Your wedding day will live in memory as one of the most important days of your life, a day of joy and a source of nostalgia forever. One of the most romantic, memorable touches will be the flowers you pick for bridal bouquets, the bridal wreath, nosegays, boutonnieres, church and reception.

While your personal taste may dictate the color, size and scent of the blossoms in your bridal bouquet, tradition can help you choose some of your flowers as a way of relaying your deepest feelings to your groom, family and friends.

Just as important as choosing the fresh flowers, is making sure the flowers you choose for your bridal bouquet are the ones right for your wedding flower preservation keepsake.

(Your wedding flowers also make beautiful wedding favors to present to your family and friends. Imagine the appeal of your wedding flowers preserved in one of our bookmarks or memory balls as a unique wedding favor.)

For your wedding flower preservation there are several different methods. The three most popular techniques for drying flowers without the use of equipment are silica gel, using a microwave, and air drying. Freeze-drying flowers, for wedding flower preservation is today’s state of the art method, and is the most popular.

Most all flowers work well as freeze dried flowers for your wedding flower or bridal bouquet preservation.

The following are recommended ONLY as freeze dried flowers: Anthurium, Gardenia, Ginger, Heliconia, Hyacinth, Liatris, Calla Lilly, Narcissus, Cattleya and Japhet Orchid, Tuberose, Bird-of-Paradise.

The following flowers neither work as freeze dried flowers or pressed flowers. Bouvardia, Chrysanthemum, Lilac.

You should be very conscious of quality, and look for freeze dried flowers for your wedding flower preservation which have been carefully processed and preserved. They should look as if they have just been picked from the garden, allowing them to have a fresh and natural look.

Wedding flower preservation using Freeze dried flowers, evokes the past, and leaves us with sentimental thoughts. They help us commemorate good times, and they punctuate and help us celebrate the event in our lives, including engagement, anniversaries. Your wedding flower preservation will give you long memories of the event, and continue to enrich your life. When you savor these moments with your wedding flower preservation, it will continue to add a higher quality of living for you and your family for years to come.

Air-drying is another method for wedding flower preservation, and can be very successful with hand-tied wedding bouquets. Take your flowers with long stems, and remove the lower leaves. Fasten them together with an elastic band; then open the bunch into a fan shape. Hang the flowers upside-down from nails in a dry, dark place from one to three weeks until they are completely dry. The colors will usually be muted. Display your dried flowers in your house in a dry spot where there is no humidity, and where you can enjoy your wedding flowers.

This wedding flower preservation method works with roses as well, if you have a cascading bouquet in a bouquet holder. Cut the stems off to the very bottom of the rose head, and carefully insert a 6-8" length of wire. Hang upside down by bending the end of the wire over a hanger and place in a dark dry closet where it won't be disturbed. One hanger can accommodate several flowers, just space them apart.

Another method of wedding flower preservation is to use a desiccant drying mixture such as silica gel, or borax. The following recipe uses a combination of silica and borax.
Simply mix a combination of four parts of borax to one part of silica gel. You can make your mixture by hand; the borax should be run through a sieve before mixing with the gel to remove any lumps.

In this wedding flower preservation method, you should treat all of the flowers in your bridal bouquet to be preserved immediately after the event. Cut off the stems close to the base of the flower. In the bottom of a plastic bag or an air-tight jar put down a layer of the preserving powder and lay a blossom face down on the powder. Pour some additional powder over the flower until it is well covered. Then lay another flower face down and cover it, repeating the procedure until the bag or jar is full. Put on the lid, or if using a bag, press down on it lightly to squeeze out all the air. Tie the bag tightly with string as close to the contents as possible to prevent air from coming in.

Now put your flowers and powder mixture away in a dry place for about four weeks without peeking at it. Never store it out of doors.

At the end of the four weeks, open the container very gently and remove the blossoms one at a time, very gently blowing the powder off them.

Preservation of your wedding flower is a personal statement. The custom of wedding flower preservation is a way to keep the intimacy and warmth of the excitement of the day alive forever. Since your bridal bouquet flowers are objects of great beauty, they are also living and imperfect. Your wedding flower preservation is a reminder of the fragile nature of love, which requires careful cultivation, and of the transient nature of life which we should all cherish.