Preserved Wedding Bouquets: All the Hows You Need To Know

We spend weeks and sometimes even months picking out the perfect flowers for our big day. And don’t even get us started on the prices–especially if the bridal bouquet contains imported blooms. So–unless you picked a preserved wedding bouquet–when your floral arrangements start to fade away, lose colour, and wilt, it’s a very sad moment.

Before it gets to that point, there are a few steps you can take to preserve your wedding flowers and keep them looking fresh. In this guide, you’ll find all the pre-preservation steps as well as 7 different preservation methods. So, keep reading!

How to Prepare in Advance

If you’re still in the planning phase of your wedding, this is the perfect time to start thinking ahead. Planning and preparing in advance will give you the highest quality preserved flowers. The following are some crucial things to keep in mind:

• Practice: Your wedding flowers will be irreplaceable, so you must experiment with different flowers beforehand. This will prepare you for the real deal.
• Research: If you’ll be hiring someone else to make your preserved flowers, it’s best to conduct thorough research to ensure they use the best quality materials available.
• No Bouquet Tosses: While a lovely tradition, it’s best to avoid it or replace your actual bouquet with a dummy for the bouquet toss.
• Care: You will likely need to frequently change the water and keep your wedding flowers out of direct sunlight before you’re ready to preserve them.
• Florist: If you’re getting your wedding bouquet through the wedding florist, request them to avoid spraying preservatives as they can damage the blooms.

7 Ways to Create Preserved Wedding Flowers

If you’re looking for some unique and creative ways to create preserved flowers from your wedding bouquet, you may find some of the following methods helpful.

1. Name Creation

One of the most unique and thoughtful preserved flowers gift or decor options is creating your name or initials using the leftover petals, grass, and foliage. The initials or surname is created using resin and you can then get it framed for your bedside table decor. In addition to photo frames, you can also consider getting a clock or a geometric shape.

2. A Ring Dish/Coaster

This is another one of the beautiful resin ideas on our list. You can use the smaller flowers and foliage from your wedding bouquet to get a custom dish or a coaster for your wedding rings. The flowers are first dried and then moulded in with clear resin.

It’s important to note that the drying process may take away your wedding flowers’ colour, but it’s not that noticeable.

3. Apply Wax

While this process will preserve your wedding flowers’ colour and shape, it will only keep them intact for about 6 months. It’s also important to note that this method is relatively trickier, so you may want to practise beforehand to ensure you don’t ruin the sentimental wedding bouquet.

Here’s how to do it:

• Take a saucepan and melt some paraffin wax in it
• Check the temperature to ensure it’s not scalding hot
• Dip your flowers upside down one by one 
• Make sure they’re completely covered
• Take them out of the wax immediately
• Hang them upside down to dry

4. Press Them

This preservation method has been around for ages and it may be one of the easiest ways to create a preserved wedding bouquet. However, it’s important to remember that pressing them will flatten the blooms. So, if you don’t want them to lose their 3D shape, perhaps this isn’t the right option for you.

You can use a flower press or a heavy book to press your flowers, just make sure you leave them untouched for about 2-4 weeks.

^{Drying your blooms is crucial for high-quality preserved wedding flowers.} 

5. Air Dry for a Preserved Wedding Bouquet

If pressing them doesn’t sound like a viable option to you, you can consider air-drying your wedding bouquet. This is also one of the easiest methods to try. All you’ll need to do is secure your bouquet to ensure the stems are tightly bound together and hang it upside down in a dark, warm, and dry room for 2-4 weeks. 

You can also hang each flower individually to ensure they retain their shape. Once they’re completely dry, you can place them in a vase or hang them on the wall.

6. Use Silica Gel

If you don’t want to spend money hiring a professional, you can create a preserved wedding flowers frame yourself using silica gel. Place your flowers in a frame of your choice, making sure it’s deep enough, and pour silica gel inside. 

Use a tweezer to move the petals or flowers if necessary and keep the frame in an airtight container to cool for about a week. 

7. Resin Art

If you have a knack for arts and crafts, you’ll love spending some time creating beautiful floral art designs using your wedding flowers. You’ll need to dry your flowers before moulding them with resin to create cool 3D shapes and designs.

It’s important to note that the quality of your flowers will depend on how soon you preserve them. So, get to your art table as soon as you can!

Concluding Thoughts

There you have it! These were some of our top favourite methods for preserved wedding bouquets. If you don’t want to go through the hassle of preserving flowers yourself, you can take a look at our preserved florals collection and incorporate some of the beautiful, high-quality blooms in your bouquet to speed up the process.