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The side of a frozen floral ice bucket with pink and purple flowers and a bottle of wine inside chilling.
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5 from 1 vote

Party Ice Bucket

Make a DIY Ice Bucket for your party and add instant style to your celebration. Chill beverages, wine, or champagne bottles to fit your party theme! Have fun and get creative using flowers, herbs, sliced fruit, or greenery in this gorgeous party wine chiller.
Keyworddiy ice bucket, diy wine bucket, ice wine chiller
Cost: 10

Materials

  • 1 2-gallon plastic pail (hardware store paint section)
  • 1 2 ½ quart plastic pail (hardware store paint section)
  • 2 1-gallon bottles of distilled water or boiled water (freezes clear)
  • assorted flowers, greenery, or sliced fruit
  • clear packing tape
  • frozen ice-pack or weight like stones
  • 2 chopsticks
  • silver platter or large plate (to serve it on for your party)

Instructions

  • Clear a large enough space in your freezer to fit your DIY wine bottle chiller ice mold on the shelf. This was not easy for me as my freezer is always packed!
  • Pour 3-4 inches of distilled water into the bottom of the bucket and place a layer of flowers (or fruit) in the bottom.
  • This is the base of your ice bucket, pop into the freezer. Freeze until solid about 4 hours. 
  • Place the smaller container inside the larger container and rest on the ice base. Now place the small bucket inside the large bucket to hold it in place using clear packing tape.
    Weigh down the smaller container with a small frozen ice pack or a weight like large stones. Add more flowers, push them down or position them with chopsticks in the outer ring. Freeze this layer for 2-3 hours.
    If your flowers are quite large, they will hold in between the buckets.
  • Fill with another 3 or 4 inches of distilled water and place more flowers, herbs, etc down into the water.
    Sometimes the flowers float up and you can use a chopstick to push them down to distribute them a little more evenly around the sides.
  • Repeat and freeze in 3-4 total layers depending on bucket size. Freezing in layers allows flowers to be all the way through the frozen ice.
    Otherwise, they float all to the top. Freeze overnight before taking it out of the plastic bucket.
  • When you are ready to unmold and use your frozen ice bucket, pour warm water into the center small bucket which will release the small pail from the center.
    Next, run the side of the large bucket under warm water until the bucket releases from the frozen ice piece.
  • Once your ice bucket is out of the mold, return it to the freezer until your party begins, place it out after guests arrive on a pretty silver tray with a napkin underneath to keep it from sliding and a bottle of sparkling water, wine, or champagne. Of course, it melts, so place it somewhere so it can drip into your garden!
    So pretty...and by the way, I kept this in my freezer for a couple of weeks before using it, so this project can be done well in advance of your party.

Notes

distilled water
Distilled water (or boiled tap water) freezes clearer than plain tap water. Pick some up at the grocery store.
what can you freeze in the ice bucket?
Try lemon, lime, apple or orange slices
Fruit like strawberries, blueberries, or kiwis
Use flowers and greenery from your own garden or flower shop
Herbs from your garden: mint, rosemary, or thyme
Use silk flowers or artificial greenery, those are great too!
tips to use it
Pre-chill your wine bottles so they are nice and cold before your party.
The ice bucket will begin to melt very fast so place it out at your party just after guests arrive.
Before your party, remove the frozen floral ice bucket from the plastic pail, and keep it in the freezer so it is good to go.