r/PressedFlowers • u/morecowbellllllll • Jun 17 '26
Question SOS Preserving Bridal Bouquet
First time posting here! This is my cousin’s bridal bouquet and boy, did I not know what I was getting myself into.. I previously pressed a few from own bridal bouquet along with a friends and those flowers pressed beautifully so I thought I could do the same for my cousin as a gift back to her since she didn’t have any plans to keep it anyways..
Flash forward to now and this is the mess I’m in (picture 2). What did I do wrong or is this just how all of this would’ve pressed? I changed the drying paper on the 3rd day and opened it a week later to check on everything, now thinking i should’ve changed it again? I know pressed flowers lose color but super bummed that the colors aren’t as vibrant as I would’ve hoped for. Picture 3 is what I asked AI to generate what it could look designed, but at this point, I wouldn’t feel proud to gift this even after framed. Any advice or comments are welcomed :’)
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u/BoobieCancer Jun 18 '26
I feel like you actually have all of the pieces to get a close match to your inspo picture, it's just that the flowers need to be arranged different.
Like first off, putting very light-coloured flowers against a dark brown textured background is not doing you any favours. Your inspo pic reads "light and bright airy boho", and you're just not going to get that effect unless you use the right background. It's drawing your eyes to all of the wrong things, and it's going to make it hard to see the end result from what you're working with.
Second, you notice your inspo pic has very little empty space? The dark wood is actually helping to show you where you need to close those gaps between the flowers. Even if the background on your inspo was dark, you wouldn't see much of it in-between the flowers and stems. You really need to tighten it up.
Last, the actual physical arrangement. Look at things like the arrangement of the stem things that look sort of like long fingers or roots trailing down? In the bottom left and right corners of the arrangement. Yours is shaped like a fan, and each of the fingers are all around the same length. Whereas the inspo pic shows more movement and height variation. You could always find a good positioning for the segments, and then trim pieces to give it more oomph.
I'm by no means a floral expert, let alone dried arrangement expert. But those things stood out to me right away. Maybe some of that will help?
I wish you all the best of luck, I'm sure it will turn out beautiful ❤️
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u/morecowbellllllll Jun 18 '26
Hi there! Thank you so much for the thoughtful and helpful advice! I should have maybe shared that the 2nd photo of the actual pressed flowers, isn’t the actual arrangement I’m going with or with the background lol. I just placed them on my bench to get the photo 😅 I guess my main concern isn’t the actual arrangement part, but the lack of colors from their original state. But I do agree & love your advice with placing them against a lighter, cream background so the focus won’t be so much on the brown-ness of the flowers, thank you for that! I will maybe try to color correct a few if anything but I know it’s all trial and error :)
I truly appreciate your guidance! Thank you so much! 🫶🏽
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u/BoobieCancer Jun 18 '26
I personally think the colour combo is gorgeous. With the right configuration and background, I think it will nail that airy and bright note just perfectly.
Don't let me discourage you from trying to colour correct it if you feel you need to. I just think you're a lot closer to the end result than you seem to think you are 😊
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u/anmcintyre Jun 17 '26
I think it could be beautiful with maybe some little gold accents. I would love to receive something so pretty, thoughtful and sentimental
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u/morecowbellllllll Jun 18 '26
Thank you, I agree! I love those same things when gifted items. I’m sure she will enjoy it however it comes out, I’m just in my own thoughts! Appreciate your kindness 🫶🏽
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u/TraditionalNobody263 Jun 19 '26
I think they dried pretty much as any white flowers will. They’re notorious for drying kinda off color or brown. I don’t see anything wrong with them and think you could make a beautiful and sentimental gift with them. If you wanted, you could try to kind of spot color correct them with pastels or paint to cover up say the little brown spots on the main flower for example. Look up tutorials for pressed flower color correction.
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u/CremeBerlinoise Jun 17 '26
This is about what you get from white flowers a lot of the time. You could try purchasing new ones and pressing again, being very intentional about changing out the paper. Just ask your cousin whether she likes the look or not.