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Home Magazine What to Do with the Bridal Bouquet after Your Wedding? Ideas and Tips

What to Do with the Bridal Bouquet after Your Wedding? Ideas and Tips

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When the wedding ceremony is over, many brides start wondering what to do with their wedding bouquet. Lucky girls who caught the bouquet wonder the same thing. There are several ways you can preserve the flowers or dispose of them. Read on to learn about them.

From the History of Wedding Bouquets

Wedding bouquets as we know them originated in 19th-century England. The first bride who appeared in public with a modest, yet elegant floral composition was Queen Victoria. The royal bouquet featured marigold flowers and leaves decorated with green dill branches. Marigolds symbolize purity and innocence, and the newlyweds ate the dill after the ceremony, which, according to local beliefs, was supposed to awaken passion. Thus, Queen Victoria started a new wedding trend that quickly spread to common people.

Since then, bridal bouquets have undergone various transformations. However, most florists haven’t moved away from the concept of flower symbolism, leaving various messages in bouquets, for example:

  • roses — tenderness;
  • lilies — purity and innocence;
  • lilac — the first love;
  • peonies — modesty and faithfulness;
  • daisies — purity and modesty;
  • cornflowers — protecting the family’s happiness.

After the ceremony, brides took pains to preserve the bouquet for as long as possible. The flowers were dried, the petals placed in a small pouch or box, and the rest of the bouquet was burned.

Nowadays, many women don’t know what to do with their bridal bouquet after the wedding. Some decide to keep it, others want to throw it away, but don’t want to treat this symbolic accessory with disrespect.

Bridal Bouquet: Plan of Action after the Wedding

If this wedding accessory is important for the bride and she wants to preserve it, there are some ideas on how to do this. Let’s explore them.

Dry the Flowers

The most convenient way to dry your bouquet is to divide it into separate flowers. Here’s the procedure:

  1. Remove the packaging and carefully separate the flowers from each other.
  2. Tie them upside down in a dry and well-ventilated place.
  3. Let them dry for several days.
  4. When the flowers are fully dry, you can make another bouquet from them and place them in a vase, protecting from moisture and direct sun.

Another drying method is about drying plants in parts:

  1. Take the flowers apart into petals and leaves.
  2. Put them under a press between the pages of a thick and heavy book.
  3. Place the book in a cool and dark place for several weeks. The paper will absorb excess moisture while the plants will preserve their color and shape almost unaltered.

Here’s what you can do with dry petals and leaves:

  • keep in a canvas pouch to scatter them during your children’s wedding ceremony in a symbolic gesture;
  • use as decorations in a wedding album;
  • arrange in a picture and frame it;
  • put them in an accent pillow;
  • make a candle with petals to light it at family holidays.

Keep Only the Buds

Buds of roses, peonies, and persian buttercups can be preserved the best. There are two ways of drying buds:

  1. Separate the flowers and tie them upside down with stems. After they fully dry, cut the buds off with sharp scissors.
  2. Cut the buds off in a fresh bouquet and let them dry on a smooth dry surface in a well-ventilated place.

After drying, you can keep the buds in a small round vase or use them to make a souvenir, like with petals.

Preserve with Chemicals

The next idea for preserving the bridal bouquet after the wedding consists in treating it with a special chemical formula. Let’s look at two methods.

  1. With hairspray. First, let the flowers dry fully, then thoroughly sprinkle every flower with hairspray and put the bouquet back together.
  2. With glycerin. This method is for thick buds and leaves. Mix glycerin with warm water in the 1:1 ratio, separate fresh flowers and put them in the solution for 2-3 weeks, cutting the stems by 1cm every day. Refresh the solution every week, When the flowers get fully soaked in glycerin, they’ll become springy and glossy, indicating that the preservation process is complete. Such flowers are kept in a glass vase or a container with sand from one to five years.

Tips for Girls who Caught the Bouquet

In order not to damage the bridal bouquet, brides order its replica to toss. It’s almost identical to the bridal bouquet and can be freely tossed and then given to the one who catches it.

What to do with the bouquet you caught at the wedding? Let’s explore possible options:

  • Keep it as a souvenir. A bouquet from faux flowers will preserve its original beautiful look for years, reminding you of the wedding and pleasant emotions.
  • Give to a friend. If you’re not a fan of artificial flowers, give the bouquet to a friend who dreams of getting married.
  • Hand the flowers out to the guests. A wedding bouquet symbolizes happiness, joy, and the unity of two hearts. This is a symbolic way to share all this with others.

Can You Throw the Wedding Bouquet away?

If you’re wondering what to do with the bridal bouquet after the wedding, keep in mind that superstitions disagree on this matter. Some say to keep wedding flowers as a family talisman. Others, for example, the feng shui practice, believe that dried flowers drain your energy and disturb flows of energy in the house.

Listen to your feelings. If you feel like you want to keep your wedding bouquet — do it. If you get the urge to get rid of it — go for it: burn it, cast it into the river and let it drift away (only fresh flowers!), or just throw it away when the flowers wilt. In the end, it’s not the flowers that matter, but your feelings for each other, right?

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