Making your wedding flowers last forever may seem like a pipedream, but it is possible. Better yet, preserved bouquets and buttonholes make fantastic keepsakes that can be treasured and admired throughout your married life.
Thanks to the wide range of petal preservation techniques currently accessible, newlyweds have more options than ever for transforming their bouquets, buttonholes and floral displays into the most fabulous keepsakes.
Prepare for preservation in advance
Whatever preservation technique you choose, prepping for the process begins long before your big day. You should work with your florist to ensure that your wedding flowers are suitable for preservation.
Many florists spray wedding blooms with preservatives to keep them looking fresh for the big day. The use of preservatives however can actually cause flowers to brown when pressed a little later down the line.
Keep your flowers looking fresh
On the wedding day itself, skip the traditional bouquet toss to keep your flowers in the best possible condition. Your flowers should also be appropriately cared for after your wedding to keep them looking beautiful for preservation. Avoid storing your flowers in an overly sunny spot and change the water in the vases regularly.
Smaller arrangements like buttonholes, corsages and flower crowns need different care as Gathered+Styled explains:
“The best way to keep these items fresh is to put them in the fridge, but make sure they are not next or close to the freezer! An air-conditioned room is also possible, but in this case place the bouts in a cup (or any other shallow vessel) with a tiny bit of water, so the stems stay hydrated, and for wrist corsages and headpieces – spray some water on the flowers and place them on a wet towel overnight.”
Explore your preservation options
The possibilities are endless when preserving wedding flowers. You can turn your wedding flowers into stunning jewellery, a handy paperweight, creative waxwork, personalised resin letters, or even your very own piece of framed art.
If your wedding flowers aren’t in the best condition, don’t worry! Scour your wedding photos and find a picture of your bridal bouquet. It’s all you need to recreate a work of art that you can admire in your home for years to come. A professional wedding bouquet artist can be enlisted to capture the beauty of your wedding flowers as an acrylic, watercolour or line drawing.
Go back to basics with pressing
Whilst you’ll need help from professionals to achieve the best possible and most beautiful result with the techniques mentioned above, there are some methods that you can get creative with at home.
Pressing your flowers is the easiest way to preserve bridal and bridesmaids’ bouquets, buttonholes and other floral displays. Wedding flower press kits are available to buy, but in truth, all you need is a weighty book and some good-quality paper to complete the process. Simply sandwich your wedding flowers between two sheets of paper, and place them inside the book for up to 10 days.
The pressed flowers can then be used to decorate your home, add to a frame, or jazz up a clear phone case. You could even create your own bath salts from your pressed flowers. Just mix those petals with Epsom salts, add your favourite essential oil, and relax!
