After my wedding, I did not have an extra $600 lying

After my wedding, I did not have an extra $600 lying around to get my bouquet preserved So I'm gonna show you how I pressed my own You don't wanna wait too long, so I took mine apart a few days after the wedding My bouquet was primarily calla lilies, which in doing my research, I found out is one of the hardest flowers to press and that's because they hold so much water in the stems So I cut all the stems in half and also cut the stamens in half for good measure Because these hold so much water, I pressed them in the microwave first by sandwiching them between paper towels and heavy plates I put them in for 30 second increments and kept replacing the paper towel until most of the water was gone from the flowers Two rounds of 30 second increments worked really well for my calla lilies By the way, this will make your house stink and your allergies flare up The other flowers in my bouquet didn't take nearly as long in the microwave and the amaranthus didn't even need the microwave So depending on how dry your flowers are, just keep an eye on them and make sure not to fry them Then I put them all in this $25 flower press and left them there until I got back from our honeymoon I rub n buffed this oval frame and then I played with the placement of the flowers This was the hardest part, but when I decided on everything, I just used Mod Podge to stick it in place It might not be perfect, but I love how it came out and I can't wait to hang it up