The Craft of Flower Preservation
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Time to read 7 min
Why We Love What We Do at Element Design Co
Element Preservation has spent over a half decade pressing, preserving, and designing beautiful keepsakes for thousands of clients. Our team of artisans takes great pride in their work of transforming fresh bouquets into last pieces of art. Element Preservation is a unique place to work, and each member of our team provides a necessary element (pun intended!). We’ve gotten the chance to shout out members of our team in prior posts, and you’ve met Nikole, Abby, and Phaedra so far. While we’ve heard a bit from each of them about what makes Element so special, we thought we’d go even more in depth about the joy of pressing and preserving the most important bouquets of people’s lives.
Table of Contents
A Creative and Connected Floral Preservation Crew
As you may have read before in our Field Notes, we began as a one woman show, with our CEO Amy getting the business started by preserving blooms from a friend’s wedding, which more friends and acquaintances then reached out to her about. Amy’s intrepid entrepreneurial spirit led her to take what had once been a hobby and a great gift for a friend and shift it into a career, not just for herself, but for other creative and hardworking people in the Lehigh Valley. One of the best parts of being on the Element Preservation team is learning from the talents of those around us.
Being on the Element team means being able to exercise creativity on a daily basis. Our design team has a wonderful time arranging the dried and flattened flowers into captivating designs, meant to mimic the feel of the fresh blooms, and our preservationists are always amazed at the effect of going from a three-dimensional object into something two-dimensional. As the petals transform, we grow more and more excited to use them. There is something magical about the process of fresh to pressed, and it never gets old!
Once the flowers and greens are fully dried and pressed- the most time consuming part of our process- our designers take the time to create intentional and elegant art pieces from a medium that is more special than any other. The design team enjoys the ability to recreate the bouquet. When crafting a burst style design, they carefully match certain moments from the fresh bouquet photos.
Our designers also love the opportunity to speak with our clients during the Peony Experience, where we get to hear directly from the bride or groom about what their dream preservation piece would look like.
This is perfect for our clients who imagine something out of the box, unique, or simply want to get a closer look at their flowers during the process. We will send out design proofs and allow the Peony client to make up to five rounds of revisions, as well as give them a sneak peek of the pressed flowers before the designing starts!
Element thrives on collaboration and connection. You’ll often hear designers and preservationists discussing their work, sharing tips, and asking for advice. We love what we do, and we love talking about what we do with the folks we get to do it with!
Our Clients' Most Loved Preservation Pieces
Unique Processes and Products
Flower preservation allows one to hold on a little longer to a typically ephemeral beauty. A flower’s fleeting nature can be stilled, captured, and appreciated for years to come. Preservationists enjoy seeing a flower change over time, each bloom requiring a special blend of techniques. As a team, coming up with what works best for each flower has been a fun process, and we have learned so much about the botanical world. We have gained so much knowledge about the ways flowers naturally change through the pressing process. We also love sharing these changes with clients, and helping others learn why and how certain petals change.
The Element team is adaptable and quick thinking– we are always coming up with ways to make the flowers look even more gorgeous and creating options for our clients.This year, we added a new color to our family of frame choices, the Walnut. This frame happened to coincide with this year’s Pantone Color of the Year!). More recently, we added a Museum Grade glass option for all of our frames, which is an odd-on upgrade. This glass nearly eliminates glare and even has a brightening effect on the blooms!
Continue Reading:
→ What Do I Do With My Flowers After My Wedding?
→ What You Should Know About Color Change in Pressed Flowers
"I first discovered the beauty of pressed flowers when my grandmother gifted me a single pressed white rose at sixteen. From that point on, I quickly realized that flowers with sentiment deserve to be saved."
Blooms From Across the Country
We are lucky to serve not just our local bridal and flower loving community, but to any couple in the United States. We’ve had bouquets that have traveled with the bride on a plane from far off locations, such as the Maldives and Europe. Our first ever frame created, the one that sparked the whole business, was brought back to Pennsylvania from Italy. (Please note, we can only ship and receive bouquets and preservation pieces from within the states, these orders were carefully transported from other countries by the client themselves).
We love the stories that each bouquet holds, and seeing the unique blooms from various states. We’ve had dogwood flowers from North Carolina, birds of paradise from California, and orchids from Florida. The place where a couple chooses to tie the knot and to call home is part of their stories, and we have the opportunity to help brides and grooms display a memory that represents their love as well as the place the love blossomed.
Give the Gift of Floral Preservation
Your Flowers in Good Hands
We love to have the opportunity to create beautiful frame and resin pieces. We love being able to offer gorgeous decor and functional pieces of art. The sentimental blooms we use breathe even more life into the designs, knowing that they came from something once in a lifetime. Each individual on our team has a particular favorite type of bouquet, and we often chat about how exciting it is to be able to turn the dried and flattened flowers into something gorgeous. Team Lead, Maria, loves simple and classic white and green designs. She got her start on our resin team, so has a soft spot for serving trays. Jenni, our Creative Director, has an affinity for scabiosa flowers and other whimsical blooms. We all have our favorites, but we treat every flower and every design as though it would hang in our own homes.
When you’re ready to preserve your bouquet, boutonniere, or even flowers from your garden, you can schedule a complimentary consultation with our Client Relations team. You can chat, ask questions, and get started on the best choice you can make for your precious blooms!
If you're ready to browse preservation options, you can get started here!
Continue Reading
The Author: Phaedra
Phaedra both writes the blogs and has designed many a preservation piece over the past few years with Element. She loves both fresh and pressed flowers, reading, watching movies, and learning fun facts to share with the team. She lives with her two cats and husband in the beautiful Lehigh Valley. You can read more about the work she does here.
Best Selling Pressed Bouquet Bundles
Frequently Asked Questions
How far in advance should I place my order?
We understand that you may decide you want to keep your florals after you see them in person on your wedding day! We are happy to accept last-minute orders for bouquet preservations. Orders can be placed from 6 months in advance, up to the week of the wedding.
Flowers must arrive within 5 business days after your wedding.
How can I safely ship my bouquet to Element?
Overnight shipping is strongly encouraged for bouquets that are not sent the day after the wedding. Fresh bouquets must be sent within 5 business days after the wedding.
During shipment, some flowers may brown or lose petals. Overnight shipment can reduce the risk of this occurring. While we will not reject a bouquet if it is sent with standard shipping, please note that the flowers will always be worked with in the condition that they are received. We suggest using UPS or FedEx for all shipments.
Shipping instructions can be viewed prior to placing your order here! Your order confirmation email will include detailed shipping instructions as well.
DRIED bouquets: We would suggest using bubble wrap or crumpled newspaper to lightly place the bouquet within the packaging materials. Overnight shipping is not necessary for a dried bouquet. A short clip on how to pack a dried bouquet can be found here!
Do you offer consultations?
Yes, we do! We offer complimentary in-person and virtual consultations for all prospective clients. During your consultation, we will discuss best florals for preservation, our product options, and get a better understanding of your end vision.
Do you preserve non-wedding flowers?
Yes! Not only do we preserve wedding bouquets, but we also preserve your custom floral arrangements for any event or occasion such as a funeral, memorial, prom and homecoming, graduation, etc. Browse our custom collections for frame, resin, and bundle deals.