Frequently Asked Questions

There are several good reasons to use dried flowers - firstly you don’t have to bin them after your big day! You can keep your flowers for years after the event, as long as you keep them away from direct sunlight and humidity. Bridesmaids can take their bouquets home as a memento of your wedding, too. Dried flower bouquets don’t wilt and won’t need to be put in water after your ceremony to keep them alive.

A dried bouquet is much, much lighter to hold than a traditional fresh flower bouquet. You can happily hold a smaller dried flower bouquet and a glass of fizz at the same time! This also means if you’re travelling far or abroad for your wedding, you can easily take your flowers with you and bring them back, too.

If you’re having your celebrations in two parts, for example an elopement and a party after at a later date, or a registry office ceremony followed by a larger, celebrant-led wedding - you can use the same flowers at both events!

The majority of the dried flowers I use aren’t the same as the fresh flowers you’ve likely seen a lot of. Many flowers sadly don’t dry very well, they just shrivel up and lose their colour or crumble. However, since I’ve been working with dried flowers, I’ve been able to use lots of different florals that I never used to when working with fresh!

A lot of the florals that I’ve been able to work with are actually grasses, such as bunny tails, canary grass, pampas, oats, wheat, and miscanthus (silvergrass). For focal flowers, I often use poppy heads, large thistles, and nigella seed pods - and others that are familiar to the fresh flower world, including achillea, statice, limoneum, ruscus, broom, and gypsophilia.

If you are wanting specific flowers, sometimes I can use preserved flowers (more info on those in a sec!) like roses, peonies, carnations, and hydrangeas. Green foliage doesn’t really exist in dried flowers as it fades and crumbles, so I tend to create arrangements that don’t need foliage. If you really do want green foliage in with your flowers, I can include preserved foliage such as eucalyptus or olive, or even autumnal preserved beech leaves.

All the flowers I use were fresh once upon a time! But dried flowers are quite stiff and sometimes brittle after being hung upside down in a controlled environment, so that they keep their colour and shape as much as possible. Many dried flowers are naturally colourful, such as limoneum (statice), amaranthus, achillea, nigella… Some others are painted or dyed, or even bleached to achieve different shades.

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Preserved flowers and foliage have been taken out of water and put straight into a glycerine solution, which is often mixed with colourful dyes. The stems drink up the glycerine to preserve the flowers and leaves so that they look and feel like fresh flowers, but will only last for over a year.

Because of the dye used in preserving flowers, you’re able to have colours that you wouldn’t usually with fresh. Some examples of preserved flowers that I use a lot are rose heads, hydrangeas, and foliage such as eucalyptus, olive, and beech. 

As the process for preserving flowers is more complicated than drying, preserved flowers tend to be more expensive. They’re also less stable than dried, hating sudden changes in temperature and humidity, so occasionally the glycerine will weep a little through the stems.

Surprisingly not - they’re actually quite hardy! Naturally, there will be some parts of the flower that will fall off but this is to be expected. Of course, dried flowers don’t need any water and when I send them out to you I package the flowers with plenty of padding and tissue paper. Don’t be afraid to wave your bouquet around as much as you like on your wedding day!

Check out my gallery or product pages if you want to see specific examples - but your flowers aren’t limited to what you see here! If you do have any other ideas or inspiration pictures, let me know.

Having been a florist for many years, I’ve created fresh flower arrangements of all shapes and sizes, and see no reason to limit this just because I’m using dried flowers.

Once we’ve spoken about your venue and budget, I can help you design pieces such as ceremony decorations, aisle arrangements, and table centrepieces that suit your style and timings of the wedding.

Wherever possible, I design pieces that can be used more than once, i.e. for the ceremony and during the reception.

I normally prefer to have at least a couple of months to design, source, and create your flowers - but I have loads of flowers in stock so can usually cater for last minute requests if I need to!

I don’t have a minimum order value! If you just want a headdress or a couple of buttonholes, that’s fine. Bridal bouquets start at £100, bridesmaids at £50. £1000 should roughly cover bridal and bridesmaid bouquets, buttonholes, headdresses, and perhaps some mini table decorations or a backdrop arrangement. If you’re looking to add more floral decorations and installation, the price will increase.

If you’re within an hour of me (Cheltenham), I will try and deliver the flowers to you in person. If you’re a little further afield, I usually send the flowers using DPD next day delivery. If you have lots of venue decorations, this means there might be several big boxes to send!

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You can find more information about my approach to getting you wedding-ready here.

Put your bouquet in a vase on a shelf away from direct sunlight. You might want to remove the preserved foliage as, like I mentioned earlier, the dye from this might weep and stain the rest of your dried flowers over time.

If you’re wanting to put your headdress or buttonholes on display, some people put these in a box frame to do so.

Venue decorations can be fixed to the wall for a feature piece in your living room, and table arrangements can be nice gifts for your guests and relations!