Have & Hold

 

 

 

 

History dictates that if you would like to keep your bouquet you must do silk–but that’s not the only choice! There are so many alternatives available that a bride can choose what would best represent her. A hot trend right now is to bypass flowers altogether and opt for a broach bouquet. It’s a timeless choice that gives brides a stunning piece that incorporates passed down family pieces or unique finds (also a fun way to include many family members and friends in the finding process!).  Broach bouquets can be kept intact after the wedding and put on display as a gorgeous reminder of that day.  

 

This is an awesome DIY project or you can talk with your local florist to see if they can provide this service to you. We have had the opportunity to create some of these for our brides and love the creativity in making them!  Friends and family can gift you pieces to include and maybe you have some old earrings, a necklace or other piece of jewelry from a loved one who has passed that can be worked in as well. Or take your bridesmaids out on a thrift store treasure hunt. If you love sparkle nothing can beat the look of this bouquet coming down the aisle.

 

 

We are partial to fresh flower bouquets because nothing is more beautiful than what is created by Mother Nature. Flowers will die, but that doesn’t mean you have to throw it away. (It’s heartbreaking I know to think of tossing your bouquet anywhere near a trash can!) Most brides can enjoy it in a vase for a short time afterwards, but then what?  You can try and dry it yourself...but you can end up with something that looks less than gorgeous and collects more dust than that spot under the bed you can’t reach. Instead, you could opt for what is becoming the newest way to preserve the feel and beauty of the flowers from your wedding day by turning them into custom jewelry pieces. The ideas are really limitless when you look into this option, but it depends on the service available in your area. Here at Lillian Rose, my sister and I have started “Petaled & Pressed”, a business that specializes in this jewelry. Brides have fallen in love with this idea. We create the jewelry by taking dried petals from any type of flowers from your bouquet and grinding them into a polymer clay to create beads that can be formed into tons of different shapes and used in various ways. It depends on the person or company, some use colored clay in the original color of the flower when making the beads, but you won’t be able to see the petals that way. At Petaled & Pressed you actually see the flower petal pieces in the created beads. Beads, semi-precious stones in your wedding or favorite colors, can be added as well as fresh water peals and Swarovski Crystals to complete the style you are looking for.  From rosaries to all types of jewelry, it’s amazing what you can create!  All you need to remember–if you would like to do this with your flowers–is to dry petals from your bouquet. (If you take the flowers apart and dry the petals individually they retain more of their original colors for the beads.) These pieces are great reminders of your wedding day and can be passed down from generation to generation.