Drying Wedding Flowers

**Laurie in Bradenton** · 11-15-2007, 06:40 PM

HELP!!!!
New DIL wants me to dry her wedding bouquet. Is there a way to do this without taking the bouquet apart?
I bought some silica sand that suppose to dry it in the microwave but it says that I have to take the bouquet apart so the flowers aren't touching. Can I use this stuff with out taking the bouquet apart. Or is there a better way.
Flowers are birds of paridise, canna lillies, orchids both lasrge and small.

Laurie in Bradenton

**thriftstorequeen** · 11-15-2007, 10:43 PM

My daughter just hung hers upsidedown in her sunroom. It looked dried but she was able to keep it for a while.

**Jamauk** · 11-25-2007, 06:48 PM

I hung mine upside down until they were dry. However, then they became very brittle. I ended up taking all of the petals off and putting them in a pretty jar. I then took the ribbon that was wrapped around the stems and tied that around the jar.

I know there are companies that will dry them and then frame them for you - but I couldn't tell you where to find them. I heard about them AFTER I had already dried mine.

**AmyMCGS** · 11-25-2007, 09:21 PM

When we did mine (1999) we put it into a big rubbermaid box and filled the box with little bead-like things... I think they were silica like you're talking about, but I can't swear to it. We left the bouquet in tact and let it stay in there for months. It looks dried- the colors weren't preserved- but it's still in one piece.

My sister had hers professionally done after her wedding last year, and it is gorgeous. She had it framed & it actually matches their bedroom colors. If you want to really preserve it, I think paying for the pro service would be worth it.