The Best Ways to Preserve Your Wedding Bouquet Forever 

Your wedding day is filled with beauty, and one of the most sentimental pieces of that day is your wedding bouquet. From the special flowers your florist chose to the sentiment of what they meant to you as you walked down the aisle, your wedding bouquet is a timeless reminder of your special day. But how can you ensure that you can treasure it for years to come? Fortunately, there are a variety of ways to preserve your wedding bouquet, so you can continue to enjoy this grand symbol of your union for a very long time. Here’s a list of the best ways to preserve your wedding bouquet for eternity.

1. Freeze-Drying

Capture the beauty of your wedding bouquet forever with the art of freeze-drying. Freeze-drying maintains the natural shape of your flowers, making them look and feel like they were just freshly cut. 

The process entails removing the moisture from the flowers, and then freezing them in a specialised chamber. The drying takes up to six weeks to attain the desired outcome. In the end, the flowers are frozen in their full bloom form, complete with their original colour and shape.

Freeze-dried flowers are useful for decorative and artistic purposes. This process requires a dedicated freeze drier, which is an expensive piece of equipment. Nevertheless, the end product is a lasting memorable keepsake or centrepiece. Then, it can be placed in the home as a reminder of the special day.

2. Air-Drying

Preserve the memory of your wedding flowers for years to come through air-drying, a very popular wedding bouquet preservation method. Over time, the flowers will take on a natural, crushed look that will be a unique reminder of your special day. The traditional method of drying your wedding bouquet is incredibly simple. Just tightly tie the stems together and hang them upside down in a warm and dry place. 

Keeping them in the dark will help to preserve the colour and scent of the blooms. However, they will likely become muted in colour or darker after drying. Once fully dried, the bouquet will look lovely as a decorative element in your home. This method preserves the shape of the bouquet, providing a lovely keepsake of your special day.

Once air-dried, you can use the bouquet for decorative purposes, such as enclosing it in a terrarium or shadowbox frame and displaying it. This provides a beautiful way to remember your special day, as well as honouring the part the flowers played in it.

A good place near Cambridge for artistic dried bouquets is Brenda’s Flowers. It also specialises in providing exquisite bouquets for birthdays, weddings, and events, as well as promotional and decorative arrangements. 

3. Resin Casting

Preserve the delicate and vibrant colours of your wedding flowers through resin casting. Not only is resin casting a beautiful way to preserve the colour of your flowers, but it also adds a modern twist to an old-fashioned keepsake. Wedding flowers can be transformed into beautiful resin letters. It is certainly a unique way to show them off and a decorative item to keep. 

The colours of the flowers might change during the drying process, but the resin itself will not rot or discolour if cared for correctly. The resin used is of high quality and anti-yellowing. It makes the pieces last for a lifetime and be treasured by future generations. 

To preserve floral arrangements in resin, the flowers need to be dried first using an air-drying method, pressing or silica gel dip. Flowers can then be embedded in letter or heart moulds and a specific care instruction card is provided. 

Resin bouquet preservation requires knowledge and the right materials, so it is often best to hire an expert for the job. A good place for resin casting in Cambridge is Clearly Preserved, which specialises in unique and beautiful memorable art pieces. 

4. Pressing

Look back fondly on your special day with the process of pressing your bouquet. Not only is it a convenient way to preserve flowers, but pressing them also allows for more compact storage of your bouquet. 

Pressing your flowers is an easy way to preserve them in a flat state. Place them between two pieces of parchment paper, inside a heavy book with weight on top, and leave for up to 10 days. Once dry, you can use the pressed petals for framed art displays, as petal paper, or even turned into bath salts. There are also flower press kits available online to aid the process. With the variety of options, pressing your flowers has a range of creative outcomes. 

A preserved wedding bouquet can be a thoughtful way of commemorating a special day. It could be displayed with other keepsakes from the wedding in a frame. If you need a good place for pressing your flowers, Pressed Floral could be the one to choose, with a speciality in pressing, preserving, and framing.

5. Wax Dipping

Make a lasting impression with the preservation method of wax dipping. Wax flowers are a semi-permanent way to preserve the look and feel of fresh flowers. It extends their life for up to six months. The process of dipping them in wax maintains the original colour and integrity of the petals, making them indistinguishable from fresh blooms. You may use Paraffin to preserve flowers for up to half a year. 

bouquet preservation by wax dipping can be tricky, but practice makes perfect. Begin by melting down the wax in a saucepan. Then, dip in the flower head until coated, removing it immediately, and leaving to dry. These preserved flowers can be placed in a vase, displayed in a terrarium, or framed in a shadow box. Don't forget – this won't keep them forever like some of the other methods.

6. Silica Gel Dipping

Showcase the beauty of your wedding flowers through silica gel dipping. By using silica gel dipping, you can bring out the delicate beauty of each petal, and keep the memory of your wedding day alive. Silica gel is an absorbent sand material which is used to help dry flowers. It allows them to keep their original appearance after the wedding. It is the closest alternative to freezing a bouquet in time.

Silica gel can be used to dry flowers at home as an alternative to having it done professionally. You can purchase it from craft stores or online and is easy to use. Simply cover the flowers and keep them in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Unfortunately, lighter flowers may not retain their colour, but otherwise the shape and colour of the flowers will stay intact. 

Depending on the type of flower, the drying process can take anywhere from seven days. Silica gel-dipped flowers maintain the same appearance as fresh flowers, offering an everlasting memory of the wedding day.

7. Painting

Another way of bouquet preservation is through painting it. Painting your preserved flowers gives you the opportunity to immortalise them with a unique and personal touch. Invite your partner to pick up a paintbrush, and get creative with you, or pay someone else to provide you with a professional piece in the preferred style of your choice such as acrylic, watercolour, or line art pieces. Having a physical reminder of your wedding day in the form of artwork is a beautiful and lasting way to commemorate the occasion. Decorate your home with a treasured memento that will remind you of your special day. There are lots of artists out there, willing to design your custom bouquet painting, with different options available.

Wedding bouquet preservation is one of the techniques to ensure you remember your special day for years to come. Using different techniques, you can make certain the flowers are kept in good shape and condition as they were on the wedding day.