Portugal has become one of Europe's favourite places to get married: the light, the quintas, the coastline, the food. Every year we receive flowers from couples who travelled from the UK, Ireland, the US, Germany and beyond to say their vows here.
And almost all of them face the same little heartbreak at the end of the weekend: the bouquet stays behind.
Why you can't just take it home
Fresh flowers rarely survive the journey, and in many cases they are not even allowed to make it: agricultural customs rules restrict bringing fresh plants across borders, especially outside the EU. Between the flight, the heat and the days without water, even a bouquet that technically could travel would arrive in no state to keep.
The good news: you don't have to choose between your bouquet and your flight.
The solution: preserve it in Portugal, receive it at home
At our studio in Coimbra we preserve wedding bouquets through botanical pressing: each flower is pressed individually with humidity control, recomposed into a design you approve remotely, and framed with anti-UV museum glass. The finished piece then ships to your home, carefully packed, worldwide.
You fly home with your memories. Months later, your bouquet arrives at your door as a piece of art.
How your flowers reach us
This is the part that worries couples most, and it is simpler than it sounds. There are three ways:
- Pickup at your venue. Depending on the location and date, our team can collect the bouquet directly at the quinta or hotel (quoted separately). You literally hand it over at the party.
- Shipping within Portugal. Your planner, venue coordinator or a local friend can send the flowers to us from anywhere in the country. We wrote a step-by-step guide to shipping your flowers with the exact packing method.
- Hand delivery in Coimbra. If your route passes through the centre of Portugal, you can deliver the bouquet by hand (by appointment, weekends included).
The important detail: flowers should reach us within the first 6 days after the wedding, kept in water, somewhere cool, away from the sun.
A tip that makes everything easy
Before the wedding, assign the bouquet to someone: your wedding planner, the venue coordinator, a bridesmaid who lives in Portugal. Their only job is to put it in water after the party and hand it to us (or ship it). Couples who plan this small detail in advance never have to think about it on the day.
Many Portuguese wedding planners already know us, and we work directly with them on the logistics. If yours doesn't, just introduce us by email or WhatsApp and we take it from there, in English.
What happens next
From the moment your flowers arrive, the process takes up to 6 months: pressing cannot be rushed. You follow everything remotely:
- A private tracking link shows the current stage of your order at any moment
- The final design is approved by you before anything is glued permanently
- When the frame is ready, we pack it for international transport and ship it to your address
Already home without the bouquet?
If you are reading this after the honeymoon and the bouquet is long gone, there is still an option: we recreate bouquets with similar fresh flowers from a photograph, and preserve those instead.
Start here
The best moment to book is as soon as you know your wedding date, since summer slots fill up early. Learn more about wedding bouquet preservation, check options and pricing, or simply talk to us on WhatsApp, we reply in English.
