Preserving the Memories: 4 Things You Can Do with Your Wedding Flowers After the Big Day

With some weddings spending upwards of $10,000 just on their floral arrangements, you want to get some extra mileage out of them. You might think that cut flowers only have a short lifespan but with the right amount of care, wedding flowers can last a while.

They're usually such high-quality flowers that you'll be able to keep them around for weeks easily.
Here are four things to do with your wedding flowers after the big day has come and gone.

1. Cheer Up Strangers, Friends, or Loved Ones

With the joy that your flowers brought you on your wedding day, it's hard to imagine having to just throw them in the trash. However, there's a lot of joy that they can bring to others just a day later.
Flowers last for weeks when they're treated well and a beautiful arrangement looks great for at least a week with very little maintenance.

If you live near a nursing home, a hospital, or a shelter of any kind, bringing in some fairly fresh flowers brings a ray of light into a dark place. While most of these places work hard to make visitors feel good, they often have limited budgets for spending on decor.

By bringing in thousands of dollars in flowers, you bring a needed brightness to the place. If you have a friend who came to your wedding despite going through a rough time personally, make a special trip out to meet them with these flowers.  Bringing your friend or loved one some flowers when they're feeling low brings needed life into their home.

Some people become withdrawn when they're sad and adding living flowers turns those feelings around to something more positive.

There are even charities who make it their job to take care of this exact type of project. Contact a charity and they'll even arrange to pick up the flowers after your wedding or your reception. They'll take these cheery centerpieces who need to be lifted up and will ensure those people see your flowers while they're fresh and perky.

2. Treat Your Guests

When people come to a wedding, they might pay hundreds of dollars on drinks, travel, or rental of what they wore. On top of that, they'll spend another hundred dollars or more on a gift from the registry.

While that's expected at a wedding, it's always nice to give people something to take away with them.
They'll remember your wedding fondly for a while after if you give them some of your flowers. Have your flowers arranged in a way that allows people to take them away easily.

A large number of smaller arrangements put together by your florist allows everyone the ability to get in on the action.

Make them centerpieces at every table and offer them to the people sitting there. To avoid fights, you can make it a game where someone at every table has the chance to win the arrangement.

Instead of making a bunch of cheap items for people to take home from your wedding, have nice vessels created. A nice pitcher with a small engraving or a small vase at each table makes it easy for you to give away each one of your flower arrangements.

3. Make Something

When it comes time to part with your flowers, you don't need to throw them in the trash. If you're into gardening or saving the earth, be sure to put them into the compost rather than putting them into a landfill.

If you're an artist or like to craft, you'll be able to create interesting things with your flowers. Start by taking your bouquet and hanging it upside down for a couple of weeks while you're on your honeymoon. when you get back, your flowers should be completely dried out and ready to be played with. In this state, you can do a lot more with your flowers.

If you've never made a shadow box, now is the time. Take some mementos from your wedding and arrange them in a deep framed box. Sprinkle petals on the bottom or line the interior with flowers.
Think about pressing flowers from each wedding bouquet. Create bookmarks or wall arrangements that last for years after your wedding. Leave them as a reminder for your spouse on what flowers they should probably get you for your anniversary.

Whatever you make is sure to have loads of sentimental value, so be sure to handle your flowers with care. Think carefully as you construct your final product but with bouquet after bouquet of flowers, you have some room for mistakes.

4. Have Another Event

The modern wedding is more complicated than the wedding of the past. Typical weddings twenty or thirty years ago may have involved a rehearsal dinner but were often in and out affairs.

Now, people stretch out their weddings over multiple days and several locations. If this is how your wedding is going to run, take advantage of your flowers on the days afterward. It's hard to make another venue seem like a wedding venue, but with flowers, it's much easier.

Take your flowers to your next-day breakfast event or to your gift opening party. You'll get another day to enjoy your beautiful bouquets and feel like you got the most out of them.

Offer them to guests at the end and let other people enjoy that lovely feeling you had at your wedding for weeks to come.

Wedding Flowers Are Still Just Flowers

At the end of the day, wedding flowers don't have to be thought of only in that context. Do whatever you would normally do with flowers after your wedding day has passed. Give them to people who you care about and spread the love.

If you want to give some flowers to someone who needs cheering up, check out our guide for more details.