preserving flowers

iluvmarmite

Hope this is the right forum for this question.

My daughter got married on the 4th June and has a beautiful bouquet and large table center piece of real flowers, I was wondering if there was anyway these can be preserved, I know the pressing in a book way, but is there another way that wouldnt mean them being squashed flat?

Ebe_Scrooge

I'm not aware of any way of preserving them as such. There are companies about that will encase them in a clear block of resin, but likely to be expensive, and not particularly practical.

We had the same thoughts about our wedding flowers. We ended up going for the "squash in a book" technique, then when they were done, mounted them in a standard glass-fronted picture frame. They did lose their colour somewhat, but they've been hanging on the wall for many years now and look really nice. And it's always a nice reminder every time you walk past them.

Other than that, we gave away some of the other flowers to mums, grannies, aunts etc., who had them in a vase at home for a few weeks. They seemed really pleased at the reminder of the "special day".

Dippypud

Freeze-drying is the professional way to preserve wedding flowers, but it is expensive.

You could try this...

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/landscap/h1037w.htm

or...

http://www.ehow.com/how_5456_preserve-flowers-with.html

or...

http://www.cheap-wedding-solutions.com/how-to-preserve-wedding-flowers.html

manda1205

I just hung my wedding bouquet upside down till they dried out. They now sit inside a vase. They've lost their colour but still look quite nice, although you do have to be careful if they're knocked too hard the rose petals will fall out of their bud. I like them anyway.

iluvmarmite

Thankyou for your replies, I think I will give the hanging technic a go as that seems the easiest, I have pressed our button holes in a book and didnt think to frame them but that sounds like a brilliant idea thankyou

moneybunny123

manda1205 wrote: »

I just hung my wedding bouquet upside down till they dried out. They now sit inside a vase. They've lost their colour but still look quite nice, although you do have to be careful if they're knocked too hard the rose petals will fall out of their bud. I like them anyway.

I did this with a bridesmaid bouquet many years ago after someone told me that it would dry them out. Unfortunately, the roses just went mouldy and they didn't really dry out. Not sure what I did wrong....

manda1205

moneybunny123 wrote: »

I did this with a bridesmaid bouquet many years ago after someone told me that it would dry them out. Unfortunately, the roses just went mouldy and they didn't really dry out. Not sure what I did wrong....

oh what a shame, not sure if it makes adifference but mine were up a sunny window, so dried pretty quick.