This coming Saturday I will be getting married. I’m excited, and anxious for this day to come — it’s quickly approaching. Over the course of the last 14 months since I proposed to the most wonderful girl on this planet, we’ve had many decisions to make. Who to invite, where to hold the reception, what day to have the wedding, who to use for catering, and most importantly, do we or don’t we include 3D printed decorations: all had to be decided upon.
Ultimately we decided against overdoing the 3D printing angle, as my family, and soon-to-be wife’s family, already think I’m obsessed with the technology (I probably am just a bit), and we just didn’t have the time to plan it all out and have it all 3D printed. With that said, we certainly did entertain the idea and I personally have done mountains of research on what we could perhaps have 3D printed. There were wedding favors, cake toppers, centerpieces, decorations, and even wedding rings, which all could have been fabricated via additive manufacturing. It seemed like one of the few things I didn’t uncover was a 3D printed wedding bouquet. That’s until now!
Dr. Candice Majewski, a 36-year-old lecturer at the University of Sheffield in England, appears to be just as obsessed with 3D printing as I am. For over 15 years she has been researching the technology, and when it came time to get married, she decided that 3D printing had to play at least a small part. In what is the first-ever known 3D printed wedding bouquet, Majewski had her best friend, Dr. Guy Bingham, design and print it for her. It took Bingham a staggering 40 hours to create this intricate piece, 18 hours of which included the actual 3D printing.
“I carry out research into 3D printing and I love what I do, so I thought it would be really cool to make it part of our wedding,” explained Majewski.
In total the bouquet houses nine white roses, printed with a nylon material, on an EOS Formiga P 100 3D Printer at the University of Sheffield’s Centre for Advanced Additive Manufacturing. Once complete it was packaged and shipped to the US where she married Bret Hughes at the Butterfly House of Indianapolis Zoo.
“We only had a small ceremony, with my husband’s immediate family, but it was a lovely day and the flowers went down well,” explained Majewski to TheStar. “It is lovely because I
now have something that will last forever, that I can even pass down to any children and grandchildren. It would be interesting to see how advanced they seem to our grandchildren in the future.”
Since the bouquet is 3D printed and not actual living flowers, there are both benefits and shortcomings to the piece. Since it took so many hours to design and print, it would have been heartbreaking to damage it, therefore Majewski did not actually throw the bouquet as tradition usually dictates. On the other hand, unlike real flowers, these will not wilt or decay, meaning that this intricate piece can be saved for years to come as a reminder of this cherished day.
Are you getting married soon? Would you consider having your bouquet 3D printed? Let us know your thoughts in the 3D Printed Wedding Bouquet forum thread on 3DPB.com.
