Pressed Wedding Bouquet Techniques and Framing Tutorial

We love these Pressed Wedding Bouquet Techniques, and included a framing tutorial for the flowers alone, or with your wedding invitation. Beautiful Forever Decor!

Back in Victorian times, women loved flowers, and often preserved them by pressing them in the pages of a book. They learned Oshibana (the art of pressing flowers in a way to create a whole picture) from the Japanese, as trade between England and Japan increased. But the simple art form of pressing flowers can be traced back to ancient Egypt.

Since then, the popularity of pressing flowers has come and gone, but never went away completely.

I remember opening a heavy book from my parent’s bookcase, and finding leaves or flowers pressed between the pages. It seemed so romantic, and for awhile I made cards and wall art with pressed flowers.

pressed flower bouquet techniques kimenink com — via google images

What you need to press flowers:

You need newspaper, blotting paper*, printer paper, flat coffee filters, flat cardboard, or plain untreated facial tissues to absorb moisture and aid drying.
Avoid paper towels because their textures can get imprinted on the petals. You should also avoid waxed paper because it retains moisture.
Experiment with pressing techniques to discover which one works best for you and the flowers you choose. Trial and error will also show you how to place the blooms on the paper so they look their best when pressed.
You can buy a wooden flower press* or a microwave pressed flower board* , but the following three techniques work the same way (and they’re free!).

book-style-pressed-flowers — wooden pressed flower frame via amazon.com

Press Flowers in a book

A book is a natural choice for pressing flowers, as the pages are perfect blotters.

Carefully place your blooms on the pages, leaves several empty pages between each page of flowers.
Weight the book with more heavy books or bricks.
Wait two weeks, then switch the flowers to different pages for further drying. The pages can become damp, and if you switch pages, the drying time can be cut down.
Total drying time will probably be six to eight weeks.

Press Flowers with an iron

Place the flowers between layers of blotting paper (from the choices listed above).
Flatten the flowers by pressing with a heavy book.
Heat iron to low, without any water in the iron that could create steam.
Place the iron over the flowers carefully so the flowers stay in position.
Press for 10 to 15 seconds.
Change to fresh blotting paper and iron again.
Do this until the flowers are stiff and dry.

Press Flowers in the microwave

Using a microwave to dry flowers makes sense, as the faster you can dry the flowers, the less browning will occur. The only drawback with that is the fine line between perfectly pressed flowers and scorched flowers. Different flowers require various drying times, so you can’t load your blotting paper with a whole bouquet at one time.

Separate types of flowers and place between blotting papers.
Press flat with a book.
Place on microwave turntable.
Weight down with bricks.
Heat on high about 30 to 60 seconds.
Let the flowers cool, then zap again.
When flowers seem dry, but not browned, remove from microwave.
Finish drying at room temperature for a day or so.
Place your flowers in an arrangement.

Fire-Brick in Microwave Technique

My blogger friend Leslie Watkins shared the microwave fire-brick drying technique. The advantage of using fire-bricks is that they are contain silica, which is a natural drying agent. This technique is great for preserving color. Find her beautiful photos and recipe in this post.

You can purchase fire-bricks on Amazon.com* or at any hardware store, such as Lowes or Home Depot.

fire-brick-via-feetundermytable-com — via feetundermytable.com

Frames to display pressed flowers

We’ve found a few options for displaying your beautiful pressed flower arrangements.

We like the between-glass look the best!

Octagon Brass Floating Frame* or Square Glass Floating Frame Set*

Wooden Floated Frame*

Pressed Flower Frame Wedding Invitation

Preserve your wedding florals and your wedding invitation in the same arrangement!

After the flowers are pressed and dry, arrange them in one of the above frames with your wedding invitation. You can turn any picture frame into a floating frame: buy 2 identical frames, then remove the glass from one frame and place both pieces of glass in one frame. Do not place the backing or photo support back into the frame, so you can see through the glass.