The Basics…

Q: Do you take preservation pre-orders or reservations?

Yes! We prefer to plan ahead, especially if your wedding is in the super-busy months of May, June, September and October! You can pre-book your designs, make your initial payment, and pre-schedule bouquet delivery. Pre-planning makes the entire process much easier.

Q: HELP! I decided that I wanted to preserve my wedding flowers and didn’t plan ahead. What should I do next?

Here’s what to do:

1. Text or call us at 937-709-9117 to schedule your drop off day and time for your florals. Please note that we are closed on Sundays and Mondays. Ideally, we want to get your flowers within 72 hours because the fresher the flowers the better the end design.

2. Re-cut the stems of the bouquet and place it in a vase full of cold water.

3. DO NOT wrap tightly! DO NOT freeze/refrigerate your flowers!

4. Remember to contact us as soon as possible for your preserVation needs.
   

Q: I’m leaving for my honeymoon right away. How do I get my bouquet/flowers to you?

There are two ways to get your wedding day bouquet or flowers* to us for preservation in the Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio area.

1. Family or friends often bring us bouquets. They just need to schedule a drop-off day and time with us at our Bellbrook, Ohio location. Please make sure they know the proper way to store the flowers (see above) until the scheduled drop-off.

2. We work with many wedding planners and venue coordinators. You can make arrangements with them prior to the wedding to take your bouquet and any other wedding flowers you want preserved. If your planner or venue coordinator hasn’t worked with us before, please have them contact us so that we can walk them through the process.

*Keep in mind that if you are wanting multiple preservation keepsakes, a single bouquet will not have enough flowers to go around. Consider bringing us centerpieces, additional bouquets or other floral arrangements from your event, as well.

Q: Do you require a payment with flower drop-off?

To preserve your flowers in our state-of-the-art freeze dryer, we do require a deposit of $300 (plus tax) at or before drop-off. This amount goes toward the final cost of your preservation keepsake.

Q: After the wedding, I am moving out of state. Do you ship preservation keepsakes?

Due to the very delicate nature of the glass displays and ornaments, we DO NOT SHIP those particular keepsakes. We will ship resin items, for an additional fee. If you would like to skip the cost of shipping, you can have friend or family member pick up your order for you.

Preservation Design Questions

Q: Do you offer design consultations?

Yes! You can easily schedule a design consultation before you drop off your flowers by texting us at 937-709-9117. We are happy to send you examples of past designs and walk you through the process!

Q: Do preserved flower colors look different than the original flower colors?

As with any natural color, color fluctuations can happen during the freeze drying and silica drying process. When you look on our website, you will see beautifully preserved flowers. You just have to know that all of those designs are slightly different than their original living counterparts.

• White and Cream Flowers: Sometimes get an ‘antique’ or a tea-stain look to them.

• Greenery: Some greenery will darken or slightly brown in color.

• Pinks and Purple Flowers: Can change color hue, either lightening or darkening.

• Purple Flowers: Can change color hue and vibrancy, either lightening or darkening.

• Red Flowers: Reds are always the guilty party when it comes to the most variation.​ Sometimes they dry fire engine red just as you want, but they mostly (90% of the time) turn a burgundy, deep purply-red, or sometimes even a dark chocolate color (typically with mums).

  • If You Have Red Flowers: Please understand that we have no control over the color-change that will occur with these flowers. If you do not think the color scheme will be what you want, we suggest that you reconsider preserving your flowers, as this is beyond our control.

Please remember that your flowers are no longer living...so they will never look exactly as they did when you brought them to us. We will take every step possible to minimize color variations during our process; however, we do not guarantee freeze dried or silica dried flower shades.

Additionally, we can only preserve your flowers in the condition in which we receive them. We strongly urge you to follow our handling instructions for the best results. Quality in equals quality out!

Q: Are there any types of flowers that you won’t freeze dry or silica dry?

The only flowers we have to turn away are those flowers that are simply too damaged to work with. However, there are also flowers that may require an extra fee to freeze dry: Mums and Dahlias. By nature, these flowers have dozens of petals that have a tendency to fall completely out of the flower’s pistil. This means we have to reconstruct the flower by gluing in each petal. You can imagine how time consuming that can be, especially if you had a lot of them in your bouquet.

Q: Do you offer shadowboxes?

We used to offer shadowboxes before Covid. However, we had to remove them from our current offerings (beginning May 2022) as supply chain issues were wreaking havoc with orders. Every week there were new shortages, outages, and shipping delays. In fairness to our clients, we could no longer offer these products not knowing if there would be the resources available to fulfill orders.

Q: I had a small bouquet, but would like a large glass display and maybe some other gifts for the mothers. Can you preserve other flowers from my wedding besides my bouquet?

Yes, if you know that you would like to make several gifts for parents, grandparents, your bridesmaids, and yourself, we can preserve your bouquet and other special flowers from your centerpieces, bridesmaids bouquets, and more!

Q: Can I add other keepsakes to my glass display?

Yes, we can add other mementos like your wedding invitation, cake topper, wedding photo, and other keepsakes. Be sure to let us know what else you are wanting to include and bring them to your design consultation. Please keep in mind that glass boxes are only 3-4 inches deep, so some objects might not fit.

How does the process work?

Q: Are these dried flowers or something different?

Our process is vastly different than what you typically find on Etsy or advertised on social media. The majority of those are simple ‘hang flowers upside down until they dry,’ pressing flowers, or drying them with silica.

We have two $30,000 state-of-the-art freeze drying machines that are actually food and medical grade machines that also happen to work fabulously for floral freeze drying. These machines remove all the water from frozen botanicals as water vapor, and collect that water vapor as ice in a condenser. With the botanicals solidly frozen during the process, and under a deep vacuum, shrinkage is minimized, and a high quality preservation will result.

The process requires the flowers to be frozen in the machine and then gradually the temperature is raised to stimulate sublimation (ice crystals changing directly to water vapor). Over a period of 12-15 days all the water from the botanicals will sublimate and go into a condensation chamber. The water vapor turns back into ice in this very cold (-40° F or lower) condensation chamber. Defrosting the condensation chamber removes moisture from the freeze drying system. When ice quits forming in the condenser the flowers are now officially freeze dried.

Bet you feel smarter now, don’t you!? This concludes today’s science lesson ;-)

Q: How long until my finished designs are ready?

Our typical completion time is 10-12 months AFTER your final payment, delivery of any additional keepsake supplies, and finalizing your order details.

We know that this feels like a really long time, but it’s all part of the actual process needed to carefully document and dismantle your bouquet/flowers, pre-treat, freeze dry, apply special post-drying applications, and re-stem each flower before we can even begin the reassembly process. Each one of our designs is done by hand, and corners simply can’t be cut.

Even our resin art requires a lengthy labor-intensive process. Resin art needs multiple layers of resin, each layer taking 24+ hours to cure before pouring the next. After 7-8 layers (or more), an additional 24 hours is needed before pulling the floral block from the mold.

Q: What happens to my leftover flowers?

Typically we do not have many leftover flowers as some breakage naturally happens in the preservation process. The flowers that are not used in your art pieces can be sent back with your order upon request and for an additional fee of $250. The request must be made at the time you deliver your flowers. This request is handled on a case-by-case basis.

Why is there an extra fee for returning unused flowers? Very simple. They still had to be cut, rehydrated, freeze dried or dried in silica, stored and handled multiple times.

Q: Do preserved flower colors change over time?

With any natural or man-made color, freeze dried flowers will slightly change over the years. Colors can slightly antique or soften over the years. To extend the life of your preservation we recommend the following:

• Do not display your preserved flowers in direct sunlight or near a heat source like a fireplace, heating vents, or spotlights/lamps.

• Do not display in rooms with extreme temperature and humidity fluctuations like 3-season rooms, bathrooms, or attics.

• Do not spray window cleaners directly on the glass. Instead, spray it on a towel first and then gently dust the glass.