For our October wedding we played the DIY card. With a budget of $2,500 we had very little wiggle room when it came to spending, but one thing I really wanted was a nice bouquet. I considered making it myself, but there are some crafts in this world that I’m just not great at – sewing, cooking and flower arrangements are just a few of these things.

After getting a few quotes from local florists, I was about the throw in the towel. Flowers are stinking expensive ya’ll!! My mom talked me off the edge and offered to help with the flowers. She thought they were important, “you only get married once” and since I’d only spent $90 on my dress and had made all other decorations for under $150, we decided we could bump up the budget an extra $600 to get proper wedding flowers. After a bridal bouquet, 2 bridesmaid bouquets, 9 boutonnieres, and 6 corsages, our wedding flowers clocked in at just $683.

That’s cheap as far as wedding flowers go, but it’s a lot of money for something that doesn’t last, so I was determined to salvage some of that expense in the form of wedding keepsakes. Luckily, succulents are easy to “keep”.

My bouquet was pretty pooped just one day after the wedding, but check out how pretty those succulents still look!

I decided to replant as many of the succulents as I could. Since succulents are similar to cactus, they’re almost impossible to kill. In fact, the only way to really kill them is to overwater.

But, I also wanted to keep some of the yellow baby roses and billy balls. I let the roses dry on the stalk, so they’d maintain there shape and then tucked them into a miniature galvanized pail, which now sits on my Pepsi Crate Shelf. The billy balls got a little ribbon and then were “planted” into a galvanized pail, as well.

It’s been 4 months since the nuptials and all my “keepsakes” are still in tact and looking good.