Photo: Austin Gros Photography
Many brides's most beloved aspect of their wedding is their bouquet. Some brides love it so much that they want to keep it forever. The good news is that many can! With various preservation techniques, there's no reason you can't keep your most memorable blooms forever. Here, a few different ways to preserve your wedding bouquet so that you can look back at it in places other than your wedding album.
When it comes to preserving a wedding bouquet, brides have a few options: They can press and frame the flowers (if not all, then some), they can dry the bouquet as a whole and have it covered in glass, or, the last and most difficult option is to dry out the bouquet yourself.
Unsurprisingly, the first route is the easiest. Simply press the flowers and get them framed — it's a sweet and sentimental way to remember your big day! Another option is to enlist the help of a florist to preserve the bouquet as a whole. Of course, though, this service may come at an extra cost so take that into consideration as well.
Last but not least, you can make preserving your bouquet a little DIY project. The most important tool in maintaining your big-day blooms? Silica gels, which absorb water content. They also happen to preserve the color of each petal, too, as they're drying them out. First, you'll need to grind the crystals down into a fine powder. Then use a dry, clean, soft paintbrush to brush the power each and every inch of the bunch. Place all of the contents into an airtight container, filling the remaining space up with the leftover silica gel powder. Leave it in a warm place for a week, remove carefully, and spray with either artist's fixative spray or hairspray. Once done, allow it to dry and carefully place somewhere out of harms way — we'd suggest a glass box.
No matter which option you choose, act fast! When it comes to preserving flowers, the sooner you do so the better.