What To Do With Your Wedding Flowers After The Wedding

You spent months curating floral mood boards on Pinterest, chatting with your florist, and ensuring all your flower dreams come true for your big day. And then what happens to those beautiful blooms? If you want a fate for your flowers other than the green waste, we have a few ideas for you!

We know first-hand that flowers are a big and worthy investment for any milestone celebration; if you want to give them a second act, consider sending flowers home with your guests or donating them to a hospice company, care facility, or organization that re-purposes flowers for charity. Want to keep a piece of the floral magic forever? Flower preservation is a special way to do so.

Florist Tip: Event flowers are specifically timed and designed to be at their most open, peak-state for an event! Because of this, they will not last for an extended period of time after the fact. In general, event flowers will last an additional 2-3 days - sometimes more, sometimes less based on conditions and care. That said, let’s talk options!

Send Flowers Home With Your Guests

Twelve years into the floral industry, we can safely say that darn near everyone loves flowers! And taking home flowers at the end of an event is always a crowd-pleasing surprise. But here’s the thing - we’ve seen so much confusion around when, how and if guests can take flowers home, that has led to more than one awkward interaction with Aunt Cathy as she loads arrangement after arrangement into her car.

Let us help you make it easy!

• If: If guests can take home flowers, make sure someone tells your guests - perhaps the DJ if they’re MC’ing before the dance party starts, or whoever has the mic as speeches conclude. Alternatively, consider mentioning it on a sign by the guest book or in a program if you pass one out.
  
• How: After it’s been announced guests can take flowers home, let them know the easiest way to do so. Where will the flowers be located; collected on a table at the exit, or by the coat check? Are there certain arrangements they can take; just the bud vases from the cocktail area or the centerpieces on the dinner tables? Or is your point-person handing out flowers to specific people with the list you gave them?
  
• When: If you don’t want flowers leaving with your early-out guests, make sure it’s clear what time they can take them home.

Florist Tip: Vases and vessels are usually rented or owned by your florist, so they are not meant to go home with Aunt Cathy - poor Aunt Cathy, we’re just picking on you now. Make sure to ask your florist ahead of time if the vases can go home with guests or if they need to be returned. If not, you can ask what it would cost to purchase the vases, or for the florist to provide “take home vessels” that can easily be swapped out by their team at the end of the night. Sometimes, the building mechanics for designs do not allow for vessels to be swapped out.

Donate Your Flowers to Hospice (or Other Care Facilities)

We are grateful to partner with Mission Healthcare in San Diego, CA, by giving them our surplus flower inventory each week. Mission staff and other volunteers use the flowers to bring color, life, and comfort to patients and their families during such a difficult time. Donating flowers to a hospice company, nursing home, hospital or senior center is a beautiful way to extend the life of your wedding or event blooms. Before doing so, consider a few things:

• Ask if they have a certain drop-off day or time frame?
• Does the organization prefer arrangements in vases or loose stems to build with themselves?
• Do they have any policies around fragrance, allergies or other safety restrictions?
  

If this is the path you’d like to explore - your florist is often able to handle the logistics with an additional fee. If that’s not an option with your florist or the fee is not in your budget, assign someone in your community to transport the flowers for you.

There are also companies that repurpose event flowers for you, such as ReBloom in San Diego, but there are several organizations nationwide.

Flower Preservation - Pressed, Dried, and Beyond

Keeping a tangible piece of your wedding flowers is a memorable way for the floral magic to live on long after the big day! Whether you have a pressed arrangement made of the flowers from your bouquet to hang on your wall, or use those blooms in resin coasters to gift to your friends and family, flower preservation is worth exploring!

• Pressing Flowers: This method is best for flat flowers and small blooms. Once they’re pressed, you can use them any way you choose! If you want your pressed flowers framed, consider sending them to an artist who handles the whole pressing process, plus designs and frames them for you such as For Keeps Florals, based in San Diego, CA.

*Fun fact - the owner, Grace, was a Native Poppy florist from 2018-2020!

• Drying Flowers: If you want to preserve your flowers as they are without pressing or breaking them down, you can consider drying them - an option most often done with bridal bouquets. Drying flowers is tricky business, but start by hanging flowers upside down in a dry spot, with enough space around them so as not to squish or crowd the flowers.
• Professional flower preservation: to keep flowers looking as close to fresh forever and ever, there are methods to professionally preserve your flowers and freeze them in time! Freeze-drying removes the moisture and keeps flowers looking soft and in their original condition. You can even have them sealed inside a solid, glossy block of clear epoxy!

Florist Tip: Not all flowers dry or press well - some flowers will shed, fall apart, or mold easily, and few will retain their vibrant color. If flower preservation is important to you, make sure you let your florist know before they order flowers and design your wedding or event. 

Also, timing and care are so important! Flowers should be preserved within a few days of your event, so if you’re off to your honeymoon the morning after, assign someone to handle it or line up a professional service ahead of time.

Don’t be Meg, co-owner of Native Poppy, who left her bouquet in a box for three weeks and then tried to dry it. Those poor blooms were a moldy mess when she was ready for flower preservation, with no hope of salvaging!

Whichever route feels right for you, make sure you decide before your event - not at midnight when the lights come on! Assign someone to help facilitate - a family member, bridesmaid, or your coordinator - and have a plan so your flowers and your guests can enjoy the party with ease.