Flowers-what to do after the wedding?

Hi Seleena,

If you have a large wedding like mine, I'd suggest making an announcement during your reception that guests can take the flowers at their table home (if you're renting your vases, make sure you're clear that the vases need to stay). Usually, if that's the case, the florist will arrange them so they are portable without a vase.

Also, if you have large arrangements like altar florals or extra florals for decor, you can have all the florals set aside at the welcome table once the dancing starts and make sure your MC lets your guests know that aside from table florals they can also take the other florals set out at the welcome table. This will help with decreasing the amount of decor/florals you and your family members need to take home. This way, your guests will be able to enjoy flowers for the next week.

View quoted message I'm using the same florist as you!! She's LOVELY! I will also be donating my flowers back to her for Smiles for Seniors. I think it's such a sweet idea!!

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That's actually a fun game! I've never heard of donating to a home or hospice but that's what a lot of people are recommending which is such a nice idea.

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How adorable! That makes it extra special because all of the residents will know you.

I'm keeping my bouquet, but I'm not sure what I'll be doing with it yet. I'd like to preserve it somehow. The girls can all take their bouquets.

We'll have a large vase of flowers on the card box table. I was thinking of giving that to my grandma to enjoy, but the vase is a rental, so we'd have to transfer the flowers to a different vase.

Pretty sure that our ceremony arch will die the next day or so as it wont be in water. Other than that we just have greenery down the table, so no centrepieces to worry about really.

I plan on letting guests take the centrepieces and I may keep one of the bouquets from the head table! Anything left we will likely donate to the church or toss... sad to say toss but theres really only so much you can do with so many... maybe I'll turn one into a potpourri

View quoted message That’s amazing. I was wondering what I was going to do with mine - this is a great idea!

My florist actually created a little charity called Smiles for Seniors. She picks up all the leftover flowers and recreates small bouquets out of all of them and hands them out to seniors at local nursing homes and hospices.
I'll be drying out my bouquet after our wedding but the rest of our florals will be picked back up to by my florist for her cause!

I think the plan is to work the centrepieces into a prize for a game we’ll play with everyone! For example, whoever wins the “guess what age the bride & groom took their first trip together” from each table gets to take the centrepiece home at the end of the night! If we have any guests who choose not to take a centrepiece home, I think donating them to a retirement home or a hospice would be a nice idea too!

We will be donating them to a retirement home and/or hospice. When my dad was in palliative care people used to donate them to that floor of the hospital as well. It was a nice gesture for sure!

My fiancée and I both work at the same nursing home. I plan to take them there afterwards

I will be getting artificial flowers, but my Mom had her bouquet dried and the rest they let guests take home. If mine were real I would do the same, just maybe have the petals in a shadow box or something rather than dried all together in the bouquet like she did.

View quoted message Yes, I think that is an amazing idea!

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You could probably donate them to a hospital or nursing home or somewhere along those lines? Put them in patients rooms to cheer them up or something?

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These are great ideas. I should have probably mentioned, all of my guests are out of town and won't be able to fly home with the flowers. So, that's off the table.

Some people take come flowers from their bouquet and get them pressed or dried afterwards for scrapbooking or stuff.

One wedding we went to only had the flowers in the bouquets and centerpieces. After dinner they announced that whoever's birthday was next at each table got to take home the centerpieces so a bunch of guests got lovely arrangements.

I dried my bouquet. The bridesmaids took their own bouquets. We had flowers on the arch which we just threw out after. Our centrepieces were potted plants, and they were also the favour. Any that people didn't take died while we were on our honeymoon. In retrospect, we should've asked someone to take care of them while we were gone, but they were annuals, so they only had another month before they would've died anyway.

For my friends wedding, I took all the centrepieces home (and a few of the bridesmaids bouquets) and gave them to some of my clients (I worked at a food bank depot at the time, so the first few clients I had I asked if they wanted fresh flowers).

My cousin gave away her centrepieces to the person at the table whose birthday was closest to their wedding. Some people still didn't take them home though.

I've also heard of people donating them to a hospital. Maybe even a group home or organization that works with low-income, disabled, at-risk, homeless people would accept them.