So here we are back at the After the Wedding series and I’ve realized that everything you do after the wedding is to preserve the memories from your perfect day. You spend all this time planning for your big day but you have to determine yourself what is important to you to preserve. That’s what I struggled with, the balance because I could have easily gone over the top and tried to save everything.

There are a couple of different options to preserve your bouquet and it’s best to decide this before the wedding… like most things. It’s also going to depend on the look that you’d like your bouquet to have once it’s preserved.

Freeze Drying:

• You will need to set this up with a company that does this about a month before the wedding.
• After the wedding the bouquet will need to be put in a vase of water and then in the refrigerator (if it has a reputation for freezing food then put the bouquet in a cool room but make sure the bouquet does not freeze.) Then drop off the bouquet or ship it first business class to the company a day or two after the wedding.
• With this option the flowers will remain the same size, color and texture. The bouquet can then be placed in a shadow box or a dome frame and even rearranged if you would like.

Drying:

• This is a great option if you don’t want to send your bouquet anywhere and you can do it yourself!
• This should also be done one or two days after the wedding. If the flowers really start to droop it’s not going to look as nice. Just use string or even ribbon and wrap it around the stems a couple of times and then hang it where it’s cooler (make sure it’s tight because the stems will shrink and you don’t want the flowers to drop). Then forget about the bouquet for a while. I left mine in my parent’s basement for a year 🙂
• A little tip for drying flowers, when you initially hang your flowers upside down spray it with some hairspray in an aerosol can. I don’t know why but it really helps make it look better. It’s also great for flowers like daisies because it helps keep the petals from dropping down while they dry.
• With this option the flowers will dry darker, be less vibrant and even shrivel a little. You can also put the bouquet in a shadow box or dome frame. I decided to set my dried bouquet in a vase that sits on our bookcase.

Pressed Flowers:

• Remember doing this at camp or in Girl Scouts? Well it’s great if you only want to save the heads of the flowers or even just the petals. Like drying, don’t let the flowers get too droopy or else they won’t press very nice.
• All you’ll need is some big books and tissue paper or Kleenex. I fold the paper in half and insert the flower into it then in the middle of the book. You’ll need to kind of picture how you want the flower to look in the end so that you can press it with the flower open or maybe even closed. Then forget about if for a couple of months.
• Once you go back to it after a couple of months you can decide if you’d like to frame them or put them in a shadow box yourself or you can hand it off to a professional (you can even give the professional the bouquet from the beginning and they’ll press them for you.)
• Like drying a bouquet, the colors will probably be a little darker and not as vibrant.

Like I said earlier, I went with drying the bouquet myself and it came out pretty well since my bouquet was all roses. While they are in a vase right now I do want to eventually move them into dome frame. However, if I would have actually thought of this while I was planning our wedding I would have definitely gone with freeze drying the flowers.