Roses

For my wedding I made what they call "rice" roses myself but filled them with Italian mints. I sewed 5-6" wide strips of white satin into tubes and cut in to 6-7" lengths. I wrapped straight florist's wire (they are sold in packs precut) to the end of the material tube and then covered the base with green florist's tape and wrapped it all the way down the wire and added two silk green rose leaves in around the middle of the stem. I didn't want to spend the additional money on getting ribbons printed with our names on it so on the computer I set up a page of "Thank you for sharing our special day with us" Lori & Brian, September 23, 1995 and printed on parchment paper. I could fit 25 or 30 to a page and then cut each one into individual strips, punched a whole on one end and then put the wire from one of the leaves through the whole and when I worked that leaf into the stem the message was already attached.

I think I made about 100 of them and it was something I did at night while watching TV. I filled each one with those colorful Italian mints. After I put the mints in I had to pinch the open end of the flower together and tuck it into the center of the flower to keep them in. It held them in just fine. Every person at the reception had a rose placed at their place setting on the table above their plate and they were very well received. My nephew loved the mints so much he was going around scooping up all the ones where no one was sitting! Normally you can buy these made for up to $2.00 each and I think I made and filled all of them for about $25.