How to Preserve a Bridal Bouquet

The tradition of carrying bridal bouquets started with the ancient Greeks. The art of preserving floral blooms has been around since before the Egyptians. Thanks to the trail and error of women from both civilizations, the 21st century wife-to-be has a large choice of flowers for her special bouquet and several methods to keep her wedding day petals fresh for posterity.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Research the various methods of preserving a bridal bouquet and the pros and cons of each. After determining which method you wish to use, decide if you want the job done professionally or if you prefer to do it yourself using one of the methods described below.

2. Press your floral keepsake into a scrapbook or frame, such as flat glass. This is a simple and fairly inexpensive method, but it's not very effective for long-term safe keeping of your bridal bouquet.

3. Hang your bouquet upside down somewhere with low humidity for several weeks and let it air dry. This is the next easiest and least expensive method, but it won't retain the color and shape of your blooms very well.

4. Cover your flowers with silica gel. This method is fun, not too expensive and fairly easy to do yourself, but it isn't very kind to some flowers such as roses.

5. Forget doing it yourself and call in the professionals to freeze-dry your bouquet. This method will produce the most natural looking flowers, but it takes a while, it's expensive and you have to trust an outsider to treat your bridal bouquet with great care.

6. Choose silk rather than fresh flowers to begin with and store airtight for a no muss, no fuss keepsake with great staying power.

Tips & Warnings

• If you choose to preserve your own bridal bouquet, you'll want to practice your method of choice a few times before the big day.

• Choose flowers for your bridal bouquet carefully. Some types, such as lilies, carnations, gardenias, gerberas, snapdragons and tulips preserve nicely. Others like chrysanthemums and lilacs do not.