How To Keep Your Wedding Flowers Fresh
Flowers are often one of the main stars of the show when it comes to your wedding. As one of the biggest investments of your big day, you’ll want to make sure they last as long as possible – maybe even forever by preserving them as a piece of floral art.
Before they can make it to their happily ever after, you will need to do a few things to keep them as fresh as possible until they make it to your flower artist. Lucky for you, we’ve done this a few times and we’re sharing our top five tips to have your flowers looking their best when you hand them off.
Trim your stems
Your flowers “drink” through their stems, the xylem to be exact, which carry the water and nutrients up to the flowers. Once picked, the end of the flower dries out so it’s important to trim them to keep them fresh. Typically, you’ll want to cut about 1 to 2 inches off the bottom at a 45 degree angle. If your flowers have been out of water for a significant amount of time or are longer stems, you may want to cut a bit more.
Put your flowers in water
As soon as your event is finished, make sure to hydrate your flowers to keep them from wilting and leave them in water up until drop-off with your flower artist.
Change your water
Have your flowers for the weekend? Keep water fresh by changing it daily to keep your flowers looking their best. The fresher they stay, the better they will look when preserved!
Water your foam
If your bouquet has a hook, you’ve got a bouquet holder and your flowers have been stuck into a green foam (aka oasis) at the base. In this situation, you’ll want to add water directly into the foam to keep your flowers hydrated and fresh!
Note: Do not pour water directly onto your flowers as they will mold faster. Keep the flowers dry and add water just to the oasis to keep the stems hydrated.
Keep flowers cool
Your flowers will want to be as calm, cool, and collected as you are after your event – so keep them in a cool space with air conditioning or in your basement. Find a place that avoids light to extend their freshness as sun and heat will encourage them to mature. Do not put your flowers in a fridge – everyone’s fridge is set to a different temperature and it will be too cold for your delicate flowers.
Bonus marks: Don’t throw your bouquet
As much as we love an age-old tradition, if you’re planning to toss a bouquet, use one of your bridesmaids or have a small one made just for throwing. Keep your one-of-a-kind flowers as safe as possible so they can be remembered forever (or pressed in time, if you will) with your floral art!