Friday, September 3, 2010

Post wedding: Saving your bouquet?

Preface:  TODAY is my 300TH blog post!!!  So crazy!

Are you one of those brides who wants to figure out a way to preserve her bouquet long after the wedding day?  I have seen and heard about brides who tried hanging the bouquet upside down in a dark closet to dry it out.  Or placing the petals in a food dehydrator and then placing the dried petals in an organza sash to use as potpouri in clothing drawers.  Or you could always do the old fashioned thing and stick it in your freezer...not sure why my mom did that with our old dance corsages?

Anyway, one day while browsing the net for wedding ideas, I came across a web site for bouquet preservation.  I fell in love with the idea and was more excited to find out the company was only 10 minutes from my house.  So after my wedding day, I assigned my mom the task of collecting my bouquet and delivering it to Nature's Beauty in Laguna Niguel, CA. 

On the wedding day, the bouquet looked like this:



And  few months later when I received my completed flower box, it looked like this:


Sorry I couldn't get better pictures with my crappy camera...this was the best I could do because of the glare of the protective glass on the box.  But basically, you give the company your bouquet along with a photo of you and your groom and whatever items you'd like to add from your big day.  They typically suggest your invitation but we used our program instead along with the little tag from our favor box, the silver bell of a bride and groom that sat on each table and my garter wrapped around the bouquet.


If you like this idea, I highly suggest you contact this company to find out more about the process.  Even if you live in another state, they have ways of shipping to work with you.  Check out their web site to see other examples of boxes in different shapes and colors.  It's not cheap by any means...but it is a very cool keepsake to display in your home forever.

Share Time:  Will you be saving or preserving your bouquet after the big day?

16 comments:

Genevieve said...

Wow it looks great! I still need to make my wedding shadow box! You are so on top of everything! My bouquet is silk so I am not doing anything special with it.

Shannon said...

Yours looks great and I do love these but all the ones I found were pretty pricey and knowing myself I wouldn't be organized enough after the wedding for this.

We did hang my bouquet upside down while we were on our honeymoon. The peonies didn't dry well but the roses did. So I have the white roses from my bouquet dried out and on the shelf with our other wedding memorabilia.

Kim said...

Looks great! I don't think I'll have any sentimental attachment to my bouquet, so I won't be going this route. I think your preserved bouquet looks amazing, and I love that you included a program and some other keepsakes of your wedding with it. Very cool!

Belinda C said...

300th post?!! yakitty, yak, yak, yak! Just kidding....I don't know what I would do w1thout all of your postings! =)
Congrats!
Your bouquet display is so beautiful! Much better than preserving and then sticking it in the garage to collect dust.
As for me, I'm making my bouquet (no real flowers included), so there will be no need for preservation. I'm not even sure that I will keep it....maybe sell it after. I don't know. I think that the main reason I would consider keeping it is because I worked so hard on it.

Heather said...

I'm so glad you were able to do this, and I really regret that I wasn't. I originally thought that preservation wouldn't be a big deal to me, but when I saw my gorgeous bouquet, I changed my mind. My mom tried to work it out and find a place that could do it while I was away in Hawaii, but the bouquet died before she could reach them. At least the photos live on!

Salt said...

I have never seen anything like that! SO pretty!
I would have loved to save my flowers, but I wasn't allowed to bring them back into the country with me. (I did save a few blossoms though.)

JazzWhispers said...

That is super unique and really pretty! I've never seen something like that! Beautiful!

EmilyB said...

That looks really nice! You had an awesome bouquet to start out with, so I don't blame you for wanting to keep it.

I tossed my real bouquet for my bouquet toss and have no idea what my SIL (who caught it) did with it. I wasn't in love with it anyway, so I don't mind at all. This is a great option for brides who want a nice keepsake!

Mo said...

Wow, I didn't even know this existed!
I unfortunately tossed mine, but kept it in a vase for a week after the wedding. Yours still looks great!

Laura Lewis said...

Gosh I'm so mad I didn't do this, especially since I was so in love with my bouquet! Unfortunately I was going to save it but left it out while on our honeymoon and came back to it with too many gnats I was going crazy! :(

On another note... I spied someones venue!

http://greenweddingshoes.com/real-wedding-melissa-bryans-rad-wedding-2/

Did you see those?

kjpugs said...

Um this is gross but mine is STILL hanging in my kitchen. Wish I knew about this! Cause mine is uh.... not looking so good.

Cyn said...

It's beyond gorgeous! Wow they really did a great job! You must have been so thrilled. Now you get to keep your boquet forever. I wanted to do this but just could not justify spending nearly $200 on it... well more like Mr. F would kill me if I did LOL

Katie said...

Wow - that is so interesting! I've never seen someone's preserved bouquet - yours looks very cool!

Gaynor {Our Day by Design} said...

Thats cool you get to see it all the time!

I didnt keep mine altho I didnt toss it either; I got my parents to put it on my grannys grave.

Kristal said...

I wanted to do something like this so bad but just couldn't afford it.

I tried to hang dry my bouquet. But because it had so many flowers and they were packed so tightly together it molded and I had to throw it away. :*(

Katie said...

LOL, I preserved my husband's bout on accident. We left it on the counter in our kitchen when we left for our honeymoon, and when we got back it was basically preserved! It's actually still sitting there. I almost threw it away last night, but decided to to hang on to it just in case. My bouquet was a hot mess when it arrived (wilted and brown), so even if I'd wanted to preserve it (which I never did) I wouldn't have bothered. I know I wouldn't do anything with it. Your shadow box turned out lovely! I'm still trying to figure out what to do with all our wedding mementos!

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