Monday, April 2, 2012

Dried Wedding Bouquet Project

What did you do with your wedding bouquet after the big day was over?

Did you throw it out?
Did you keep it?
If you did, is it shrivelled up and crusting away in a closet?
Mine was :) and it was icky and making me sad!

I have mentioned a few times before that I am a SUPER sentimental person and I have a hard time letting go of things that carry memories along with them. So you bet-cher buns I didn't get rid of my wedding day bouquet!  I did a simple little project with it that I have been meaning to share for a while.  
After our wedding day...
I brought my bouquet home and hung it upside down to dry it out. Then from their I stuck it on the top shelf of a closet where it sat for two and a half years. A few weeks ago when I was doing some spring cleaning, I pulled it down from that shelf and debated throwing it out. 
I just figured it was going to continue to fall apart and unless it had something covering the flowers to hold it together... like a net.... DING!  I grabbed some tulle fabric I had laying in my sewing room then just cut out a piece large enough to cover the bouquet.  I gently placed it over top of the flowers and used small sewing pins to pin the tulle to the base of the bouquet near the ribbon.  Super easy!  Now, at least I can enjoy seeing it every now and then without worrying it will crumble all over the floor.
Who knows if I will indeed need to toss it out someday, but for now I am very glad that I kept it!

What do you think?
What else do gals do with their bouquets?

Master Bedroom update is up next!  Yep, FINALLY!  See you soon!

11 comments:

  1. i tossed mine. :) they were homegrown zinnias from my mama's garden that were wilty and dying by the end of the day. gorgeous while they lasted though. i'm not super attached to flowers so i had no trouble getting rid of them. however, i did keep the husband's bout. on accident actually, i just found it in a box of stuff we brought from home...

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  2. I love this. Love it a lot. I have mine and it is falling apart, and I fear it won't survive our move. I am thinking of having a replica made for our one year anniversary so I can dry and preserve it properly (hint, hint to the husband). Oh and I realized I never responded to your text yesterday. I am going to do that right now. Haha.

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  3. I put mine on my grandparents' grave on the way to the airport for our honeymoon :) My bouquet was white roses and pink gerberas. LOVED it :) I did however keep the icing flowers off the top of our wedding cake for 9 years or so before they really were just a big mess of crumbs...I couldn't bear to part with them, but really, they were no good anymore. That was a great idea putting net over yours.

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  4. I still have mine. Every time I look at it I wonder why I haven't tossed it yet. But there it sits!

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  5. I actually used silk flowers, so my diamonded-studded bouquet of reds and blacks is sitting in an arrangement on my shelf :) I LOVE it. It makes me happy whenever I look at it!

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  6. Where I work, we dry many a wedding floral bouquet in silica gel. After that we use the flowers to make a design in an airtight shadow box along with any wedding memorabilia or we reconstruct the bouquet and place it under a glass dome that is tightly sealed to a base to keep the flowers dried and from falling apart. It seems very popular around here as we get orders for them weekly. I had one made for my sisters bouquet when she got married a year ago. People also have them done in remembrance of family members with funeral flowers and the service pamphlet along with a picture of the person that was deceased. If I would ever leave my place of employment, I have thought about doing this as a home business because it is so popular around here, and we are the only ones that do it.(The Mennonite community is very into this way of preserving their wedding bouquets and are a very large part of our customer base) The silica gel can be used over and over and for me, the creative design or reconstructing is something I am able to do, as I have done this myself several times at work.

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  7. My bouquet will most likely be handmade with lilacs, peonies, and a few lily's so I definitely won't be drying it at some point I would like to hire an artist to paint a picture of it.

    Even to save money one project I heard someone did (although not for a bouquet) was present the challenge to an art class at a highschool or local college and offered up a small reward to the winner! Then you have local art for quite a cheap price tag.

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  8. I had mine professionally preserved. My mother in law actually paid for it as a gift. It sits on top of my desk in a glass enclosure. One of my invitations is also inside the enclosure along with a boutinerre (sp?) to represent the hubs.

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  9. I didn't keep the flowers, but I did keep the satin ribbon from my bouquet. I had a hand-tied bouquet - I loved it. I wish I had more pictures of the bouquet itself - our photographer didn't take a picture of it alone. It was so pretty! Nice idea for your bouquet!

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  10. i really wish i kept my bouquet now. gorgeous!!
    and i love how and where it's hanging too!
    xo TJ

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  11. I handmade all of the floral arrangements, bouts & bouquets out of silk flowers since we had our wedding out of town. We had a small beach wedding and were carrying everything to the wedding in our car & I didn't want to fuss with damaging delicate flowers. I love that I still have my bouquet, hub's bout on a shelf in our closet. Once we complete our living room re-deco in a few weeks, it will move out to become a part of our decor! Love your blog... thanks for all of your posting! You inspire me (although I'm sure my husband wishes I would stop coming up with DIY projects)!

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