Contrary to what you might think, many brides would rather not toss their bouquet on the wedding day.
Instead, more and more couples have the flowers preserved so they stay beautiful for as long as possible, as a keepsake of the big day. Tip: if you still want the bouquet toss, ask your florist for a smaller toss bouquet.
There are several ways to dry and preserve your wedding bouquet. Here are our tips.
Look after your bouquet first
Before you start preserving, take good care of the bouquet until then.
Keep it somewhere cool, away from sunlight and radiators, as cut flowers don't cope with heat.
Trim the stems at an angle and give them fresh water. Remove any wilted leaves, which make the flowers fade faster.
Important: start drying within one or two days of the wedding, while the petals are still fresh. The longer you wait, the duller the result.
How do you dry a wedding bouquet?
Drying flowers isn't difficult, but it takes patience and a gentle touch so the bouquet keeps its shape.
Professional methods
- Freeze-drying: all the moisture is drawn out of the flowers in a cold vacuum. Shape and colours stay almost as they were on the day. The best method, but also the most expensive.
- Preserving with glycerine: the sap is replaced with a glycerine-based solution. The flowers stay supple and can even be re-coloured.
Both are carried out by specialist florists or bouquet preservation studios, of which there are many across the UK.
Methods you can try at home
- Air drying: the simplest and most popular method. Hang the bouquet, or individual stems, upside down in a dark, dry, well-ventilated place. It will be dry in about two to three weeks. Darkness protects the colours.
- Silica gel: place the flower heads in an airtight container and cover them completely with silica gel from a craft shop. After three to seven days they are dry and keep their shape and colour particularly well.
- Pressing: ideal for frames and wall art. Place individual flowers between sheets of blotting paper inside a heavy book and weigh it down. After two to four weeks they are flat and dry.
- Epoxy resin: for a decorative keepsake such as a paperweight or jewellery. The flowers must be fully dried first, otherwise they discolour in the resin.
Keep your flowers protected
Once dried, the flowers are fragile. Keep them in a frame, a glass dome or a perspex box, away from direct sunlight and damp.
That way your bouquet will remain a lovely reminder of your wedding day for years to come.
