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Image by Jack Valentine Photography
Preserving your wedding bouquet is a wonderful way to cherish the memories of your wedding day for years to come. With popularity soaring over the last few years, more couples than ever are choosing to preserve their wedding flowers. Here are 7 key points to consider when opting for professional wedding bouquet preservation:
Book in advance.
Booking your bouquet preservation BEFORE your wedding is essential. Good preservation artist get booked up months in advance. With freshness being key to good preservation and due to the massively time consuming process involved in preserving wedding flowers, artists are limited to how many bookings they can take at a time. A few months before your wedding is a good time to start thinking about if you would like your flowers preserved.
Photo by R.Orange Photography
2. Do your research.
Preservation of flowers isn't a one size fits all situation. There are several methods available for preserving wedding bouquets, including air-drying, pressing, silica gel drying, and freeze-drying. Bouquets can then be set in resin, pressed in frames or kept whole in box frames. There are even some preservation methods you might not have considered; flowers can be pressed into clay and made into a piece of pottery or pressed into silk and made into a scarf. The possibilities are endless! Each method has its own pros and cons, so it's important to choose the one that best suits your needs. Do your research and check the longevity of each option to ensure you are choosing the best option for you.
Photo by Richard Miller Photography
3. The outcome of your bouquet preservation will only be as good as your preservation artist.
Find a reputable preservation artist: If you decide to have a professional preserve your bouquet, make sure to choose a reputable preservationist with experience in handling and preserving wedding flowers. Look over their social media pages for examples of their work and check their reviews and feedback.
Photo by Wyldbee Photography
4. Send your bouquet ASAP after your wedding.
Timing is crucial: To ensure the best results, it's important to start the preservation process as soon as possible after your wedding day. The fresher the flowers, the better they will look once preserved. Most flower preservation artists will detail how they wish the flowers to be sent, usually this involves keeping the flowers upright and damage free in a cardboard box protected by tissue paper.
TOP TIP Do not wrap your flowers in plastic for their journey to your chosen preservation artist, this can cause the flowers to sweat and they will degrade faster.
Photo by Pix By Vix
5. Keep you bouquet hydrated on your wedding day.
Okay, I know! The last thing you want to be thinking about on your wedding day is keeping your flowers hydrated! But with a few easy steps you can keep your bouquet looking great without any fuss; keep your bouquet in water until around 30 minutes before you need it (ask your maid of honour or a bridesmaid to dab the stems with a towel before giving the bouquet to you to prevent any drips on your dress) then ask your florist to leave a vase of water at your wedding reception for your to pop your bouquet into during the wedding breakfast. This should keep your bouquet nice and hydrated and looking its best!
If having you're bridal bouquet preserved is important to you, I would suggest not doing a "bouquet toss" or "throwing the bouquet"- flowers are delicate and can get bruised easily. If you want to do a bouquet toss, ordering a special "throwing bouquet" to use instead will keep yours at its best.
TOP TIP - Task one of your bridesmaids with looking after your bouquet. Ask them to pop it back into water when not in use, leaving you free to enjoy your day but still keeping your bouquet in tip top condition.
Photo by Pix By Vix
6. Preservation is about encapsulating memories, not dictating them.
Your wedding day is about you and your partner celebrating your love, not about preserving flowers, so make sure you choose flowers that you love for your big day. Preservation of your bouquet is a bonus, not the goal itself. Some flowers are more suitable for preservation than others, but that doesn't mean you should be swayed from choosing wedding flower decor that you've dreamed of.
Some flowers retain their colour and shape better than others when dried. For example, reflexed white roses can be challenging for preservation artists to work with. It is difficult to keep the colour in white flowers as they dry and due to the process of reflexing flower petals they don't have the same longevity of other blooms. Does this mean you shouldn't get the modern reflexed white rose bouquet you've been coveting? Absolutely not!
If you are keen to have your bouquet preserved but are unsure if it's design would be suitable, ask your florist to add an extra bunch of non-reflexed roses to your wedding order. This will give your preservationist a few more blooms to work with whilst you still get the bouquet of your dreams!
Photo by Marta D. Weddings
7. Worried it's too late to get your bouquet preserved? There are other options!
Resin preservation is one of the most popular forms of bouquet preservation for 2024/2025 weddings but it isn't the only option. If your wedding has been or you're too late to book preservation, or you're just looking for another way to remember your big day. One of my favourite ways of encapsulating your bridal bouquet is through botanical drawing, illustration and embroidery. They really capture the feeling of a bouquet and can be done from photographs at any point after your wedding.
Some of my favourite bouquet preservation artists include;
Emma Bennett Art - Botanical artwork bouquet preservation
Encapsulated Memories - Resin, pressed and box frame bouquet preservation
Smart Floral Art - Pressed flower preservation specialist
Flower Preservation Workshop - Floral paperweight preservation specialists
Fleur & Glass - Pressed flower preservation specialist
Store & Studio - Pressed & preserved floral artist
Louise Condon Designs - Ceramic keepsakes created from wedding flowers
Made by HJC - Handcrafted embroidered bouquet keepsakes
Bobbins & Blooms - Embroidered photo keepsakes
Botanical illustration by Emma Bennett Art
Bouquet Preservation & Image Credit - Encapsulated Memories
Bespoke bouquet embroidery by Made by HJC
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