Preserving your Wedding Bouquet

In Victorian Times it was fairly common for young ladies to preserve flowers that had a special meaning for them. Blotting paper and weights did a reasonable job, but the colours faded in time.

Today modern techniques make it possible for your wedding bouquet to be preserved, and if professionally done, without the colours fading.

There are two main methods employed - preservation and pressing. The former produces a three dimensional image, whereas with the latter you will have a flat image of your bouquet. In both cases it is important that the glass used is non reflective and has been treated to prevent ultraviolet light penetrating to the flowers.

The procedures for both techniques are similar. Once the wedding is over the flowers are collected by a courier and taken to the premises of the company carrying out the preservation. There they are photographed and their details recorded, before the bouquet is dismantled.

Each individual bloom is then treated in the method you have chosen. The photographs are then used to painstakingly reconstruct your bouquet, which is mounted on fabric, often but not necessarily silk, of appropriate colour.

Your preserved bouquet can be life sized or a miniature version of the original.

It is important that your bouquet is collected as soon as possible after the wedding and in as good condition as possible.