Water Beads/Aqua Beads Question

The aqua beads stay up for at least 6 hrs, they then start to shrink but only very slowly, if you make the beads up a couple of days before you get married then add water to them to rehydrate them they will go back to normal size. they only shrink if you keep them in the open air, if you put them in a carrier bag and knot the top they will stay in the fully hydrated state for longer, hope that helps

I brought some aqua beads to test and ive just thrown them away. they have been going for two weeks and although they have shrunk they were still a decent size.

Sorry to hi-jack... i love your centrepieces! Where did you get the vases from?

They shrink really really slowly, i made up a practice batch & 2months later they are still not back to their original size! You can make them up quite early & just spray them with water to keep them hydrated. Keeping them in a bag or something is prob a good idea because mine went a bit mouldy when left exposed to the air - this took ages before the mould was visible though & they were clear not coloured ones

I have some i brought a month ago, i've kept them in a tupperware pot and they are still the exact same size!

Thanks everyone. I think I'll sort the flowers out a month or so before then (we used clear tape to hold the stems in place), and then just add the beads a few days before as obviously we can't keep them in air tight containers once they're in the vases.

Sparkles, Thank you- we were really pleased with this trial run. Vases were an ebay find I'm afraid, just a private seller who luckily was just up the road so we could collect. Got a bargain though 7 for £20.

Hi Tracey! I thought of doing this also for my wedding centerpiece and I found this site http://crystalwaterbeads.com that offers a cheap price for wholesale water beads with vases. Hope it can help lower down your cost for centerpiece. Will post a picture of my craft soon.