After your wedding day, you’ll have plenty of timeless mementos: photo albums, perhaps a professional video, your wedding gown and accessories, your wedding invitation. But when it comes to your flowers, well, it’s safe to say that one of your wedding’s most fabulous elements is also its most fleeting. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to preserve your wedding day blooms, whether you want to DIY or turn to an expert. Here, how to keep your flowers as beautiful as your brand-new wedding ring.
Think first of how you’d like to display your preserved flowers—a bunch of pressed stems arranged in a frame? A bundle of dried flowers arranged in a vase? This decision will help inform how to handle the flowers post-wedding. More importantly, keep timing in mind. If you plan to leave for your honeymoon straight after your wedding, give your bouquet to someone to start the preservation process while you’re away. (Wait too long and the flowers will wilt or lose color.)
A simple pressed-flower explainer: Choose the flowers you’d like to preserve and arrange them on a sheet of clean wax paper. Lay another piece of wax paper on top and slip both inside a thick book weighed down with something heavy. (Remember, you want to press the flowers.) Leave it for up to two weeks until the flowers are dry and flat, and then get creative! (Just be careful—dried flowers are super-delicate and brittle.) Some of our favorite looks: individual stems displayed in simply matted frames; a framed colorful burst of flowers arranged like a bouquet.
Another easy DIY option is a dried flower bouquet. For a perfectly preserved bunch of flowers, unwrap your bouquet and select the stems you’d like to keep. It’s helpful to dry each one separately and then arrange later. Hang each flower upside down in a cool, dry spot like a closet. Wait a week to 10 days and your flowers should be ready. An idea we love: tucking the head of a flower into a clear plastic bulb for a sweet Christmas ornament. Get some inspo for this craft here.
Or consider preserving your wedding day flowers in resin. This will require some serious supplies (think protective gear like gloves and glasses, and a small torch) but it’s not as difficult as it may seem. Stores often sell epoxy resin kits (like this one for $100) that give you everything you’ll need. Here’s a detailed how-to for preserving dried flowers in resin. The potential end result? Everything from gorgeous coasters to paperweights. And, of course, bragging rights for your artistry.
Rather have someone else do the dirty work for you? There’s no shortage of people who dream up incredible dried-flower creations. Two PA-based companies—Pressed Bouquet Shop in Allentown, and Pittsburgh’s Soil & Soul—make the preservation process a cinch. Select your flower design online (both offer pieces like framed flowers, resin coasters and ring holders; Soil & Soul also makes cute candle holders and necklaces); pack up and mail in your bouquet (both have detailed explainers on how to best do this, and they’ll send you a reminder when you need to mail it); and they’ll get to work. Reserve your spot well in advance. (Psst: Still feeling inspired to make your own piece? Order one of Soil & Soul’s DIY kits to make your own gorgeous ring holder.)
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