Five Ways to Preserve Your Wedding Bouquet

Preserving wedding bouquets is one of our favourite parts of what we do. Your flowers are such an important, romantic and symbolic part of your wedding day. Their beauty and elegance, and their important role in your ceremony makes them such a special and sentimental memento. And after investing so much time in planning your wedding flowers - the colour, style, which particular blooms to use, finding the florist that shares your vision - it’s no surprise that more brides are opting to keep their flowers, instead of doing the old-school bouquet toss (no matter how much this might disappoint your cousin!). 

So if you don’t want to send your bouquet flying, what can you do with it instead? Coming home from your honeymoon is already enough of a reality check without walking through the door to find your wedding bouquet brown and wilted. As wedding flower preservation becomes more and more popular, there’s a blossoming range of options to consider, from resin preservation, framing and even paint. At Bloomy Days, we focus on techniques that retain as much natural beauty as possible, resin and framing, but let’s explore all the options you have available. 

Resin flower preservation

Resin preservation involves encasing individual flowers or entire arrangements in clear resin, creating stunning and durable keepsakes. This method preserves the flowers natural beauty and allows for heartfelt little accents, like personal mementos, vows, photographs. These make for a lovely display piece to capture the essence of your day. Resin flower letters are also one of our most popular products, using both your initials as romantic and everlasting statement.

If letters aren’t your thing, we’re only limited by your imagination. Your flowers can be transformed into jewellery trays, ring holders, ornaments or simply beautiful statement pieces that serve as a timeless reminder of your wedding day.

Like all good things, resin preservation takes time. We use special procedures and materials to retain as much of the natural beauty, structure and colour as possible. In terms of your involvement, though, this one is easy - package up your bouquet and send it to us. We take care of the rest. 

Pressed flower frames

Pressing flowers is a traditional, romantic preservation technique that has stood the test of time. Pressed flower frames capture the delicate beauty of your blooms while preserving their colours and textures. Your flowers are meticulously arranged and pressed, simultaneously drying and flattening your flowers. Once they’re ready (which takes about 6 weeks), they’re then artfully arranged and framed ready for your home. 

At Bloomy Days, we offer you the choice of a traditional frame, with black or white mat board behind your flowers, or our stunning modern floating frames, where your flowers are suspended between crystal-clear perspex and glass. It’s a delicate, contemporary look that lets each individual bloom shine.

If you’re getting flashbacks of your childhood flower press, think again. Your little press got a glow up - our large presses are big enough to hold all the flowers from your bouquet. Pressing is a relatively simple process, but it’s a labour of love - we carefully change the absorbent papers daily for eight days straight, before we finally let your blooms press for around three weeks to ensure they’re completely dry. It’s a time-consuming, delicate process - and definitely not one that can wait until after the honeymoon. So while it might sound appealing as a DIY option, it’s far from ‘set and forget’. 

3D Flower Shadow Boxes

If you love the idea of framing your flowers and transforming them into a work of art for your wall but pressed isn’t your style, our 3D shadow boxes are the best of both worlds - and, dare we say, completely breathtaking. Shadow boxes are such an eye-catching way to preserve and display your bouquet, with three-dimensional displays that showcase your blooms in all their glory. Just like in our resin process, the flowers are kept as close to their fresh state as possible, preserving their colour and structure.

Each individual stem is meticulously arranged to recreate your wedding bouquet, making it look like it’s just been popped into the frame for safekeeping - your flowers will look like they’re blooming out of the boxed frame (which also happens to be handmade by us!). Before we securely seal up the shadow box we can add any meaningful items, like your vows, photographs, bouquet ribbons or any other item that you’d love to keep as a treasured memento. 

If big, beautiful statement pieces are your style, we love the impact of our deluxe shadow box. Measuring in at just under 1m tall, she makes a striking feature, particularly on black matting. It’s a personal piece that will spark conversations and celebrate your love for years to come. 

Air drying

If you’re not sure what you want done with your bouquet, or you missed out on securing your date (and good news - if you have a photo, we can recreate your bouquet for you!) air drying is an option. While air drying is completely different to the preservation methods we use for our pieces, if you like a more antique dried look, this could be worth considering. All you need to do is tie some ribbon around your bouquet, then hang it upside down in a dry place for a few weeks. Air drying leaves your flowers extremely fragile and brittle, so they need to be handled very gently if this is a method you choose. Unfortunately, air-dried flowers also have a shorter lifespan, lasting only a year or two, as they absorb moisture and can become mouldy. 

Paint them 

And finally, one you mightn’t have thought of - having your bouquet custom-painted. Commissioning an artist to paint your wedding flowers is another creative way to keep your flowers in your home, particularly if you’re not able to have your bouquet preserved. There are so many incredibly talented creative artists out there, with styles to suit your personal aesthetic. 

Our final thoughts on choosing how to preserve your wedding flowers

If you’ve fallen in love with the idea of turning your flowers into a precious keepsake, but you’re having difficulty deciding whether you prefer resin, shadow boxes or pressed frames, here’s a few things to consider: 

• Do you want to include anything extra with your flowers? If you do, our resin and shadow boxes are perfect for this. 
• Would you prefer something small and sentimental? Our resin ring holders and jewellery trays and petite pressed flower frames are firm favourites for this.
• Do you want a piece that celebrates your marriage? We love the romantic sentiment of our resin floral letters and book ends.

Whatever style you choose, transforming your wedding flowers into a timeless keepsake will capture the essence of love, joy, and romance from your wedding day for years to come.