If you are engaged or recently married, congratulations are in order! The happiest of days are ahead of you - there’s nothing quite like the excitement of a wedding and newlywed bliss. After months of planning and prepping, the big day arrives and the celebration begins. It’s a day you and your spouse will never want to forget. There are so many things you’ll want to remember about your wedding: the venue, the dress, the dancing, the flowers, and more. There are so many great ways to keep items from your wedding preserved and part of your home, and by preserving your bouquet, you can keep it for many years to come, reminding you of that sweet, special day.
Here are four simple and beautiful methods of preserving flowers that you can use to preserve your wedding bouquet and keep it forever:
- Silica Gel
Silica gel can be used to easily dry out your blooms and keep them looking alive for a long time. Simply get an airtight container that can fit all the flowers you want to preserve and fill the base with a layer of silica gel. Lay your flowers on top, and fill the rest of the container with more silica gel gently, so that the flowers aren’t crushed or misshapen. Seal the container with a lid, and leave the flowers in for a week. Once the seven days have passed, you can remove the flowers from the silica gel and spray them with hairspray. Now you can reassemble your preserved flowers back into a bouquet and display them in your home!
- Pressing
Pressing flowers is such an easy method of preserving flowers, and pressed flowers can be turned into such gorgeous art! To press your bouquet, spread the flowers out on a piece of parchment paper. Lay the parchment paper with flowers on it inside the pages of a heavy book, then add another layer of parchment paper on top of the flowers. Close the book, and then add a heavy object on top of it to weigh the flowers down. Your flowers will need to stay flat and pressed in the book for at least a week. Make sure that after 7 days you check if the flowers are flat and dry. If they are, you can remove the flowers from the parchment paper and arrange them how you like! Some brides like to keep their pressed wedding flowers arranged in a frame, like this bride did.
- Epoxy Resin
Using epoxy resin, you can preserve your wedding bouquet and create a unique centerpiece for your coffee or dining room table. All you need is a mold and epoxy resin - the mold can be any shape you like, and you can find molds of all shapes at most craft stores. Simply fill the mold halfway with epoxy resin, and then rest the blooms you want to preserve on top of the liquid. Then, fill the rest of the mold to the top with the resin and let it dry for a couple of days. Remove the mold, and you’ll have a beautiful decoration to add to your home!
- Air Drying
Air drying your wedding bouquet is another beautiful method of preserving. To dry your flowers, simply tie a string around the base of the bouquet and hang it upside down in a temperature controlled environment. After a few weeks, check on the bouquet to make sure it has completely dried. Once dry, you can place the flowers in a vase and display them in your home!
With so many fun and simple ways to preserve your wedding bouquet, it will be easy to get creative and make something with your flowers that you’ll cherish for a lifetime.
Remembering special moments in our lives is so important. There is nothing like being able to look back at a photo from the past and remember people and places that we cherish. Your wedding day is no different. If you have wedding pictures or film just lying around, don’t let those precious memories gather dust! Digitize them with Kodak. It’s as easy as preserving flowers - we’ll give you a Kodak Digitizing box that you can fill up with original photos, tapes, and film, you’ll send it our way and in a few weeks you will receive digital copies along with the originals right at your doorstep! Your memories are too important to keep tucked away. Keep them alive and preserved in a digital format that you can easily access for years and years.
