From Our Hands Back To Yours
When you send your flowers to us, we know you are giving us a great deal of trust to return them to you as something just as gorgeous. At Element Preservation, we pride ourselves on catching the littlest details and in imbuing each finished product with all of the care and dedication that these blooms deserve. Our process is quite detailed, and leads to frame and resin pieces that allow our clients to relive their most important moments.
Our current turnaround time for any product is 6-12 months from the day your flowers arrive. We understand how excited our clients are to receive their finished pieces. We can’t wait to get your flowers back to you, so that you can hang your 16x20 on your gallery wall or start serving up drinks with your tray and coaster set. We want you to have the best possible floral preservation experience, which is why we dedicate so much time to ensuring a high level of quality.
Order Timing
We tell our clients a wide range of time (6-12 months) because, as you’ve likely noticed as you plan your event, weddings have very distinct seasons. Every spring and fall, we are inundated with orders, meaning that bouquets received April- late June and September- early November are being received by us along with hundreds of others each week. As the bouquets come in, we are filing them into our system, organizing them, and beginning the pressing process. Our heaviest intake days are Mondays and Tuesdays. We will send an email to each client letting them know their florals were received at the end of the day.
The Process Overview
We break the preservation process down into a series of steps, which ensures that we are maintaining the highest level of quality possible. All of our preservation specialists and designers have a set of standards of both floral quality and design that they must meet for each bouquet and arrangement. Your flowers will move through the following steps:
- Bouquet intake
- Pressing and preserving
- Floral quality check
- Designing
- Resin pouring or framing
- Final product quality check
- Packaged and sent
At each stage, our team will be using their well honed skills to preserve, create, and perfect your pieces. All of these steps are vital for making sure your preservation artwork is as beautiful as it can be, as they will be kept in your home for years to come.
Preservation and Quality
This portion of our process is the most essential for getting the florals ready to become a beautiful design. We carefully take apart the bouquet, after taking copious photos, and press what is needed for the products ordered.
Once the blooms are pressed and time is allowed to pass (the timing varies depending on the florals), our Quality Team will look over each and every leaf and petal. If you’ve purchased our Rose Experience, this is when we will source and add any necessary florals. Please note that this process can extend the turnaround time if we need to source any flowers that are not in season- if this is the case we will reach out to you.
Designing, Resin Pours, and Final Checks
Our talented design team takes the preserved florals and turns them into works of art. Our designers are truly artisans, and their collective skills shine through each piece they create. Each design receives a look over by another team member prior to it being adhered to the glass, backing board, or acrylic for the resin. This check is to make sure that the design is balanced, adheres to our standards, and that the florals are in the best possible condition. When the design is finally completely attached, the designer will remove any debris or floral dust before framing or pouring the resin.
The resin products are taken to our resin department, where our resin specialists will carefully pour layers of resin, which then must be allowed to cure. The framed products are nestled into their proper frames, hardware is attached, and then they are given yet another look by a team member, who will catch if there are any imperfections. At this stage, we rarely find anything, but it is important for us to check the florals and the artwork at each and every stage, as florals– especially pressed ones– are quite delicate.
The Peony Timeline
If you would like to have more of a hand in the designing of your pieces, or would prefer a more expedited timeline, the Peony Experience may be right for you! This tier of experience allows you to chat with both our Client Relations Manager, Nikole, and then with our Creative Manager, Jenni. We will then send you proofs of the products you ordered, and will complete them once they are approved. When you do give your approval, your finished pieces will be ready to send back or be picked up in a matter of a few weeks rather than months.
Communication With You
We typically do not reach out to our clients, but if we do have a question about your order, we will reach out via the email or phone number you provided and put the order on pause until we hear back from you. We ask that you make sure that our emails are being sent to your main inbox and not your spam. Just be sure not to unsubscribe from our emails to ensure that all the important questions are able to make their way to you!
If you have any questions, you can feel free to reach out to us at hello@elementdesign.com. Our Client Relations team is always happy to help!
Written By: Phaedra, an Element Designer
