Wedding DIY: Preserving Your Bouquet In A Dried Flower Box Frame

I’m churning out a few “Wedding DIY” posts this month – what to put in a wedding newspaper, how to put together an Instax seating plan and a guide for disco ball place names. But this one is actually for AFTER the wedding. Specifically, it’s for a way to preserve your wedding bouquet.

There are a few ways to preserve your wedding bouquet – from drying it out to pressing flowers. But I liked the idea of keeping a few stems of flowers from my bouquet and displaying in a box frame. Just a nice little memento from my day, y’know?

It’s pretty easy too, so this may actually be a quick DIY post! But here’s how I did it…

A shadow box filled with dried flower stems and a pink ribbon

A close-up of dried flowers in a shadow box

How To Create A Dried Flower Box Frame From Your Wedding Bouquet

What You Need

Your wedding bouquet
A shadow box / box frame ( I used this one from IKEA)
A glue gun (Mine is a cheap Amazon one – affiliate link)
Some nice thick paper to fit the frame (I used a couple of sheets from a watercolour pad from Flying Tiger)

A bouquet of flowers hanging upside down

A close-up of Wedding Bouquet drying upside down

Instructions

On your wedding day, make sure you have a vase of water to put your flowers in. I had a vintage tin on my top table that I put my flowers in for the meal. And then once the reception started and I knew I wouldn’t want to carry my bouquet around, I went up to my room and put them in a vase of water (well, actually it was a pint glass, but it did the job). This way your flowers won’t start deteriorating before you’ve have a chance to do anything with them.
On the day you get home from the wedding, tie your wedding flowers up so that they are hanging upside down. I think to get the best results it’s good to do this with individual stems… But I didn’t really have the space for loads of flowers spread out (plus I was going straight on honeymoon and didn’t really have time to spare) so I hung it up, still in it’s bouquet. I just hung it to the towel rail in my bathroom, using the ribbon that was attached to it, so it was a quick job!
Leave to dry out completely. I think it needs minimum a week, but I left mine for about 3 weeks, just because I hadn’t gotten around to it. And it was totally fine.
On your shadow box frame, line the backing of the frame with some good quality paper. Like I said, I used watercolour sketch pad paper, as it was white with a nice texture. I then put the ribbon from my bouquet along the backing, just to add a nice pop of colour.
From your bouquet, choose the flowers you want to keep. It’s nice to have an assortment of different flowers, including some of the greenery, so it’s a good representation of your bouquet. It will also depend on which flowers have dried the best. For example, I had a few dahlias in my bouquet but they don’t dry very well. I included one, just for the memories, but the roses and eucalyptus definitely dried better.
Arrange the stems how you want them, and then using a glue gun, stick down the flower stems one by one. Leave to dry for a few minutes (it dries fast).
Then pop it in your shadow box frame, and you’re done!