Your wedding flowers are one of the most important parts of your wedding day. You’ve likely put a lot of thought into the way that you’d like your wedding flowers to look. From bridal bouquet to groomsmen boutonnieres, all of your bridal party will be decked out in gorgeous blooms. These flowers will pull together all of your different wedding colors to make a cohesive, beautiful look that you’ll love to see in your wedding photos. In a way, your wedding flowers symbolize a huge milestone in the start of your new life together. But after spending so much time and money on planning your wedding flowers, doesn’t it feel like such a waste to let them wilt and die while you’re on your honeymoon?
If you’re truly in love with your wedding flowers, you should definitely consider preserving them. This will certainly make the cost of your wedding flowers seem well worth it since they won’t only be used for one day. Instead, you’ll be able to enjoy the beautiful look of your wedding flowers as a memorable piece of home decor. Preserving your flowers will help you to remember the beautiful details of your wedding day for years to come. Here are a few suggestions for how you could preserve your wedding flowers.
How to Prep for Your Wedding Bouquet Preservation
Hang and Air Dry Them
One of the most traditional ways to preserve your wedding flowers is to dry them. The best way to dry your flowers is to hang them upside down in a dark, dry area that is well-ventilated. This will help the flowers to dry without becoming moldy or getting bleached by light or the sun. You can dry your bouquet by tying it together firmly and hanging it from a secure nail, or you can dry all of the flowers one by one by securing them to an unused hanger or length of rope. Usually, this upside-down drying process will last about two or three weeks before your flowers will be completely dry and ready to move and arrange. You can also spray them with some hairspray to add an additional layer of protection during the drying preservation process. These dried flowers could last up to a year, or even longer if they’re treated carefully.
With all flowers, the colors of the petals will be altered somewhat when you dry them. You might notice that lighter flowers, like white flowers, might fade into a darker cream color. Darker colors, such as red roses, might fade into a deep maroon. However, drying your flowers in a dark room can help to better preserve their natural color. So, while your wedding flowers won’t look the exact same as they did on your wedding day, you’ll still be able to enjoy the beautiful memory that they represent. You can take your wedding flowers and place them on a shelf, display them in a vase, or even leave them hanging upside down in bouquet form with a beautiful decorative ribbon attached.
Press and Frame Them
Another popular way to preserve your beautiful wedding flowers is to dry, press, and frame them. This type of flower preservation has become increasingly popular over the past few years. Framing your pressed, preserved flowers creates a unique piece of art that is just as meaningful as it is beautiful.
First, you’ll need to dry and flatten your flowers in a flower press. You can also use some heavy books if you don’t have a flower press. Once your flowers are all dried and pressed, you’ll get to start the fun part of this preservation approach: arranging the flowers! You can lay out your flowers in a design that resembles your original bouquet or arrangement, or you can create a new design entirely. You could even layer your pressed flowers with a lovely wedding picture to make a unique, meaningful decoration that will look stunning hung up on your wall. Then, secure the flowers in their place on the backdrop for your framed piece, add the frame, and you’ll have a beautiful piece of art to admire!
If you’re feeling intimidated by the pressing and framing process, look into a number of crafters who can press and preserve your wedding flowers for you! While you’ll have to pay for their services, you’ll get a timeless, professional look that you’ll love to display in your home.
Preserve them in Resin
If you’re looking for a more unique way to preserve wedding flowers, try preserving your flowers in resin instead. Resin is a clear, glass-like substance that can be poured over dried flowers (and other objects) to preserve their beauty. When the resin hardens, it looks almost crystal. Resin is great to work with because you can completely personalize your resin art creation with flowers, petals, ribbons, glitter, jewels, and more. Larger resin creations can even include your 3-D flower without requiring you to flatten them, giving them a vibrant, realistic look.
Here are lots of different kinds of resin art that you can make to immortalize the beauty of your wedding bouquet. You can make smaller resin paperweights, coasters, or bookends with a corsage, boutonniere, or a few wedding blooms. Or you can make a larger piece of resin art that encompasses your entire wedding bouquet. You can even make a pretty resin serving tray to showcase the beautiful colors of your flowers!
Before you start pouring any resin over your flowers, you’ll need to take the necessary steps to dry your flowers. This will help prevent any mold from forming. It will also help your flowers to keep their form when the resin is being poured over them. You can do this by hanging your flowers upside down or by covering them in silica sand and storing them for a few days while they dry. When you’re working with resin, just make sure that you use the necessary safety equipment, such as protective eyewear, a respirator mask, and nitrile gloves. If you don’t feel up to the task of creating your own resin art to preserve your flowers, don’t worry. There are lots of small business shops and creators that love working with resin that would be able to help you with this memorable project.
Use Sola Wood Flowers
Do you want to find a simpler way to preserve your wedding flowers? While these other crafty approaches are beautiful, they are complicated and can be quite time-consuming. This last way to preserve your wedding flowers doesn’t require any crafting experience at all and will be much more affordable. You can enjoy your beautiful wedding flowers forever by using Sola Wood Flowers instead of fresh flowers for your wedding. This preservation technique will give you the most realistic look when you’re trying to immortalize your wedding flowers. These flowers don’t need to be watered or dried, and they will never wilt or die. They’ll simply stay beautiful for years to come as long as you give them a little dusting once and a while!
You can enjoy beautifully preserved wedding flowers for years to come when you use Sola Wood Flowers for your wedding. These flowers are specially handmade from a wood-like natural substance that is taken from the tapioca plant. They’re environmentally friendly and sustainably and ethically made, forming a gorgeous product that you can love and trust. These flowers are also incredibly affordable. In fact, you can buy flowers for your whole bridal party for a fraction of the cost that fresh flowers would require. Using Sola Wood Flowers could save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on your wedding flowers. Doesn’t everyone love a little extra flexibility in their wedding budget? So, if you’re interested in ordering wedding flowers from Sola Wood Flowers, click here to get started.
When you use Sola Wood Flowers for your wedding, you’ll have countless styles to choose from, including all of the biggest wedding and floral trends from this year and next. You can shop their wedding flowers by theme to find the perfect flowers for your wedding aesthetic. If you love a good DIY project and want to arrange your own wedding flowers, you can order a craft kit. These kits will give you all the supplies you need to create your own bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, centerpieces, and more. If you’d rather leave your wedding flowers to a professional florist, Sola Wood Flowers has a team of floral stylists that can put together your custom arrangements and ship them to your doorstep! Simply choose one of their “Done for Me” styles to get the help of their floral stylist team.
No matter how unique your wedding colors may be, Sola Wood Flowers will have something perfect for you. You can customize most flower arrangements by choosing your own dye colors from their extensive color gallery of 50+ dye shades. You can also create your own custom wedding flowers from scratch by using their Custom Wedding Builder tool. Then, once your wedding is over, you can display your gorgeous wood flowers for years and they’ll look just the same as they do in your wedding photos!
Sola Wood Flower Wedding Collection
Dip your bouquet in wax
If you want to preserve your wedding bouquet in a way that will keep your gorgeous flowers looking realistic, fresh, and blooming, try dipping your bouquet in wax. You can do this by dipping the heads of your flowers in hot wax. Once the petals and head of the bloom are completely covered in wax, you can store them in a vase or bottle while they’re cooling. Keeping your dipped flowers in an upright position will help the wax to cool and harden with the petals in an open, natural position. Laying your flowers down on a surface with wet wax could cause the petals to fold in on themselves, which won’t be as aesthetically pleasing. Make sure that you cover your working surface with some wax paper to avoid making a mess. But even if you drip a little bit of wax on your table or countertop, you can easily wash it with some soap and hot water.
When you’re looking for materials to use, soy wax is one of the best options for flower preservation. Soy wax is natural and environmentally friendly and it is also a renewable resource, which makes it readily accessible to use. Soy wax melts easier than other types of wax, which makes it easy to use in at-home DIY projects. You can even melt your soy wax in your microwave at home!
Preserve Them With Glycerin
You can also preserve your wedding bouquet by using glycerin. Glycerin is a thick, transparent, liquid that is derived from vegetable and animal oils and fats. When added to flowers, glycerin helps to retain their natural texture and beauty by replacing their water content and moisture. This will keep your flowers from adopting a wilted, dried-out appearance as time goes by, instead helping their leaves to look full, supple, and flexible. Once your flowers have been treated, you can easily clean and treat them without worrying that the petals will sustain any damage. Flowers preserved with glycerin often last 6-12 months, if not longer.
Treating your fresh wedding flowers with glycerin is one of the easiest ways to preserve your flowers at home. You’ll simply need to mix lukewarm water and glycerin in a 2:1 ratio to create the ideal preservation mixture. Cut the end of your flower stems diagonally to prepare them to absorb the mixture. Then place the flowers in the glycerin mixture and leave them for a few weeks until the preservation has fully set in. You’ll know that your flowers are fully preserved when they feel pliable and soft with a rubber-like texture.
Hire an Artist To Paint Them (or DIY)
Another fun, creative way to preserve your flowers is to have a painting made of them. You can hire an artist to paint them or DIY the painting project yourself if you have sufficient painting experience. To preserve the beauty of your flowers in this way, you’ll just need to keep your bouquet as inspiration for the painting. If your wedding bouquet is no longer fresh and beautiful, you can also base your painting on a few high-quality pictures of your wedding bouquet. You can choose a style of painting that will match your vision for your painting, such as watercolor, acrylic, oil, or even 3-D textured painting. When you have a painting made of your wedding flowers, you’ll not only have a wonderful reminder of your wedding day, but you’ll also have a beautiful piece of art that you’ll be able to display in your home.
Where to Get Your Wedding Bouquet Preserved
If you loved the look of your wedding bouquet and want to get it preserved, make sure you act fast while your flowers are still blooming and beautiful. The sooner you discover your ideal preservation method, the sooner you’ll have a unique memento of your wedding day. Here are a few ideas of where you can get your wedding bouquet preserved.
Etsy
There are many artists on Etsy that work in different types of flower preservation, including many of the methods that have been described above. There are small businesses and artists that will help you to preserve your flowers through resin art, painting, drying and pressing processes, and more. This can be an easy and affordable way to get your wedding flowers preserved professionally. On the Etsy website, simply search “preserved flowers” to find the different options that are available to you. Keep in mind that you’ll likely have to ship your bouquet of flowers to your artist of choice if you’re working through Etsy, so you’ll need to plan ahead if you choose this option.
Your florist
If you want to preserve your flowers without worrying about shipping, you may want to find a local florist to work with. If you research ahead of time, you can use the same florist for your wedding flowers and flower preservation. This could be a great approach since your wedding florist will likely have additional backup flowers if your bouquet has wilted at all. They’ll also have the same vision for your preserved flowers, which will help you to get the result that you’ve been dreaming of.
DIY
If you love crafting and DIY projects, you might want to try your hand at DIY-ing your own preserved wedding flowers. Make sure that you do sufficient research ahead of time so you can get the supplies that you need. This will help you to be well-prepared to preserve your flowers. After all, you’ll be in somewhat of a time crunch to preserve your flowers in their fresh, natural beauty before they start to wilt. It might be helpful to try out your desired preservation technique with a different bouquet of flowers well before your wedding day. For example, if you’ve decided to work with resin, you can practice making some smaller pieces of floral resin art, which will help you to master the techniques necessary to preserve your entire wedding bouquet. Plenty of research and practice can help you to have a seamless preservation process when you’re working on your DIY project.
Good Luck!
So, if you’re anticipating how beautiful your wedding flowers will look and want to preserve that beauty for the future, remember this article! You can preserve your wedding flowers in a number of ways, depending on your personal style and vision for the flowers. For example, you can dry your flowers, press and frame them, preserve them in resin, or use Sola Wood Flowers. Each of these preservation techniques will produce gorgeous results. When you see your preserved flowers, you’ll fall in love with your wedding flowers all over again! When you preserve your wedding flowers, you’ll always be able to look back on the beauty of your special wedding day.
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