This entry is from our Expert Guest series where wedding and honeymoon professionals share their best tips on creating memories that last a lifetime.
Your wedding bouquet is one of the most important arrangements you will ever choose, and modern brides can feel a lot of pressure when deciding on the type of flowers and the style they want. This pressure means that while some crafty brides have a go at creating their own perfect bouquet, most of us tend to leave it to the professionals.
Of course, DIY and florist-created bouquets are not the only options available to you for your big day. Special techniques have been perfected over the years which have made it possible to preserve flowers in a completely natural state which you can use for your event or have arranged afterwards. These modern preserved bouquets are a whole other class when compared to flowers preserved with older, more traditional techniques.
These older techniques might be reasonably effective, but a lot of the time they affect the way the flowers look; colors become less vibrant and delicate petals seem brittle and dull. Modern preservation methods have led to the creation of a special preservation formula that replaces the natural water and sap within flowers, leaves and stems; and the resulting preserved bouquets are completely true to life, with all the natural colors and textures of the blooms captured in time.
Why Choose A Preserved Wedding Bouquet?
Couples have been preserving their wedding flowers for generations and it has become something of a tradition. Not only does it mean you can enjoy your sentimental arrangements for a lot longer, but the preserved flowers can also be used to brighten up your interiors after the wedding, and are as delightful as having fresh flowers without the need to replace them when they start to fade. New techniques allow you to go a step further and purchased preserved wedding bouquets and arrangements.
This isn’t just a cost-effective way to have fresh-looking flowers all year round, it’s also more eco-friendly. The majority of the fresh flowers we buy from florists have been grown in far-flung corners of the globe and are then usually shipped by air freight, so they arrive quickly and in perfect condition. Longer distances and more frequent shipping add up in terms of emissions, so by choosing to carry preserved wedding flowers helps you to cut your carbon footprint when you turn something bought for one use into a long-lasting decor element.
Displaying Your Preserved Wedding Flowers
A preserved wedding bouquet can be a wonderfully versatile thing. They can be displayed in the same way they were on your wedding day, or they can be transformed into something else entirely. One of the most traditional ways to display a preserved wedding bouquet is to create a floral shadow box. If you are a bit crafty then you might want to have a go at making your own shadow box, all you need is a deep box frame which is big enough to fit your flowers into, your preserved flowers, a way to fix them within the box, and any extra bits to dress the flowers up such as ribbon.
Of course, you can always leave it to the professionals. As the techniques used to create perfectly preserved flowers have improved, specialist florists all over the world are creating stunning, artisanal displays using high quality blooms. Couples in the USA might like to check out Keepsake Floral, and UK brides and grooms should take a look at Endura Roses for some truly special preserved wedding bouquets.
Bio: Hannah Natalello is an avid writer, handcrafter, and reader of sci-fi. Living near the Peak District National Park, she loves exploring the English countryside and is passionate about environmentalism, embroidery and good coffee. Find her on Twitter.
