like how they look

   .

   • I begin to flora tape each one around the middle of the stem's base.
     
   • I'm tearing off a small piece, about 3 inches, and wrapping the stem where I want it to be.
   • Make sure it's firmly in place and it will be easier to handle the flower headpiece while you place the rest of the flowers and greens.
   • I've positioned all of the Lily of the Valley flowers going in the same direction, except the last one, which I turned around the opposite way to display the flowers most evenly.
     

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7. 7
   Now I'm adding in Vinca vine and Periwinkle flowers using the same technique

   .

   

   • First, placing them where I'm planning to tape them so I can get a good look, and then taping them.
     

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8. 8
   Now I've got a thinner wire that I've covered with flora tape and I'm going to start to wind it so that my upper Lily of the Valley flowers stay closer to the headpiece base.

   

   • Think of a winding vine, as that's sort of what you're mimicking the appearance of here.
   • Wind very carefully around the upper flower heads like a little seat belt to hold them more snugly.
     
     It's a good idea to be careful handling the flowers in order to minimize the chance of damaging any precious blooms, but Lily of the Valley is surprisingly strong!
   • When I've finished all the way around, I wind the ends closely into the existing frame ends and cover them with more Flora Tape.
     

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You will find that sometimes it is necessary to create layers upon layers of Flora Tape, and the great thing is that you really can! It molds so well to itself when applied correctly that it's very sturdy. Although it's also good to be aware of the extra weight and bulk you might be adding to the overall piece as well. I like it like this, and even though I am going to add more, we could stop here and keep it really simple if we wanted to.

1. 1
   I'm going on now to add more Honeysuckle vine and also flowers and buds.

   

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2. 2
   Trying not to damage any flowers as I'm adding additional flowers, I carefully add the additional greens and flowers in the same way as the Vinca and Honeysuckle.

   

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You can fasten them right over the existing framework you've got using Flora Tape.

1. 1
   Here we see it in the natural finished state, but we are also going to add a delicate looking soft chiffon ribbon.

   

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2. 2
   Attaching it in the same way we did the flowers, we wrap the end of the ribbon with a small piece of stem wrap.

   

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3. 3
   We very carefully, and evenly wind the ribbon into the spaces between flowers and greens, taking a good look at our placement each step of the way so we can go back and re-position it if needed.

   

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4. 4
   I have finished the ribbon in the same way on the other end with Flora Tape

   .

   This is a matter of choice.

   

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5. 5
   You may prefer to tie the ribbon into a pretty bow on each end but in this case I wanted to keep the ribbon minimal.

   

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6. 6
   Here I have unhooked the floral headpiece to show you that the structure is nice and strong.

   

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If you want to get more creative, you can create beautiful chokers, bracelets, anklets and a lot of great things from this basic form of flowers on wire!

If I were creating this for an actual event, it would be best to create it the same day, and to be sure that the flowers you are using will hold up for however long the wedding, prom, graduation, recital, etc will be. Make sure you've given all your flowers a fresh cut and a long drink of water before you work with them. If you're using wildflowers for this, try to get enough flowers to make a practice run. This way you can create one and see how well it holds up, and then you will understand the particular temperament of the flowers and greens you are using. It's always great if you can plan ahead to avoid any unpleasant surprises, which can sometimes happen when you're working with fresh materials.

We are done! Here is our finished flower crown style headpiece!

But wait there's more!

In this case, I wanted to see how long my creation would hold up if it had to be created the day before the event. I put it in the fridge overnight to stay cool and preserved.

Here I've removed them from the lightly placed bag in the fridge they were in... and I am happy to report that both my flower crown and corsage are still very fresh and nice and that they lasted the entire day without any wilting! I also created a Lily of the Valley corsage to match this headpiece and here they both are.

If you would like to know how to make the matching corsage to this headpiece, please watch our video here on VisiHow, Make a Corsage Using Lily of the Valley

Thanks for joining me!

I hope you've had fun on this floral journey and will be inspired to play with flowers as often as possible and create your own designs! Please share this article on your social media if you feel we've shared something interesting!

Sources and Citations

1. ↑ Best Lily of the Valley Perfumes
2. ↑ Lily of the Valley
3. ↑ Marriage about
4. ↑ List of Birthstones
5. ↑ Feritradition Periwinkle

If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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