Our team at Grant Wedding Wishes does bouquet preservation and works with couples to transform their wedding bouquets into unique works of art that they can enjoy for a lifetime! After working with brides for years, we noticed some questions come up pretty often, so we put together some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your bouquet preservation! 

Picking your wedding florals with wedding bouquet preservation in mind

Flower Variety

Bouquet preservation, in its best form, has lots of texture, flower variety, and colour. Don’t get me wrong, we can work with any type of wedding bouquet, but the ones that always preserve the best have lots of texture! Talk with your florist about how you can incorporate more texture into your flower choices. Flowers such as stock, veronica, snapdragons, and scabiosa are just a few examples of ways to add texture. 

Flower Colour

Colour choice is also important! The more colour, the more breathtaking your bouquet preservation art piece will be. We have seen a huge increase in vibrant colours such as oranges, pinks, purples, and yellows, and we are here for it!

A note about all-white bridal bouquets 

We have received A LOT of all-white bouquets in the last 3 years, and we love them! While an all-white bouquet of roses is stunning; turning these flowers into a pressed art piece can be challenging and have little dimension. Our suggestions are:

• Add greenery and lots of it! Greens add texture and colour, and allow us to break up the all-white florals
• Add other white flower varieties! White lisianthus, tulips, baby’s breath, spray roses, and stock added in with your white roses will add so much dimension to your bouquet (not to mention make it look more unique and modern for your wedding day photos)
• You can let your preservation artist make suggestions on how to enhance your all-white bouquet—we can add stems to your piece, incorporate your ribbon, or add rose greens. 

Sprayed chemicals on your flowers

This is optional, but try to find a florist who has a local flower supplier and allows you to choose spray-free flowers. Some chemicals that are sprayed on your wedding bouquet to make the fresh flowers last longer, actually affect the preservation process and can impact the quality of the dried flowers. All natural is best, but we understand that this isn’t always possible.

Handling your wedding florals with care

PLEASE DON’T DO A BOUQUET TOSS WITH YOUR ACTUAL BOUQUET 

Be gentle with your wedding bouquet throughout the entirety of your wedding day. It hurts my heart when I see bouquets being thrown around. If you want to do a bouquet toss, ask your florist for a “toss bouquet”. Flowers are very delicate and can bruise and break. If flowers are badly bruised, it will impact the look of the dried/preserved flowers. This is especially true if you are choosing to preserve your flowers in resin. Any bruise in your flowers will show up as translucent in resin, and unfortunately, we can’t always see where these bruises will be until we pour the resin. 

Get your bouquet to your preservation artist ASAP and in the best possible condition

We need your bouquet to be fresh and hydrated in order to ensure we can begin the professional preservation process. The flowers that dry and preserve the best are the ones that are still in excellent condition when we begin preserving them. This prevents browning of the dried flowers, keeps the colours more vibrant and reduces the look of translucent marks on your flowers in resin. 

Keeping your bouquet in water is crucial! Ensure that your bouquet is kept in a water vase whenever you are not using it throughout the day of your wedding, and the days following. There should be enough water in the vase so that all of the stems of the bouquet are submerged. 

Consider the weather conditions and how that will impact your bouquet! Extreme temperatures (both hot and cold) can negatively impact your bouquet. For really hot summer days, try and avoid the bouquet being in direct sunlight and heat without water for long periods of time. Whenever possible, have it kept in an air-conditioned environment. For a winter wedding, be mindful of the temperature. If it’s below freezing outside, your flowers will freeze and wilt quite quickly. Again, keep your bouquet indoors at room temperature (but never too close to heaters!).

Timing is everything! We recommend getting your bouquet in water to your preservation artist within 3 days of the event. The sooner we get it, the sooner we can begin the professional preservation process. Fresh flowers always dry the best! If you want to keep it for a day or two and enjoy it after the wedding, make sure that it is kept indoors and in water. If possible, stick it in a fridge. 

My flowers are wilted. What can I do?

If you wake up the morning after your wedding and notice your bouquet isn’t looking so great, don’t panic. There have been many times when this exact situation has happened to one of our couples. We have a few options for you: 

• If you’ve incorporated any other wedding florals in your decor such as centerpieces or vase arrangements, we can use these florals for your bouquet preservation. It is likely that these arrangements will have similar flowers and be excellent replacements for any wilted blooms in your bouquet. 
• We can source replacement flowers for you. This is a quick fix- we will reach out to our floral supplier, or your florist, and replace the wilted flowers. Depending on the condition of your bouquet, we can either replace a few wilted flowers or replicate the whole bouquet. All we need is a picture of your original bouquet. 

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to have your bouquet professionally preserved! We are pre-booking 2023-2024 weddings and would absolutely love to work with you. 

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