Bouquet care is a very important aspect of your florals! For many people, flowers are one of the biggest expenses of their wedding day. They are also often one of the most sentimental parts of wedding for a lot of people. This means a lot of people really want to preserve them! There are some steps you can take during and after your wedding to keep your flowers looking as nice as possible for when you eventually want to preserve them.

Bouquet Care- During the Wedding

Your wedding day can be so hectic and crazy. We know keeping track of flower care may not be your top priority! That’s alright, but trying to keep them extra nice during your day can mean that they preserve extra nicely after. Honestly, flower care during your day can be as much or as little as you want.

The main thing to remember is that flowers are delicate! They don’t like to be in direct sun, or to be too hot. If you’re getting married in the spring or summer, take care to try to keep your flowers out of the sun and in the air conditioning as much as you can. I know this can be hard for pictures or during an outdoor ceremony, but it can help if you bring a vase of cool water to set your flowers in when you are not holding them for pictures.

Continuing on the water front- setting your flowers back in their vases! When your flowers are not being used, vases can help keep them looking their best! This means setting them back in their vases when they are not being actively used for photos or during the ceremony. This can also mean instead of laying them on the table during the reception, you set them back in their vase to be used as a centerpiece! Not laying your flowers down will also help prevent them from getting bruised. Having unbruised flowers is always great!

After the Wedding

Similar to during your wedding, there are a lot of steps you can take to preserve your flowers after the wedding too! As event florists, we often plan our flowers out so they look as good as they can on your wedding day. This means they are at peak openness. However, this also means they tend to not last as long as more traditional “retail flowers.” To extend their life, you can apply some of the same techniques as you did during your day. Keeping them cool and in water will help extend them! You can even put them in the fridge at night when you are not enjoying them. You can also choose to have them professionally preserved.

However, you will definitely want to start thinking about professional preservation before the actual day of your wedding. Many preservation companies want you to send them your flowers as quickly as possible after the wedding. This means you don’t want to be deciding what you are going to do while your flowers die!

There are so many options for flower preservation. Many of these options you can do at home, but there are also so many options for professionals. If you choose to preserve your flowers at home, YouTube and Pinterest are great resources for ideas and tutorials. You can do something simple such as hang them to dry and keep your bouquet in its form. Or you could choose to press them flat, and make an art piece out of them.

If you choose to get them professionally preserved, there are often local options. But there are also many, many options on Etsy, or that you ship your flowers to have them preserved. Your florist can help connect you with a local preservation company, or you can just search around! You can also check out our preferred vendorsF list for help!