Now that you're married, you can start on the next chapter of your life: dealing with all of the stuff left over from your wedding! If you're anything like I am, you probably have some important items from your wedding you might not want to stick in a shoe box in the back of the closet quite yet. For me, it was my fantasy sword bouquet. Here's how I made a DIY bouquet display to keep it in view forever.

I had a Lord of the Rings wedding (originally featured here!) and made all of the flowers for my bouquet, as well as using a sword hilt as the handle (something similar happened here!). It took me six months just to make all of the flowers for the seven bouquets for my girls and myself, and I'm obviously not quite over it yet. So I knew I had to do something else with this other than just putting it in storage. It took up so much of my life, I must subject others to it.

I bought an old Lord of the Rings sword plaque and hung it in my house. Which is fitting since it's still sort of serving its purpose - holding a sword and all. I had to do a bit of work and dismantle my bouquet a bit, and you may have to as well, but just remember, it has served its purpose and now it's time for it to live its life in majestic retirement on your wall.

Disclaimer: I do realize that not everyone had a sword at their wedding, and that's okay (maybe), but this will still work with any faux flower bouquet.

What you'll need for your bouquet display:

1. Your bouquet
2. A wall plaque or something to hang it on. Craft and hobby stores sell many different options from finished cut shapes to natural looking pieces of raw wood. The options are limitless, though you will need to be able to drill into it.
3. A holder of some kind. I used two decorative hooks I found at a craft store, but for a more traditional bouquet, try looking for a tool holder ring, spring clips, a bridle ring, a utility hook, or splurge for something a bit more expensive but very nice looking such as a 1-2 inch inside diameter ceiling curtain bracket. It is important to look at the diameter of your bouquet handle and make sure it will fit into whatever holder you buy. You can always paint or wrap ribbon around some not-so-pretty hooks, or not, because they'll most likely be hidden by your bouquet anyway.
4. Screws, nails, or other fastener hardware to attach your bouquet holder to your wooden base.
5. Tools such as a hammer, drill, or screw driver, to use on your screws or nails.
6. You may need wire cutters and a knife to cut Styrofoam if your bouquet has a Styrofoam base.

How to assemble your bouquet display:

Step 1:

Depending on your bouquet holder and the bouquet itself, you may need to remove some flowers from the back of your bouquet so it will sit better. I personally decided to remove the back half of my bouquet so it would sit flat along the shield. I wasn't too upset about removing the flowers because like I said, it had served its purpose and I think displaying it this way is better than keeping it whole and potentially crushing the flowers in the back. But deciding to remove some flowers is up to you, and I believe with the right holder, you may find a way to display your bouquet without removing anything.

I removed my flowers simply by pulling them out of the Styrofoam ball they were stuck into. I then used a serrated kitchen knife to cut the Styrofoam ball flat. However, you might want to use wire cutters to trim fake flowers if they are on stems.

Step 2:

You'll need to attach your bouquet holder to your wall base. Depending on which holder you've chosen to go with, you can either screw it or nail it to your base. If your bouquet isn't too heavy, and your holder allows, you can even try using those 3M strips, but do check their weight limits.

Be sure to hold your bouquet up to the wall base before attaching your holder to ensure it's centered, or at a height you'd like your bouquet to be before attaching the holder.

I used two hook bolts that screwed to the shield with a nut. I pre-drilled a hole for each hook and secured it with the nuts. I then had to use a Dremel to cut the bolt down, but if you use the proper length screws or nails, this shouldn't be an issue.

Step 3:

Depending on what bouquet holder you've chosen to go with, you have a few options. If your bouquet was too wide for the holder and you had to remove some flowers from the back, you can just set your bouquet into the holder and you're good to go. If you didn't remove any flowers, you may be able to tilt your bouquet at an angle where no flowers are crushed, it all just depends on the shape and width of your bouquet.

Now, just hang it where ever you please! I simply set mine into the hooks and it was great. It's still a bit wide, even after cutting half of the flowers off, but I have it in my hall where no one is sure to hit it.

Are you repurposing any of your wedding flowers or decor?