What to Do With Your Bouquet After Wedding: 17 Ways to Preserve Wedding Flowers

WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR BOUQUET AFTER WEDDING

Wedding flowers are some of the most expensive expenditures that are going to go into your wedding planning and you are totally justified if you decide you want to keep them for use even after the wedding!

Source: www.valuepenguin.com

Whether it is for value, beauty, or sentimentality – we have compiled these 17 ways in which you can preserve your wedding day flowers (both artificial and fresh) in ways that are productive, useful, and decorative to you and your partner.

1. DONATE

If you have just had your wedding or are about to have your wedding and you find yourself wondering what to do with wedding flowers after the wedding is done, then perhaps you should consider donating your flowers to a homeless shelter, the hospital, or a home for the elderly around your area (or the area you are having the wedding at). The great thing about donating flowers after wedding is that you get to share your joy, love, and good fortune with others and get to brighten their day, too!

2. REPURPOSE

Another great way on how to save wedding flowers is to repurpose them and you do this by breaking them down and creating smaller bouquets that you can place around your marital home as a form of good luck to your newly married life.

3. HAVE A BOUQUET STATION

Another thing that you can do with bridal bouquet after ceremony is to have a bouquet station where you place your wedding bouquet and your wedding guests, those who are interested, will get to pick a flower out of your bouquet and take it home with them. This is a great way to involve your guests in the wedding and make them feel like they are a part of your new life. This is one of the many unique things you can do at your wedding reception.

4. DRY THEM

One of the best things to do with wedding bouquet is to dry the flower petals. To do this, you will have to hang your flowers upside down in a dry and warm place (for example, above a radiator) for about one to two weeks. You can then repurpose your dried flowers however you see fit – for example, you can make potpourri or grind them and make perfume fragrances out of them – of course, you would need to have some experience to do this but you can always learn these things online.

5. USE THEM AS A CENTERPIECE

Another idea on how to preserve wedding flowers is to use them as a centerpiece in your home. You can put them in a vase and place them at a place in your home where they will most be viewed by visitors – this can be in the living room or lounge, or your kitchen counter.

6. MAKE CANDLES OUT OF THEM

Another unique and fun way of saving wedding flowers is to make candles out of them. This is a step further from drying your flowers and a fun way to repurpose your dried flowers into candles that both you and your significant other can use and enjoy.

7. HAVE YOUR FLOWERS PHOTOGRAPHED

Another way for a successful bridal bouquet preservation is to immortalize your flowers through a photograph. Indeed, sometimes the easiest, quickest, and most obvious way is the best way to do things. At your wedding ceremony, make sure that your photographer takes a picture of the flowers only because, trust us, you are going to want to marvel at their beauty at some point in your future after the wedding is done and they are not going to feel or look the same in distant photos. Instruct your professional photographer to take as many shots of the flowers as he can and it will be the best thing you can do for yourself in preserving the memory and beauty of your wedding flowers. Planning a wedding can already be stressful and having the perfect photo of your flowers shouldn’t have to add to that stress.

8. HAVE THEM PRESERVED BY A PROFESSIONAL

Moving on from all the dried wedding flower ideas, another alternative on what to do with your bouquet after wedding is to have them pressed by a professional. What this means is that instead of finding out ways to preserve the flowers yourself, you hire someone whose profession it is to preserve flowers and they will do it for you in a way they see fit taking into account, the type of flower(s) and longevity/freshness, among other things.

9. HAVE THEM PRESSED INTO GLASS

Another one of the best ways to preserve wedding flowers is to have them pressed into glass. This means that your flowers will be incorporated in a glass item of your choosing (vase, tube, bowl, etc.) Look at point number 4 above for guidance on how to dry bouquets of wedding flowers.

10. PRESERVE THEM IN RESIN

The best thing about resin bouquet preservation is that it is so versatile it fits into everyone’s sense of decor. You can make so many things out of getting your flowers preserved in resin. Some of the things you can make are; guitar picks, bowls, earrings, bangles, kitchen trays, coasters, candle holders, block letters, and decorative triangles – among other things.

11. TURN THEM INTO JEWELRY

Another great way to reuse wedding flowers is to turn them into jewelry that you and your partner can wear. Some of the jewelry you can make includes; earrings, bangles, beads, and necklaces. This is a great way to preserve your flowers as heirlooms for your future children (if that is something that you want to have). On the other hand, you can make these jewelry items and send them as gifts to your bridal party as a way for them to keep a part of your wedding day close to them.

12. DIP THEM IN WAX

A similar way to preserving wedding bouquet in resin is to have your wedding flowers dipped in wax. Although this is not a permanent way to preserve your flowers, it is a great way to give your flowers a long shelf life – for at least 6 months, with the same freshness in color and overall integrity.

To preserve your flowers in wax, you are going to need a saucepan and some paraffin wax. First, you will melt the wax in boiling water (not directly under fire as this will be a fire hazard)until the wax is fluid and smooth. Then slightly cool the mixture before you start dipping your flowers in the wax. Make sure you select the best-looking flowers because they are going to be preserved in their current condition.

Immediately hang your wax-dipped flowers upside down until they dry at which point you can place them wherever you want for the next 6 months.

13. FRAME THEM

One of the easiest ways to preserve bouquets is by framing wedding flowers and you can do this as a form of preservation after drying and pressing your flowers. Framing your flowers is one of the best ways to put them on display and decorate your home.

14. GIVE THEM AWAY TO A FRIEND/FAMILY MEMBER

Another one of the best way to preserve wedding bouquet is to give it away to a family member or friend in a twist of the classic ‘throwing the bouquet.’ Give it to someone who you believe is next to be married as a way of wishing them luck as they head towards the marriage journey. It is a sweet and considerate way to give away the bouquet.

15. MAKE A WREATH

If you used fake flowers at wedding then your preservation methods will be different since artificial flowers cannot go bad. Therefore making a beautiful wreath with your wedding flowers to hang on your door is considered good luck and since your flowers will never wilt, it makes them all the more meaningful.

16. SUBMERGE THEM IN SILICA GEL

One of the best ways to preserve a dried-out wedding bouquet is to submerge them in silica gel. Silica gel will help dry out the flowers by absorbing all the moisture in 7 days. This way your wedding flowers are kept from drying out.

17. HAVE THEM EMBROIDERED

Another cute way of preserving bridal bouquets at home is to embroider them in a lovely design that you can keep forever with you in your home. If you do not know how to hand stitch the designs on a cloth yourself, it is wise to send it to a professional embroiderer so they can get your vision just right. This is a great way to make something out of your flowers and it is much better than a photograph of your flowers because your embroidered piece can be used for other purposes as well – depending on what you get the embroidery on. For example, you can have your throw blanket embroidered.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. What to do with artificial bouquet after wedding?

This article has discussed some of the things to do with fake flowers. In the spirit of not being wasteful, and perhaps even just being sentimental, you are going to find yourself wanting to do something with your flowers after the wedding is done. Aside from making a wreath out of them for your home, you can also place them in a vase jar and make them the centerpiece in your home, give them away to family or friends at your wedding, donate them, or just store them to repurpose in the future for your children. Additionally, you can also make jewelry from them with things such as headbands, bracelets, and corsages.

2. What to do with wedding bouquet after wedding?

There are many things that you can do with your wedding bouquet after your wedding as evidenced through the examples given in this article. Whether you want to give your flowers away, preserve them for the sake of decoration, repurpose them as a keepsake, or even if you want to preserve them as souvenirs for your future offspring from the union. The choice is entirely up to you.

Additionally, if you bought your wedding dress (as opposed to hiring it) you can use your flowers to accessorize and customize your dress further. Here are a few more creative things to do with your wedding dress.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we have shown you with this article some of the best ways to preserve wedding bouquet so that they either last a long time or they last for a lifetime – immortalized. This can be done by using silica gel, paraffin wax, glass, or resin.

There are several ways of preserving bridal bouquets at home while others you have to hire a professional to do for you. However, there are many websites online that will help you with DIY projects for preserving your flowers in a safe way – but if you think you cannot do it on your own, please seek professional help especially when the procedure involves fire such as with the paraffin wax method. Additionally, you do not want to ruin your flowers by doing the method wrong so it is safer to use someone who is a professional and knows what they are doing.