Wedding Keepsake Shadowbox
After my friend’s wedding, I brought home some of the flowers and wanted to do something special for her. I decided to preserve the beautiful flowers and make a wedding keepsake shadowbox to give her on her first anniversary.
Our friends were married at an inn in Rockport, Ma. We all stayed at the inn for the weekend and it was so much fun!! My husband even performed the ceremony!! (you can get a one-day marriage designation in Mass and perform a wedding for friends or family)
The Inn is right on an oceanside cove and was the perfect spot for 2 sea-loving people to tie the knot!!
I brought home a couple of the rings of flowers from the reception home so I could make a keepsake for them.
After doing a little google research, I thought preserving them was better than drying the flowers out; I ordered a bag of silica gel flower drying crystals.
The first thing I did was go through the flowers to find the best ones. Since I was using flowers from a centerpiece the stems were already cut down pretty short and the leaves were removed.
The secret to using silica gel to preserve flowers is making sure all the flowers are completely covered with the crystals and then stored in an airtight container. The big Rubbermaid rectangle food containers were perfect, and I could fit lots of flowers in each one.
Then I waited…. I actually waited until just before their 1st wedding anniversary to put together the wedding keepsake shadowbox!!
The silica gel that I used changes from orange to green when the moisture has been removed from the flowers and they are ready to use…but since I waited so long to do this project I knew they were super ready!!
I gently removed the flowers from the silica gel and shook off the beads trapped in the petals.
There was a mixture of pink roses, sea holly, silver dollar eucalyptus, seeded eucalyptus, dusty miller, white hydrangeas, and celosia.
I gently removed the flowers from the silica gel and shook off the beads trapped in the petals.
There was a mixture of pink roses, sea holly, silver dollar eucalyptus, seeded eucalyptus, dusty miller, white hydrangeas, and celosia.
My plan was to cover the back of the shadow box with greenery and then layer the flowers on top…I didn’t want any of the fabric backing exposed.
The first things I added to the shadow box were the silver dollar eucalyptus and dusty miller.
I used hot glue to secure everything in place…I could see the glue through the eucalyptus leaves but not on any of the other flowers.
This was a figure it out as I go project! I kinda played around with the flower placement before gluing them in place.
I couldn’t get over how well the roses kept their color and shape!
One trick I did was cut the back portion of a couple of the roses off…I snipped straight across the back while holding the front of the bud tight in my hands so it didn’t fall apart (use sharp scissors)… then I covered the back with hot glue and placed it in the shadowbox standing straight up.
The star holly was spectacular!! They were meant to be preserved!!
A little paintbrush helped me add delicate petals and flowers for the finishing touches to the shadowbox.
A little paintbrush helped me add delicate petals and flowers for the finishing touches to the shadowbox.
I couldn’t get over just how perfect the white hydrangea petals look!
Oh, I really love how it all came together!! The mix of textures and colors is so pretty.
...And the best part is that my friend loved it!
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Debbie Westgate- Guyot-Sliwa on Sep 02, 2023
Very thoughtful and so pretty!
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