What will you/did you end up doing with your bouquet?

[newsboysgrl777]

My bouquet was AMAZINGLY gorgeous and I am SOO upset that I didn't get it preserved and now it's just too late!! I had wanted to get it preserved somewhere, but I guess I never looked into it enough to realize that you needed to ship it to the preservation place like the day AFTER your wedding!! And, I never realized you had to get a whole 'kit' from the preservation place to ship the flowers in. SO, by the time all the hustle and bustle of the wedding and then the 'family time' for the rest of that weekend was over, my bouquet was already in bad shape.

Then we left for our honeymoon and I guess that was that.

My questions are:

1) What can I do with my bouquet now that it's already drying out and discoloring?
2) How is your bouquet holding up??
3) What did you/are you planning to do with your bouquet? (And if you can share pics of what it looks like preserved, that'd be wonderful! )

Here's a pic of mine the day of...it was so amazing!!

ETA: Oh, I forgot to mention that when I DID finally remember about wanting to preserve my bouquet, I went online to look at the site I had looked at before (link), I FINALLY looked at prices and couldn't believe how expensive it was to do anything!! So, I'd like to add another question or two:

1) If you DID have yours preserved, how much did it cost you?
2) And, do you think it was worth it?

 

[newsboysgrl777]

And here''s how it looked when we left for our honeymoon. (It''s worse now, of course)

 

[cammy85]

My bouquet is actually my new avatar... I really loved mine. Mine too got dried up and discolored. I kept one rose from my bouquet and from my DH bout, but my mom ended up tossing mine eventually. It also would have had to travel nearly 650 miles, so I kept two pieces and just gave up on keeping the rest. My mom did leave it as our table centerpiece for as long as it survived, and kept picking out the crinkly leaves/petals, but I couldn't justify the cost of keeping it when we already have so much stuff.

ETA: your bouquet was gorgeous!

 

[LadyBlue]

I throw mine away

. I did not actually want to keep dead flowers

. My husband believes that brings bad energy to the house

 

[Patchee]

The day after my wedding we put my flowers on my Uncles grave. We were sorry he was not there for the wedding so we brought a piece to him....

 

[newsboysgrl777]

Awww...Patchee. What a wonderful idea and such a thoughtful thing to do.

 

[geckodani]

I pulled the orchids out of mine and used them in my hair on our honeymoon.

 

[Clairitek]

I stuck mine in a vase on our mantle until it died. Didn''t bother to keep any flowers to preserve.

 

[musey]

I gave it to the flowergirls (who are sisters) to play with on the road trip they were embarking on the day after the wedding, but only after telling them sternly that they must share it equally

No idea what happened to it after that point!

 

[musincy]

My bouquet is dying a slow death right now in a vase. I was hoping it would last at least a little bit longer

I pulled off some of the blooms on Monday and am trying to press them to use in my scrapbook. I''ve never done it before, so I''m not sure how it will work. I didn''t have any desire to keep my entire bouquet preserved, so maybe this will be enough.

 

[newsboysgrl777]

Just wanted to give some ideas about what you COULD DO with your bouquet. I guess I''m more sentimental than I thought because I REALLY still want to do something with mine.

1) Have it turned into candles: http://www.designfinds.net/
2) Have it made into a wreath: http://www.holmesshusas.com/preservation.htm (which is really what I wanted to do)
3) Have it made into jewelry/rosary: http://www.keepsakerosaries.com/
& I''m SURE there are more options....?!

 

[Rock_of_Love]

I love the rosary idea!! I''m definitely keeping that in mind!!

 

[October2008bride]

I just let mine dry. It doesn''t look quite the same as it did (clearly) but it still looks pretty good!

 

[whitby_2773]

had a friend put it on my mother''s grave. i have a photo of it there and i treasure it.

 

[Haven]

I have no idea what happened to mine.

We had friends who were trying to sell a condo, so we gave them all of our flower centerpieces to put out for their open house the weekend after our wedding. I bet my bouquet went with them. They said that all the flowers lasted for over a month!

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Umm...first off a confession: it''s sitting in my fridge..and some of it is still ALIVE!!

Second, yes I am also so disappointed I didn''t get it preserved, too!

Oh well..not sure what I''d do with it/where I''d put it anyway.

Anyone know how to preserve the like 2 or 3 flowers still living? I thought about pressing them or something?

 

[musincy]

Date: 7/22/2009 10:35:19 PM
Author: SarahLovesJS
Umm...first off a confession: it's sitting in my fridge..and some of it is still ALIVE!!

Second, yes I am also so disappointed I didn't get it preserved, too!

Oh well..not sure what I'd do with it/where I'd put it anyway.

Anyone know how to preserve the like 2 or 3 flowers still living? I thought about pressing them or something?

I can tell you how I'm pressing mine... not sure if it works or not though. I sandwiched some of the flowers between two pieces of wax paper and slipped that into the middle of a heavy college textbook. Then I stacked more heavy books on top. I don't know how long I should leave it, but I have checked on it and the flowers have really flattened out nicely.

 

[Mannequin]

My mother preserves flowers from weddings and funerals for family members and uses them to make shadowboxes. She''s also done a preserved double bloom rose in a glass dome for my aunt and she dried and displayed my cousin''s wedding bouquet inside a sealed apothecary jar. I am not a bride yet, but I will definitely have her do something with my flowers.

Mom''s technique is similar to what is described on this page: Preserving Flowers. She usually tries to get the flowers as fresh as possible from the relatives and she refrigerates them for a day or so. Then she carefully covers each flower in borax and layers them inside a airtight container. She leaves them to dry in the borax, and then removes them and carefully assembles a display inside a shadowbox with additional ribbons or buttons or charms. They are GORGEOUS when finished. We have found that yellow and white flowers do not dry very well and typically need touching up with floral paint when they are dried. Roses dry really well when partially open, pom pom mums are great, and statice is excellent with this method.

Hope this helps some of you out!

 

[violet02]

I hung mine upside down in a dark area not touching anything. Let it start to dry out then sprayed it with acrylic periodically until it was completely dried out. Took a couple of weeks. It''s dried but still has a bit of color to it.

Now it sits in a stand (one of those white ones that hold up dolls) in a display case in my living room with some of our other wedding stuff.

 

[allycat0303]

I loved, loved my bouquet too. I wish I had it preserved but I figure that I took 6 million pictures of it, so I try not to get too upset about it. I''m currently drying it out in the basement. We''ll see if that works!

 

[iheartscience]

It''s sitting on top of a bookshelf right now. My cat goes crazy over flowers and bites them so I put it up there the night of my wedding and left it! It looks okay, actually. I don''t know if I''ll really keep it forever.

 

[bee*]

I got mine preserved. I''m not normally into flowers at all and wasn''t going to have any of the day until my mother said that she''d really like me too. I couldn''t believe how much I loved the bouquet! It''s costing me €270 to get it preserved. Now that the wedding and honeymoon is over I''m not 100% whether it was the right decision but I really wanted to get it done the day after the wedding.

 

[Blair138]

Mine got lost

Somehow we ended up with all 4 BM bouquets and not mine-no one knows where it went, I searched the hotel and so did the staff...oh well, it was beautiful but I have pictures to help me remember it!

 

[Lilac]

I loved my bouquet and I wish I had done something to preserve it. My mom hung it upside down to dry it out and it''s been sitting like that in her house for the last 5 and a half months

Not sure what to do with it now.

 

[anyname]

The day after the wedding we placed my and my sister''s (she was a bridesmaid) on our dad''s grave. He died 7 mos before I got married.

 

[DMBFiredancer]

Mine is in the refrigerator and still looks good from Sat. I guess I should figure out what to do with it.

 

[Elmorton]

My parents hung it upside down and it dried...I think it might be sitting in my attic now? I thought I brought it home with me once. Anyway, it was daisies and other non-drying flowers, so it doesn''t look great, but it''s kinda fun to have around. Someday if I get bored, I might make it into a potpourri or something.

 

[Yimmers]

I thought I could dry it out and maybe preserve it for awhile. But, a flower in it was constantly making me sneeze, so I had to toss it. We gave some of the centerpiece arrangements to the hotel, and they had it all out on display

 

[ilovethiswebsite]

I tried to dry mine (calla lillies and roses) but it got all moldy... my florist said wooden stem flowers do not preserve well... poop! I just cut off some roses that managed to dry OK and will be placing them in my scrap book... *sigh* how I miss my bouquet!

 

[split_shank]

I was lucky enough to find someone to preserve my bouquet. Best ''after'' wedding day investment I made! Here''s the day of pic: