Bellabeads Turns Your Wedding Flowers into Jewelry

If you accidentally ruined your wedding bouquet, or aren’t big into the idea of hanging them on your wall, Bellabeads has got your answer.

If there’s anything special that my dad and I share, it’s absolutely gardening. (That, and Star Wars, but that’s not the story we’re telling here.) Where I grew up, we had five acres of almost completely wooded land. Over the nearly twenty years we lived there, my dad slowly turned piece after piece into one beautiful garden after another—an endeavor (I like to think) I helped him with. Even now, when we catch up on our weekly phone calls, the current blooms and general status of what he’s been growing is always a staple of our conversation. Given all this, I think it’s easy to understand why I took things extremely seriously when it came to my wedding flowers.

 

I RUINED my bouquet

If you told me that there has never been, nor will there ever be, a person that agonized over the flowers they were getting for their wedding as much as I did, I would believe you. And I’m sure my husband, florist, coordinator, and bridesmaids all would as well (sorry everyone). Of course, they came out just fine, but when it came to preserving them after the whole shebang, something happened that I can’t explain. After working so hard to make sure they were perfect, after being so careful with them on our wedding day, after wringing my hands hoping they wouldn’t get taken away at customs (it was a destination wedding) and the overwhelming relief when they didn’t…I forgot to take them out of their plastic bag when we got home.

I didn’t take any pictures of what they looked like for obvious reasons. In addition to being in love with flowers, I’m obnoxiously sentimental. I was completely heartbroken. I tried to pick through to find some, any, that could be preserved, to no avail. If they weren’t moldy, they fell apart at the touch. So, motivated in what I’m sure was equal parts sentiment, determination, and denial, to the internet I went. Searching for alternative things to do with your wedding flowers mostly yielded images of beautiful, fresh flowers being sealed in resin and other things equally out of my reach. But then, on an old message board on a random bridal site, I found my answer: Bellabeads.

 

What exactly is Bellabeads?

Bellabeads (formerly My Flowers Forever) is an amazing little company that takes your flowers from special events—fresh or dried—and makes them into jewelry. Once the petals are received, they are freeze-dried for as much color retention as possible and turned into a workable paste using their exclusive technique. After this, their artists add the colors of your choosing to create a unique marbled effect. So, even if you only have sad, dried out flower petals to send their way, you can still get your jewelry made to match their original colors. Once they’re done with this stage, they fit the paste to the setting you’ve chosen, fire it, sand it, and finish it with a glass-like coating to secure its durability.

As for setting choice, the options are basically endless. Rings, earrings, tie bars, cufflinks, worry stones, necklaces, bookmarks, and keychains are all options you have to choose from. And if none of those speaks to you, or you’re looking for something a little bit different, their team will work with you to make sure you get just about anything you have your heart set on.

 

Our jewelry

So I reached out (of course). Their office manager, Jessica, got back to me almost instantly and got rid of all of my anxiety. I sent over images of the condition my flowers were in, as well as a description of what I was looking for and we were off! Joe and I discussed, and we decided to get something for each of us. I chose the Double Ring Pendant Necklace and he went with the Rectangular Cufflinks. They only took a couple of weeks to come in after we initially sent the petals off. I have to say, everything came out BEAUTIFULLY.

I absolutely couldn’t be happier with how great my necklace and Joe’s cufflinks look. Obviously, his will have to wait for a more special occasion, but I’ve been wearing mine basically every day. The good news is, they keep your leftover petals for a few months after they’re done creating your jewelry, in case you decide you’d like something else as well (don’t tell, but someone might be getting a tie bar for Christmas).

 

Other services

Before I go, I do want to mention that their services aren’t limited to just petal jewelry. They can also incorporate things like sand from the beach you were married on, leaves from a memorable trip, fabric that holds special meaning, or even ashes from a beloved pet into the beads. And for those of you that are a little more on it than I am, they also press, dry, and arrange living flowers. So, if you’ve got flowers from any kind of event, I can’t recommend enough that you check them out. Thanks to them I was able to swap out beating myself up over a sentimental loss with something gorgeous that I can treasure for years to come. I couldn’t be more grateful.

Find out more about them here.