It's the fillers,in the first one the red/blue curly ribbons,flags,bows and stuff like that.The 2nd is all the different green fillers,the apples or whatever that fruit is,things like that.
Kathi

The 1st one is lots of bows, flags and that wired stuff with stars of silver,red & blue on it, very little in way of flowers! Almost can't see the center! Think it could be just as nice with little less!(Gets expensive too!) 2nd 1 look closely & you will see the filler used is in many flat sprays used at weddings & things. Fern- like leaves(leather fern) it widens the wreath & so makes it look more expensive(I don't think this 1 has leather fern but there are several natural shrubs that have fairly flat look so they work well in "expanding" the wreath & then as Kathi said you have a lot of fillers,green lilies & other stuff in shades of green that give the wreath depth & you add a full bow to the side or top (if you are short on materials or just like the look,) and your choice flowers where they will be seen. Notice the yellowish fruit around edges pick up the yellow in the ribbon & the reddish blush on them looks beautiful with the reddish flowers. A lovely job!!! They used lot of materials! But you will find that you sometimes didn't buy enough materials to do what you want & by putting a bow on the side & making it very full or adding a couple of extra streamers or putting it at the top & curling streamers down you fill in to make up for lack of materials. Wreaths can get very expensive. If you are going to make them to sell look for dried pods, seeds, pine cones in your area & lay them out on cookie sheet & heat oven to 200 degrees for 20 minutes, leftover nuts in shell from Christmas look lovely if you do this & spray with Krylon & glue on wreath. You make your wreath bug free & save nuts you would normally throw out. Cattails are lovely in arrangements if you live near place that has them, swamps or standing water!! Don't use feathers you find as may be illegal. Probably have to check with fish & game to see if anything like that could be used. I hot glue mine if silk flowers, but if it's for wedding in the sun at noon I think I might use WeldBond or something else. Don't want them falling apart. Base can be grapevine circle, foam ring, straw,wire,chickenwire, etc, So some are all wired together with no glue used such as fresh flowers. Hope this helps. Have fun!

Thank you both!

Sunny - Your observation that they used flat pieces to widen was great.

I realize, also, by studying the photos - the second one particularly, that they use longer pieces and then fill in to give width. I've made many wreaths but mine are have always been much flatter. I haven't used the longer pieces and I guess I have to use lots and lots of materials.
Thank you for the pointers.

I'm not planning on selling - I just like to do them for myself and gifts.

Dawn

I've made wreaths and unless I use BIG flowers and BIG leafy greens, I can't see the wreath from the street. I think their secret is go BIG! (I do however have some smaller, delicate wreaths too, but not for the door).

I do planters in front of our church,by the pulpit. They are hard to do as really should look like flowers are "growing" in them but church was build in 1940's so work with what is there. I have bought several flowers I thought would be perfect & they don't even show up, dark blues, purples & reds disappear from a distance (even with a light that shines on them) I have better luck with bright light pinks, whites, lavender, yellows into orange(they show up best,besides white). If you are thinking about flowers to buy somewhere even Dollar store put them on high shelf where you can walk a long ways away & see how they stand out or if they seem to disappear, less mistakes that way. That's how I pick them out now!! If you want a green xmas wreath on outside door have a lot of white on it or gold ribbon or gold colored toys or fruit so it stand out(gold like gold & silver type gold) silver would work too! I had a green wreath with red flowers couple of yrs ago & didn't show up as anything but glob of green! Lovely standing in front of it but no curb appeal as they say! Jan

Ok, so I went to Michael's yesterday to pick up some flowers for the wreath. They were having a sale so I spent about $25 including the ribbon and I have flowers left over to make a smaller verson for my MIL for Mom's Day. I already had the 24" wreath and the sunflowers from an arrangement in which the vase got broken. They were the inspiration for wanting to make a wreath.

Thanks for all you help. I can really see how many flowers it took to do the wreath I posted above. While I did not make mine as full, I now understand how it can be done.

Thought you'd ike to see. I am going to be on the lookout for some different ribbon. Michaels did not have a great selection of the wider ribbon.