Flower Ice Cubes

Another great idea for anyone wanting to try a bit of wedding DIY! These flower ice cubes (seen at Jonathan Fong Style and Martha Stewart.Com) are easy to make and look oh so chic. Roses work well, but you can choose from a whole host of edible flowers (including Violets, Starflowers, Chrysanthemums, Gladioli and Snapdragons, to name a few). Just make sure the flowers you use haven't been treated with potentially harmful chemicals; firstleaf offer a wonderful selection of edible flowers, or, if you're green-fingered, you could even grow your own. It is also worth mentioning that any surplus flowers look rather nice in cocktails and champagne flutes!

There are a few different methods for making the ice cubes, depending on the size of the flowers you're using, which are as follows:

Method 1 (the Jonathan Fong way)

Requires:

(per ice tray)
12 spray roses (the small ones)
12 twist ties
2 wooden skewers
1 ice tray
Floral tape

Instructions:

1. To keep the roses submerged in the ice trays, we have to build a framework that will weigh them down. Cut the spray roses, leaving about 2 inches of stem, and use twist ties to attach the stems to the skewers.

2. Place the roses, which are attached to the skewers, upside down in their individual ice compartments of the tray.

3. Tape down the skewers at the ends of the ice tray to keep everything from floating when you add water. Your ice tray should look like the one in the photo.

4. Add water to the ice tray and freeze overnight.

Method 2 (the Martha Stewart way)

Instructions:

1. To suspend flowers in the cubes, work in layers: Fill an ice tray (one that makes large cubes so the ice will last longer) a quarter of the way with water, add flowers facing down, and freeze.

2. Add more water to fill halfway, and freeze.

3. Fill to the top, and freeze again.

Handy tip: For ice that's especially clear, use distilled water that has been boiled and then cooled. This limits impurities and air bubbles, which make ice cloudy.

{Picture credits: 1. Simply Savannah Events; 2. Jonathan Fong Style; 3. Martha Stewart.com}