DIY: Bridal bouquet anniversary card

Five years, people. That's how long Jeff and I have been married as of last weekend. In some way it feels like I was walking down the aisle last week. In other ways it feels as though we could be celebrating our 25th anniversary with all the adventures and babies (and stress) we've crammed into such a short time. Either way, life is pretty sweet when you marry your best friend.

I wish I could say I had the brilliant idea way back on our wedding day to save my bouquet so I could take a photo of it years later and turn that photo into an anniversary card. That's not the case. The idea came me about three days before our anniversary. Want to do the same with your bouquet? Here's how I made it happen.

Drying: The technique I used to dry my peony bouquet was to throw it into a vase (without water) in my closet with a stack of wedding paraphernalia before we left for our honeymoon, then forget about it for a few months. Eventually I unearthed the bouquet and was pleasantly surprised that it looked incredible, thanks to my superior flower drying skills. I put that vase and bouquet on a table next to a display of wedding photos, where it's been sitting for around 4.5 years.

Photo: I took the bouquet, still in its glass vase, outside onto our back deck when it was in full shade and positioned the vase on an old wooden porch table that I like to use as a background. I stood on a chair above the bouquet and took photos with my aperture almost completely open, making sure to leave some empty space in the corner where I could add text later without making the image too busy.

Text: I used Photoshop to add text. (My text inspiration came from this pin.) If you don't have software you can use to add text or aren't sure how to do it, you could take a photo with your phone and add text with A Beautiful Mess. (There are probably a lot of similar apps out there, but I just learned about this one.) Or you can just leave the text off.

Printing: Once I added the text, I dropped the photo into a Photoshop template for a 5x7 card and had the card printed by Pro Digital Photos, though many photo printing websites offer this service. You could also just order the photo and use double-sided tape to affix it to a blank card from a craft or stationery store.

Bragging: Be sure to inform your spouse that you made the card from your (or your spouse's) bridal bouquet, because he/she will be quite impressed.