How to press and frame a wedding bouquet

Most people bring us the bouquet too late. They call us three weeks after the wedding, and the flowers are already brown. The pressing has to start almost right away. That one fact matters more than any frame choice you will make.

We cut mats and build shadow boxes in our New Jersey shop. We see the results of both good pressing and bad pressing. So we want to be blunt about the parts that go wrong.

Start within 2 to 3 days

Fresh flowers begin to brown fast. Two or three days after the wedding is your window. Past that, the petals lose color and the edges curl.

This is the number one reason people end up disappointed. They wait a week. Then they press flowers that were already dying. The frame comes out fine, and the flowers inside it look tired.

If the honeymoon comes first, hand the bouquet to someone. A mother, a sister, a friend. Give them the steps below and let them start.

What to do if you cannot press right away

Put the bouquet in the fridge. Not the freezer. Freezing turns petals to mush when they thaw.

Keep it away from fruit. Apples and bananas give off ethylene gas, and that gas ages flowers quickly. A crisper drawer full of produce is the worst spot in the house.

The fridge buys you a few days. It does not buy you two weeks. Press as soon as you can.

Take the bouquet apart first

People want to press the bouquet whole. It does not work. The stems are too thick and the flowers sit at different depths.

Cut the ribbon and pull it apart. Snip each flower off with a short bit of stem. Press each one on its own.

Take a photo of the bouquet before you break it down. You will want that photo later when you lay out the frame.

The pressing itself

Lay each flower face down between two sheets of parchment paper or plain newsprint. Plain means blank. Never use printed newspaper, because the ink transfers onto the petals and you cannot get it off.

Stack the sheets and put heavy books on top. Any thick books work. A stack of four or five is plenty.

Change the paper every 2 to 3 days. The paper pulls moisture out of the flower. Wet paper stops pulling. Fresh paper keeps the drying going.

Thick flowers need help. Roses and peonies should be split in half with a sharp knife, cut from top to bottom. Press each half face down. A whole rose holds too much water in the center and it molds.

How long it takes

Plan on 2 to 4 weeks. Thin petals like larkspur or baby's breath finish faster. Split roses and peonies take the full four weeks.

A pressed flower should feel like paper. If it feels cool or soft or bends without cracking, it is still wet. Put it back and wait another week.

Silica gel and 3D drying

Silica gel is the other route. You bury the flowers in the crystals and they dry while keeping their shape. Roses come out looking like roses instead of pancakes.

The catch is depth. A dried 3D flower needs a deep shadow box, sometimes 2 inches or more. It will not fit under a flat frame. Decide which look you want before you start drying, because the two paths do not meet up later.

Mold is the failure you have to avoid

Moisture left inside a flower rots behind the glass. You seal it up, and a month later there are gray spots. There is no fix once that starts. You have to open the frame and throw the flower out.

So be honest with yourself about dryness. If a flower feels even slightly damp, do not frame it. Fully dry or not framed. We would rather tell you this now than build a shadow box around a flower that is going to rot in it.

Mounting and layout

Use small dots of archival PVA glue on the back of each pressed flower. Acid free mounting strips work too. Two small dots hold a flower fine.

Do not use hot glue. It browns over time and bleeds through thin petals. We have seen beautiful presses ruined by it.

Arrange the flowers on an acid free mat board. Leave space around them. A crowded press looks like a science project, and the eye has nowhere to rest. Loose beats packed every time.

Even a pressed flower has thickness. Add a spacer or use a shallow shadow box so the acrylic sits off the petals. Glazing pressed flat against a petal makes it stick, and the petal tears when you open the frame later. Our bouquet frames are built with that gap in mind, and we cut the mats to whatever opening your layout needs.

Size and glazing

Most bouquets end up at 11x14 or 16x20. That gives the arrangement room to breathe. A bouquet has more flowers than you think, and an 8x10 fills up fast.

UV acrylic slows color loss. It does not stop it. Pressed flowers fade over years no matter what you put in front of them. Reds go first, then purples. Whites turn cream.

We would rather say that plainly than sell you glass that promises more than it does. Hang the frame away from direct sun and it will hold its color much longer.

Questions we hear a lot

Can I press the whole bouquet as one piece?

No. The stems are too thick to flatten and the flowers dry at different rates. You end up with a moldy center and crushed edges. Break it apart and press the flowers one by one, then rebuild the shape on the mat board.

What if my wedding was two months ago?

Pressing fresh flowers is off the table. But a florist can often dry what you have, or you can frame the ribbon, a few sprigs, and the invitation together. We build shadow boxes for exactly that kind of mix. It is a different piece than a pressed bouquet, and it still looks good.

How deep does my shadow box need to be?

Pressed flat flowers need very little, maybe a quarter inch of gap. Silica dried 3D flowers need 1 to 2 inches. Measure your tallest dried flower and add half an inch. Tell us that number and we will build to it.