preservation (also posted on sand diego board)

aesisson88

So I was just asked if I wanted to preserve my bouquet and saw that it's pretty pricey (IMHO) and was wondering if anyone is doing it and if so are you having it put into a shadow box, a dome, etc? Feedback is greatly appreciated!

FutureMrsArvidsson

I dry flowers all the time!  There seems to be at least two ways that are easy and effective. 

The simplest is to hang your flowers upside down in a cool, dry and dark place.  I use my closet.  You may want to take apart your bouquet to give each bloom more room to dry nicely.  Some very leafy greenery may not dry perfectly.

You can also use Silca Gel which is available at craft stores.  There is a thought that using Silca Gel over the hanging method preserves color better.  Either way I would buy a couple of stems of the flowers that will be used in your bouquet, practice and see how they respond. 

calindi

You could also press a few of the flowers if you didn't want to dry the whole thing (personally, I don't know what I'd do with a dried bouquet except keep it in my attic - it's not the kind of thing I'd hang on the wall).  My Mom still has a few pressed flowers from her bouquet and had them made into a glass-plated bookmark - it's really beautiful and she gets to see them every night when she marks her page in her book.

526SadieSadie

I got two dozen yellow roses (my favorite) for my college graduation and I just couldn't let them go.  I hung them upside down in my closet and I wrapped the stems with paper towel and tightly wrapped the paper towel with yarn to squeeze the moisture out.  I had hung flowers without the paper towels and yarn before but the stems got all moldy and I had to throw the whole thing away.

Once everything's dry, I sprayed everything with several coats of AquaNet hairspray.