Your wedding flowers are one of the most eye-catching aspects of your entire ceremony and reception (aside from that gorgeous dress, of course!). You put a lot of energy, creativity, and money into choosing the perfect blooms for your perfect day. So what should you do with them once the big day is over?
The floral designers at Rose Hill Weddings have some creative and thoughtful ideas about how to reuse, repurpose and recycle your blooms to help you make the most of your investment. Whether you want to keep them with you or give them to a good cause, there are lots of great ways to keep enjoying your wedding flowers long after the last dance.
Save Your Flowers by Pressing Them
Pressed Flowers
Maintain your special blooms and keep them forever by pressing them. To press them yourself, dry them completely (hanging them upside down for several weeks is a good way to do this). Once you’ve dried your petals, lay flat in a heavy book between sheets of parchment paper to press. Then, arrange them as a keepsake in whichever way you prefer to display them:
- Frame Pressed Flowers: Arrange your dried flowers in a shape of your choosing on clear or white cardstock. Carefully cover with the glass of your frame you have a beautifully framed image made from your flowers.
- Save Them in a Scrapbook: Glue dried flowers into a blank scrapbook to provide a lovely keepsake of the flowers from your special day.
- Use Them as Thank-You Cards: Flowers pressed into cardstock can make excellent thank you cards to send to your guests or to use in the future.
Save Your Flowers By Preserving Them
Dried Flower Wreath
Preserving your floral bouquets, centerpieces and ceremony decor can be a fun and satisfying way of maintaining your wedding investment. Repurpose your wedding blooms so you can keep your bouquet of wedding flowers long-lasting and beautiful. Here are a few ways to do this:
- Display in Vases: After drying your bouquet upside down, think about placing flowers in vases, mason jars or rustic boxes around your home. Many of the flowers from your bouquet will dry beautifully and be a constant reminder of your special day.
- Adorn a Final Resting Place: If either you or your spouse have lost a loved one and missed them at the wedding, grace their headstones with some of your wedding flowers as a way to honor them on your special day.
- Create a Keepsake: Dried petals from your wedding arrangements can be placed in glass beads to make a necklace or bracelet. You can also preserve your flowers by having a candle made with some of your petals embedded in the wax. Either one will make a beautiful keepsake to pass down to future generations.
- Start a Garden: Begin a fresh garden with the plants from your wedding. Any plants or succulents used as centerpieces or decor throughout your wedding can be re-planted. Let your new beginnings in life be reflected in your new garden.
Save Your Wedding Flowers by Giving Them Away
Bouquet Station
A great way to make your wedding flowers last is to send them home with guests, service workers and your attendants at the end of the wedding reception. Here are some really fun, creative ways to send your flowers on to a new life with someone else.
- Have a Bouquet Station: Set up a table with craft paper and twine, and have a few helpers make smaller groups of flowers from centerpieces and other wedding flowers. Guests can make their own small bouquet before leaving as a souvenir.
- Give Centerpieces As Gifts: Honor specific guests at your reception for things like who has been married the longest, the youngest couple, who you’ve known the longest, and so on. Give a centerpiece or other wedding bouquet to thank them for attending your wedding.
- Repurpose Flowers at the Morning-After Brunch: If you plan to have a brunch the morning after your nuptials, bring last night’s flowers for decor or to give away. No need for separate florals or other decor for your brunch when you’ve invested in blooms beautiful enough for your wedding the day before. You can have fun finding new ways to use them to decorate, too.
Donate Wedding Flowers
Flowers in Hospital Hallway
Donating your flowers is a great way to let your happy memories go on to make someone else’s day. Local hospitals, nursing homes, community centers, and homeless shelters will be happy to take your flowers the day after your wedding and brighten the lives of the people they serve.
- Local Nursing Homes: Rose Hill Weddings has a great working relationship with local nursing homes and retirement centers in the Nashville area. We will be happy to talk with you about delivery options the day after your wedding.
- Local Shelters: Homeless shelters, half-way houses, and pregnancy centers are great places to find a home for your beautiful flowers.
Even after your wedding is over, your beautiful flowers can keep adding their beauty to the world. Reuse, repurpose or recycle your wedding blooms and keep your floral investment working to spread happiness. Let the floral professionals at Rose Hill Weddings help you choose the perfect way to repurpose your wedding flowers.