Floral Preservation Questions

Do you feel crafty? I would end up destroying it because me and resin don’t mix! But if you feel like you can pull it off and it would help your budget, go for it!

Do a trial run first with some grocery store flowers. If it goes well and you feel confident enough to do it yourself, go for it! If it is a disaster, you will know it’s worth extra money for a pro!

View Quoted Comment I mean I always love a challenge hahaha but my only thing is they’ll have to hold up for almost two weeks since we’ll be in Floridia after the wedding honeymooning so I’m just unsure haha

View Quoted Comment Oh yeah that might not work!

View Quoted Comment I think you ladies are on to something! Thank you for the advice!!

What are you planning to do with your preserved flowers? Just asking because I think a lot of people spend money on stuff like this and then the end product just sits in a closet somewhere. Also there are a lot of different methods for preserving flowers and which method(s) would work depends on what you want to do with them after.

I tried to preserve flowers from my elopement wedding bouquet using silica flower drying agent and had mixed results. It does take a little practice to make sure you are drying the flowers for the right amount of time and it can be difficult to estimate how much moisture any singular bloom contains. You would also need a LOT of product and air tight plastic containers to do an entire wedding bouquet. You can also press flowers, dry them in a microwave, hang dry them, preserve them in resin, and use other methods of preservation. If you aren't really into gardening or flowers, I'd probably skip trying to do it yourself, because it helps to know what species you are working with and have a little flower knowledge to do any of those techniques well.

If having your flowers last for years to come is really important to you, I would pay a professional to preserve them. But if its more like a "that could be fun we should try it" type of thing (where if it doesn't work out you won't be heartbroken), then you could definitely try to do it yourself. There are plenty of YouTube videos showing the various techniques. All of them require a bit of perfecting though, and some flowers are better suited for preservation (or certain preservation techniques) than others, so those are things worth taking into account as well.

I am currently drying ranunculus flowers from our wedding ceremony using the hanging method, and I've also had luck with pressing flowers. "Full shaped" flowers like roses or ranunculus tend to be better for hanging, whereas "flat" flowers like pansies are better for pressing. Some flower species, like calla lilies and orchids, are difficult or near impossible to preserve using any drying method (but it might be possible to cast them in resin). White flowers and really bold and colorful flowers tend to dull when hang drying.

Also boutonnieres tend to wilt/wither pretty badly just during the course of wearing because the stems are cut so short so they have minimal water reserves, they have no water source once cut, and they are probably subject to more crushing, thrashing and abuse than your bouquet or table arrangements since they are worn all night long, so I would keep your expectations pretty minimal in hopes of preserving one, especially in hotter climates.

Your bouquet will have long stems, and you'll also get a vase to put them in when you aren't posing with them, so the flowers themselves are out of water for maybe a couple hours at most and usually have enough residual water in the stems to survive your wedding night and make it intact to the preservation specialist the next day.

To preserve the life of any of your flowers, put them in the fridge or a cooler, being careful not to bash them! Keeping them cool will extend the life significantly.

If you just want to enjoy your flowers after your wedding for the rest of their cut lifespan, there are a number of things you can do to prolong the life of your bouquet. Recut/trim the stems (cutting at an angle), remove any leaves on the stems that go below the water line as well as any dead/dying foliage anywhere within the floral arrangement, and place your flowers in a vase with enough cool water to cover all of the cut stems. Every few days, repeat this process for as long as your flowers last.