How To Care For Your Bouquet & Other Personal Wedding Day Flowers

Picture this: it’s the morning of your wedding and you are getting ready with your girls and things are positively buzzing. Artists are doing hair and makeup. Family members popping in to say hello before the ceremony. Photographers are snapping away. You look in the corner and there are your beautiful bouquets and personal flowers waiting. Through the frenzy of the events you hardly heard the instructions given to you by your florist about how to handle and care for these beauties and make them last from this moment until your last dance.

This is a small but very important thing on your wedding day. Your florals will be in every photo and you want to make sure they look fresh and fabulous. Let’s walk through the most important things to know about handling and care for your personal wedding florals.

• Hydration is absolutely key! Like us, flowers need water, lots of it. Most florists will deliver your bouquets in a vase of water. Do your best to allow the bouquets to remain in their vase until you absolutely need them. And if there is a chance to give them a break and place in water throughout the day, do it.

• Always towel dry damp stems. If your bouquets are delivered in water, be sure to have a towel handy to dry the bottom of your stems before you carry them down the aisle to prevent water marks on your dress or dyes dripping from those ever-popular tinted blooms.

Photography by Lydia Ivy Photography.

• Avoid touching any blooms directly. Oils from our fingers can transfer on to delicate petals and may damage the flowers lessening their longevity.

• Try to keep them cool. Store your bouquets and in a cool dark area if possible, at the very least in the hours leading up to your event. Boutonnières, flower crowns and corsages should be kept in a fridge. Be mindful of keeping all personal flowers away from hot light fixtures, fireplaces, blow dryers and sunshine before the ceremony.

Photography by Lydia Ivy Photography.

• Get a handle on it. Ask your florist to show you how to hold the bouquets. Most of us will want to give you a demonstration on the proper way to hold your bouquet for photos when the florals are delivered. It may not seem like a big deal, but it is quite important to be holding your bouquet properly. When a florist is designing, they will be creating a focal area or in some cases a front side and it’s important that this is the part that’s facing the right direction. Usually it’s as straightforward as ribbons long in the front or pins on the back but be ready for a demonstration the day of.

• Brush up on bout basics. Most people don’t know how to fasten a boutonniere. Most planners will be able to assist you with the pinning of the bout, but they may be busy with other details. Ask your florist if you have any doubt in boutonniere pinning. There is nothing more upsetting than seeing those cute little boutonnières upside down in photos!

Lastly, the most important thing to remember on your wedding day about your personal wedding flowers: enjoy them! These are all just some savvy precautions to take to make sure your investment is looks beautiful all day long.

Krystal Young is a WPIC certified wedding planner and the owner of Snowberry Botanicals. She has been in the business floral design for seven years and credits her love of florals to growing up in the country and to her parents, both who are avid gardeners. Sustainability is hugely important to her and her business and she works with local products and farmers whenever possible.