Hey guys!!
Recently, me and my husband got married and it was the best day of my life! We had a TON of decor items and I had an idea that by the end of the night, especially at clean up time it was going to be Ca-Razy. Just as I predicted people (my family included) were running around collecting items putting it in tubs and cars and things were going everywhere. I knew that some items would get broken, lost along the way but one of the things that I knew was super important to me was that my wedding bouquet made it home safely in one piece. I made sure to take an empty and labeled (cute pink polka dot tub from target because why not?) storage container and told my amazing MIL to make sure to put it in there after.
Luckily, me and my husband had one day in between our wedding and honeymoon. At first I was so annoyed because I really wanted to leave the next day but it ended up working out so much better, especially in this case! The night of the wedding we went to a super nice hotel in Atlanta to have a special first night as husband and wife, then we went home the next morning. It was so convenient because we only had to pack overnight bags for the wedding night and leave all the heavy luggage at home. Plus, once we got back home we were able to get settled in, pack a few more things and take our time. My in-laws even brought our wedding gifts over and we were able to open them all up before leaving for the honeymoon! It was so fun, and now I definitely recommend giving a day or two in between getting married and going on the honeymoon. Also, because we had that extra day it gave me enough time to be able to do this awesome DIY project!
Immediately after deciding to preserve the flowers you want to take them out of the water and hang them upside down to begin the drying out process. There is a very tricky fine line with this- You want almost (I would say about 80%) all of the moisture to be out of the flowers because if you don't and then flatten them they will mold and it wont work correctly. However, you do still need the flowers to have some moisture in them because if they are too dry when you try to maneuver them, they will fall apart and crumble (plus they tend to lose all color when they are that dry and its not cute.) I had to work very quickly and push the line a little bit since I only had one day to get it done before being gone for a week on the honeymoon. Looking back I might have just left them to dry out all week and flatten them once I got back but they still turned out fine! My MIL made sure to take them home safely in the designated tub after the wedding and let them dry out all night and mostly the next day. Once we got back, opened gifts and finished packing my husband helped me to flatten them. I wish I could say we had this super fancy flower presser but we don't and the reality is, it was a lil crazy, lol! I took a cardboard box and cut it up to have several flat pieces, laid it down on our dining room table with wax paper and the flowers with something heavy on top. To help you understand better and give a visual:
1. Flat cardboard
2. Wax paper
3. Flowers
4. Another layer of wax paper
5. Another flat piece of cardboard
6. Something heavy on top to flatten it
I also want to mention that its important when pressing the flowers to lay them out so they are evenly pressed and flat as possible. I pulled individual stems of greenery and flowers from the bouquet. I basically picked at least 2 of each thing with a little extra greenery since I knew it would be the main bulk. There were some flowers that were just too big to press so I pulled petals off to use instead. We pulled heavy books from closets, and even used some of our new wedding gifts still in the boxes to use as our heavy items to help press them (hilarious I know, but we got a hefty dinnerware set that was the perfect size for flattening!) It will look a little crazy while in the process but there is a method to the madness, I promise! After setting it all up and taking our dining room over, we left for the honeymoon, came back after a week to the chaos and they were flattened!
I headed to Michaels and searched in store for the perfect rustic floating frame and decided to go with a 16 x 20, and it was on sale!! woot woot! (even if you are reading this at a later date and its no longer on sale, make sure to check their website and the #retailmenot app where you can find coupons to use! never pay full price if you don't have to(: )
You can find the floating frame Here online if you aren't interested to go in store and they also have it in other sizes if you want something smaller. Once I got my frame, I carefully cleaned both sides of the glass. I took the back piece of the glass, set it down on the table and put the front piece glass with the frame to the side. I then began taking the flattened greenery and flower stems and started laying them down in position on the back piece of the glass laying right side up.This is where the fun part happens and you get to customize it exactly how you want! I continued to layer them how I wanted until I was pleased with how it looked. Once done, to finish it off I took some of the ribbon my bouquet was wrapped in, ripped it to give a more vintage look and to get a smaller size then I used it to cover the stems at the bottom. After everything was set in place and just how I wanted it, my husband helped me to place the front glass with frame right on top of the back with the flowers. We carefully and slowly turned it over and moved the clasps to lock it in place, and voila! A beautiful preservation and display of my wedding bouquet that also acts as decor! We shortly hung it up in the master bedroom after. Im super pleased with how it turned out and so happy I decided to do this so I can now have that special part of my wedding forever.
Obviously this can be done with any bouquet thats special, not just wedding. It was SO easy and affordable to do. Please let me know if you tried this DIY out for your own or if you have any questions!
xoxo
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