You have now spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on flowers for your wedding day. You wouldn't want all of those beautiful flowers to die, so why not preserve them and use them around your home?

You can preserve flowers in a couple of different ways. I will explain the following:
* Professional preservation
* Pressing
* Air drying
* Silica gel

Professional Preservation

Using a professional to preserve your flowers is the most efficient and reliable way to keep your flowers. Professionals usually use the freeze-dry method, also known as lyophilization, which takes approximately four weeks.

Each flower must be placed separately in the freezer. Therefore, the first step to the freeze-drying process is to clip each flower individually. The stems should be about one inch tall. After each flower is clipped, it is placed in the freezer. This freezer will be set at a temperature of about twenty degrees Fahrenheit below zero. All of the moisture is than removed from the flowers using a vacuum. After they are dried, the flowers are gradually restored to room temperature.

A professional should be consulted about two months before the wedding in order to guarantee they will have the time and the room to preserve your flowers. When choosing a professional, you should talk to them regarding the following steps in the freeze-drying process. Without all of these steps, you might be disappointed in the long run.

* You want them to pre-treat and re-hydrate the flowers before freeze-drying them. If this is not done, the color of the flowers may fade and they may not look at natural.
* You may want to ask if they photograph each bouquet so they will reassemble them correctly. Remember that in order to freeze dry them, each flower is set in the freezer separately.
* After the freeze-drying process, you want them to post-treat them. During the post-treatment, they will dip each flower into a solution that will create a transparent layer. This layer will protect the flowers from things such as light and humidity.

You may have to ship the flowers to the preservationist. In order to do this safely, the flowers should be laid in a large plastic bag. In order to keep the flowers fresh, you should blow air into the bag, twist the bag shut and put it into the refrigerator. You will not want the shipment of these flowers to take more than two days.

Pressing

If you do not have the budget to have your flowers professionally preserved and you do not have too many flowers, you can press them yourself. If your flowers naturally have flat faces such as pansies, petunias, violas and daisies, they will press very easily. If you have full flowers such as roses, each petal should be pressed separately and should be put back together when the flower is completely dried.

In order to begin this process, you must purchase or make a flower press. These can be found at your favorite craft store or made with two boards and some weights. First, take a flower and place it between two pieces of blotting paper and put this in a flower press. Leave them for about two weeks so they will be able to dry completely.

Air Drying

Air Drying is one of the more simple ways to preserve flowers. First, separate the flowers into small bundles, take the leaves off and tie the stems together. You want to find a warm, dark room and hang the bundles upside down. It will take approximately two to three weeks to dry completely.

These flowers will be stiff. Some colors, such as yellow and blue, will keep their shade but other colors, such as pink, will fade. Expect some flowers such as roses and peonies to shrink a little during the air drying process.

Silica Gel

In order to begin the silica gel preservation, you must purchase about three pounds of the gel from your local garden center or craft store for every twelve average-sized flowers.

First, find an air tight container and fill the bottom inch with the silica gel. Remove the leaves of your flowers and cut the stems to about one-half inch long and place them upright in the gel. You will then pour more gel into the perimeter of the container without touching the flowers. After this is complete, you want to tap on the container so that the gel will cover the flowers. You do not want to pour directly onto the flowers because it will weigh the flowers down. You may repeat this step as much as you need to in order for the flowers to be completely covered. When each flower is coated, you should pour another inch of silica gel on top. The container should be sealed and left for about a week to dry. This method is perfect for flowers that are more full such as roses.

When using any of the above methods, you should always keep the preserved flowers out direct sunlight and humidity. This will make certain that the quality of the flowers will stay over time.