Three Ways to Recycle Your Wedding Flowers

At the end of your wonderful wedding day, you will wonder what to do with those gorgeous flowers used only for a few hours. How do you give a longer life to those beautiful blooms after your big day? Here are some tips for what to do with those flower bouquets and floral designs to give them a long life.

Reuse: Let guests and family members take them home. This would help extend not only the life of these roses, but also of the memories they’ve created during the event. 

Recycle: If you are crafty you can preserve or dry your wedding roses for use on various projects. Air drying is the most common way of preserving roses. All you have to do is hang the roses upside down in a dry, dark and warm place with good ventilation for about two weeks or more.

Potpourri – Probably the oldest technique of reusing wedding flowers, potpourri can even be a thank you gift for your guests.

Bouquet Décor – If you wish to keep your bouquet intact, we  recommend using silica gel (found in craft stores). Bury the entire bouquet in a container filled with silica gel for a week or two. 

Flower Frame – Another decoration idea is to carefully cut the stems and preserve just the rose heads. You can then have them freeze-dried professionally, or manually dry each rose, before having it framed.

Christmas Ornament – If you go the potpourri route, you can even leave some petals for this project. You’ll need a glass ornament, where you can place the dried rose petals inside one by one.

Donate: If you aren’t interested in recycling, you can  “recycle the love,” and share your happiness to patients instead. Anyone can do this by donating their roses to organizations like Random Acts of Flowers. These organizations work similarly. They pick up your used flowers from the venue and re-arrange the flowers. This organization delivers the flowers to senior homes or hospitals to cheer up patients. 

And remember, if you do need beautiful flowers and floral designs for that big day or any other occasion, call Jan Channon Flowers in Deerfield Illinois for the freshest flowers and designs on Chicago's North Shore. You can call us at 847.945.7422 or take a look at our website at www.janchannonflowers.com