Bouquet Preservation??

smittojess88

Hey ladies, I am looking into perserving my bouquet but don't want to spend $500. Anyone have any expereince with any one or good suggestions??
Thanks

clearheavens

You've probably heard of FreezeFrame, a company out of Dayton. But it's super expensive.

http://www.freezeframeit.com/index.html 

What I did instead was buy a bunch of silica gel from Michael's. I'm sure I got about 4 or 5 kits, each kit was about $10 without a coupon.  Then I dumped it in a box and submerged my bouquet in it. It worked well for me.  (I wonder if you can get silica gel elsewhere in bulk for cheaper?)  Just be careful that kids or pets don't accidentally ingest it.

smittojess88

What did it look like afterwards? Like dried flowers?

clearheavens

Yeah, dried flowers. It's kind of like those nice wreaths from Smith & Hawken.  It's not perfect.  There is some drooping and some of the petals do get smashed, curled and "crispy."

But it's better than just spraying it with hair spray and hanging upside down because it has kept its form and more realistic color.  But it's not as good as FreezeFrame; theirs looks almost like real, but with muted colors.

Phantom&Tessa

There's a process I read in a magazine, you need a dark room, you hang the bouquet upside down in there for a few days and apparently it makes it dry out and preserve well, though I'd strongly recommend testing it on a bunch of flowers to make sure, well before the day, just in case.

mahop

Check out Reenie Rose:
http://www.ReenieRose.com
http://www.ReenieRoseBlog.blogspot.com
http://www.vimeo.com/ReenieRose/unveiled

This may be pricey right now but keep in mind for those milestone anniversaries or when the dried bouquet looks so sad that you throw it away.  Reenie Rose oil paintings are a timeless, modern alternative to traditional bridal bouquet preservation.  The painting makes a great piece of meaningful art for your home and it doesn't scream wedding....which let's face it after  a while you don't want that wedding shrine any more.  Because it is an oil painting it can be passed on from generation to generation. The artist works from photos so it can be done any time.  I have given a couple of these as gifts and they are very well received.