4 Best Practices for Keeping Personal Flowers Fresh
In my opinion, personal flowers are the most important of the wedding day—and sometimes the ones that get the least amount of care! We spend months and months working with our couples to ensure we create the most beautiful and meaningful bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, posies, and flower crowns. These are also the flowers that are used most in photos (and the flowers that are least likely to be in water throughout the day), so it’s essential to implement best practices ahead of time to make sure they are as fresh as possible.
BEST PRACTICE #1: Keep bouquet stems long until the wedding day
Once you create your bouquets, trim the stems longer than you’d like them to be on the wedding day. Each day leading up to the wedding, snip the bottom of the stems and replace vase with fresh, cold water.
BEST PRACTICE #2: Keep boutonnieres in water until the wedding day
It’s easy to make boutonnieres well ahead of time and still keep them looking fresh for the event! After you’ve wrapped your boutonnieres with tape, trim them so that they are a few inches longer than your standard boutonniere length. Store boutonnieres in a small bud vase of fresh water, making sure to snip the ends and replacing with clean, cold water each day until the wedding.
BEST PRACTICE #3: Set aside corsage and FLORAL crown flowers for use closer to the EVENT
Create a small bucket or vase of flowers that you know you will be using for your corsages, flower crowns, and anything else that cannot be stored in water once it is created. Set these flowers aside in fresh, cold water and/or in a cooler until the day before the event. Create these personal flowers last, and keep them in a cooler as long as possible—that way, they are as fresh as can be on the wedding day.
BEST PRACTICE #4: Finish off all personal items on-site
Set aside a few extra minutes on-site to finish off all your personal items. You can even set up a small table to get these finishing items done quickly. Trim your bouquets to their desired length, pat dry to remove excess water, and wrap with your chosen ribbon. Replace water in the vase with just enough fresh, cold water to keep the bottoms of the stems hydrated without drenching your ribbon. Mist from a distance with Crowning Glory or clean water. For boutonnieres, trim stems to the desired length, pat dry, wrap in ribbon, and mist from a distance. If possible, request to store these on-site in a refrigerator until the groom and groomsmen are ready to pin them on. Mist corsages and flower crowns, and store in a refrigerator, if possible.
If you aren’t very patient (like me!), many of these tips will be really hard to do—because, truthfully, we want to see the final, beautiful product the second we create it. Honestly, though, I’ve wasted a lot of money by not being patient enough. I’ve replaced countless ribbons that got soaking wet and removed and replaced flowers that simply weren’t looking their best. But having a little patience during the few days leading up to the wedding will ensure you provide your sweet couples with the freshest, most beautiful flowers possible (and ensure you aren’t going through more supplies than you need to)!
