You finally got married, and your flowers where a big highlight of the day. You wish you could keep them forever right? Well I don’t have a magic wand to preserve flowers, but I do have some wonderful ways that you can save the memory of them long into your marriage.
1. Commission a beautiful illustration of your wedding bouquet.
The talented Charlotte Argyrou offers a beautiful and hugely personal service, creating elegant hand drawn illustrations of wedding bouquets. Her style as a botanical illustrator is precise and detailed, capturing all the intricate elements as well the stunning colours of your flowers. A very special piece to hang on your wall indeed.
Photograph by Nicole Howe Weddings @nicolehweddings at Pynes House, Devon @pyneshouse
Here is a bit of information on her wedding bouquet illustration service:
How does your wedding bouquet illustration service work?
My Wedding Bouquet Illustration Service is for people who are completely nutty about their wedding flowers. If you can’t stop looking at your wedding photos, and your Sweet Pea Rosa flowers bring you so much joy weeks and months later, let’s create a floral illustration that will ignite those feelings every single day.
I work from photography, emailed to me after the wedding. Ideally, I love to receive 2-5 high resolution images and at least one should show the entire bouquet. But I’ve also worked from blurry phone photos, or even printed photo albums when I’m drawing for a 10th anniversary celebration gift.
Via email, I'll show you how I will think your wedding flowers will best translate from a 3D bouquet to a 2D illustration. We'll agree on the orientation of the paper (landscape or portrait) and I'll then send a pencil outline sketch for your approval.
Once you are happy with your pencil sketch, I will begin to add colour. This is the really fun bit, as you see your floral illustration come to life. You can either wait for a big reveal once your artwork is finished, or I'll send you updates along the way. In all the years I’ve offered this service, only one of my brides has ever been able to wait for the final reveal! My clients are always far too excited, and love a work in progress image to arrive in their Insta DMs or to see a time-lapse video I may create.
What is the cost?
The full bouquet illustration service is £290, or I offer a “mini” bouquet inspired by 3-5 blooms from your bouquet for £145. Both services include your signed original illustration on heavyweight paper, a signed Certificate of Authenticity and UK Special Delivery postage.
What size will the artwork be?
The full bouquet illustration is drawn on 40x30cm paper. That’s a UK standard frame size, meaning you can buy a high street frame everywhere from Hobbycraft to Heals (including IKEA, John Lewis, Habitat, West Elm, Next...). So even if you want to deliberate over the perfect custom made frame from a professional framers, you can spend £6 and get your illustration safely stored behind glass in the meantime.
Can it be arranged as a gift?
Absolutely. There are two options.
Before the wedding: Buy the Wedding Bouquet Illustration Service via my website and use the drop down menu to select “gift voucher”. I will send a beautifully printed card, separate envelope, stickers and ribbon, for the gift giver to sign and present themselves on the big day. There is no additional cost for this voucher or postage to the gift giver.
After the wedding: Buy the Wedding Bouquet Illustration Service via my website. You decide whether you would like me to complete the illustration and then we send as a surprise to the recipient. Or, I can contact the couple myself and they can enjoy the process as the illustration is created.
2. Dry or press your flowers.
Preserve your flowers yourself, and have a go at creating your own artwork. It is very simple to both dry and press some of your flowers, as no fancy equipment is required.
If you would like to dry some of your flowers, it is a good idea to dismantle your bouquet, so that the air can get to all the flowers evenly. Gently start to cut away any floristry tape or other mechanisms which are keeping it all together, and take away from the outside in. Not all your flowers will dry as well as each other, but it is a nice process to see how they age. Once you have separated some flowers, just tie some string to the stems, and hang them upside down in a warm, dry part of your home.
Pressing flowers is also a lovely process that is quite experimental, as not everything will work. Small flowers obviously press better than larger ones. You can buy a flower press, or place the flowers and petals in between the pages of an old book, and weigh it down.
It takes a couple of weeks, but you can leave them in longer, and it won’t do any harm. Carefully remove your pressed flowers and place onto a clean piece of white paper. When you are happy with how they are arranged, use a tiny amount of glue on the underside of each flower to keep it in place in the frame.
3. Ensure your photographer gets some really nice shots of your bouquet.
This might sound obvious, but you would be surprised how many times it gets missed, due to the fact that your photographer is rightly focused on you and your guests. So just make sure you tell them to take those shots that focus on your flowers, and particularly your bouquet.
From left to right:
Bates and Bates Photography - @batesandbates.co
Courage & Dash Photography - @courageanddashphoto
Dale Weeks Photography - @daleweeksphoto
4. Have your flowers turned into a piece of art, or something beautiful for your home.
Sarah Blythe is a mum & daughter duo specialising in sustainable botanical homewares inspired by the garden. They create stunning artworks, inspired by your wedding bouquet, which are available as art prints, as well as gorgeous fabric designs which can be used on chiffon scarves, cushions and baby blankets. What a wonderful idea!
Here is a bit of information on their wedding bouquet artworks service:
How does your wedding bouquet artwork service work?
Send us a photo of your bouquet after your special day, and leave the rest to us. We have a large digital archive of flowers that we have photographed over 10 years which we use to create your artwork from. The most common options we make are the 50x50cm bespoke photographic art print and the eco-friendly chiffon scarf, but we also can create an eco-friendly baby blanket or an eco-friendly cushion cover. We love to hear your ideas if you have something different in mind that you would like your design printed onto - wallpaper, upholstery fabric and hanging textile prints are just a few examples of other custom products we have created in the past.
What is the cost? Prices start from £70 for textile artworks, and £145 for art prints. More info and pricing here: https://www.sarahblythe.com/bouquet-artworks
What size will the artwork be? Our Wedding Bouquet Artworks are available in two sizes - square (50x50cm) and portrait (50x70cm). There is also an option to have the artwork framed after printing.
Can it be arranged as a gift? It sure can! We often have requests for a wedding gift - all you have to do is send a photo of the bouquet and names of flowers if possible, which makes it a great idea if you are looking for a surprise gift after the wedding! Requests for cushions or scarves designed for bridesmaids gifts or Christmas presents are also a popular option.