Not as easy as it seems…

Everyone wants to preserve all the precious memories from their day and your bouquet is no different. I was desperate to keep my bouquet as beautiful as possible, the most simplest and easiest method I thought was to press it. As I child I had collected flowers and pressed them in books and it had always worked, it seemed so simple. What could go wrong? I started with about 50 flowers pressed between tissue paper under heavy books and went away on honeymoon for 2 weeks- mistake number 1. To press flowers you need to change the paper every couple of days. Ooopps! When I checked on them on my return, half were moldy, so in the bin they went- I then learnt of my second fatal mistake, don’t press whole roses! It just doesn’t work! Luckily I had separated the petals off a couple of rose heads and they were still in tact! Phew! So I changed all the paper and re- positioned my remaining flowers, a week later I checked on them again. Again about half were moldy, so in the bin they went and I learnt of my final fatal error – it is vital to make sure each petal is spaced out and they are not on top of one another, else guess what? They go moldy! So from 50 flowers I am now down to 10, but I am quietly confident these last few will survive. The plants that worked the best were the greenery, separated rose petals and the smaller delicate flowers. To make matters worse when I visited one of my bridesmaids in the week there was her bouquet hanging beautifully from the stairs, drying out wonderfully!

I found the below beautiful images from various sites with great inspiration for what to do with your bouquet.