I never thought about what I would do with my flowers after our wedding.
I wish I would have planned to have my bouquet pressed, or dried out by a professional, or put into some sort of resin to keep it looking fresh. Despite my lack of planning, one of my bridesmaids hung my bouquet upside down to dry it out. So, then I had a dried out, dead bouquet. And I had no idea what to do with it.
I wanted to preserve my wedding flowers in a way that would make them look as bright and full of life as they were on my wedding day. These lifeless flowers weren't going to cut it. I also needed something to fill up all this new free time that I had since I wasn't planning a wedding anymore.
And that's when I began practicing on my friends' wedding bouquets and learning embroidery stitches as I went. I found embroidery to be restful and relaxing. Some of my best thinking is done over an embroidery hoop. But the most delightful part of this newfound hobby is seeing the smile of a bride seeing her bouquet captured in colorful thread for the first time. It brings me joy to know that each couple will have a bouquet that has the chance of lasting throughout their entire marriage, hung on different walls in different homes as their family grows, or perhaps hung on the same wall for the next 50 years as they grow old together.
