Have you ever considered handpicking and drying your own wedding flowers? If the answer is no, I'm guessing that's because handpicking and drying your own flowers sounds like a lot of time and effort. At first, that might not be ideal for someone who is planning their own wedding.
However, I'm here to tell you that actually, the time and effort that you put into personally collecting your wedding botanicals can be the most rewarding of wedding tasks and did I mention, it is also a huge cost saving.
For my own wedding I decided on having a dried flower theme, from the bridal party bouquets to the groom's button holes to the table decorations, each incorporated my hand picked dried flowers. It created a whimsical, rustic feel to my wedding day and as my venue was in the country hills with plenty of wooden beams, it was a humble, cosy affair.
So what the benefits of having hand picked dried flowers?
Sourcing my own flowers allowed me to spend more £££ on other areas of the day, such as hotel rooms for the night prior, premium food and drink packages for our guests, we had more room to invest in the photographer we really wanted and also a few extra bottles of champagne throughout the day!
Collecting your own flowers allows you to curate your colour palette in an authentic way. Initially, I couldn't make my mind up over what my colour scheme was going to be, so once I had decided that I was collecting and drying my own flowers, I let the universe lead me and trusted the palette nature gave to me. In the end I was in love with my bridesmaid's dresses and it couldn't have worked out more perfectly!
Dried flowers can also be very sentimental. All of the flowers that I gathered were either from my Mother's garden or from my Grandparent's garden. My Grandma passed away two years ago, so knowing that some of the flowers that she had planted were part of my bridal bouquets created a personal connection to my past that meant the world to me.
They are already preserved! Which is the best thing once the wedding day has been and gone as your flowers can then become a part of your home's decor. I have my bridal bouquet on show in my living room along with my Husband's buttonhole which we decided to frame.
What you need to consider before you begin handpicking your flowers:
You need to plan in advance. I began collecting my flowers a year in advance of my wedding date. The more you can harvest the better, as naturally, there are always some that turn out better than others.
Space. Consider where you are going to store your flowers. Luckily for me, my Mum had a conservatory which we took over! However, being so exposed to the sunlight brought with it some fatalities (see my next point). But space really is crucial, if you save flowers for 12 months, you end up with lots of flora and fauna. I would recommend if you have a garage or weatherproof shed, these are the best environments for drying out your flowers. As you are bringing the outside in, be prepared for little insect friends to say hello.
When figuring out the best preservation practices, I experimented with hairspray (which categorically did not work for me). The tried and trusted method is to store your florals in boxes which protect the flowers from the sunlight, as over time direct sunlight will bleach the colour from the bouquets. I did not know this for the first few months, so many of my beautiful magenta hydrangeas were take from me!
Invest in boxes that have lids for transportation. My wedding was on a day that was rainy, windy and just not very idyllic. So as we were carrying the very lightweight florals to the venue, the wind wreaked havoc on us! You can imagine the rest...
The week before my wedding I decided to invest in a few artificial flowers that would match the colour scheme (as the wedding nerves clearly got to me and I had a little panic and doubted that we had enough to decorate the entire venue). It turned out that we didn't really need them, but they did compliment our bouquets beautifully so we used them too. I couldn't be happier that after all the hard work, I get to keep my bouquets forever.
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