Realistic Expectations
As experts in our field, we understand the preservation process thoroughly and strive to educate our clients. Unsure of what lies ahead? Here's some insights on what to expect going into this unique and bespoke process.
Expect Colors To Change
Pressed Floral is determined to preserve flowers in their natural state. Because Pressed Floral uses all-natural methods of preservation and does not use any toxic chemicals or artificial colorings in our process, color changing and fading will be evident in your final piece.
Depending on the unique makeup of flowers, pigments such as Chlorophyll, Carotenoids, Anthocyanins, Flavonoids, and Betacyanins will degrade when oxidized. In Simpler Terms:
Naturally Dried Flowers = Less Pigment
Visual Color-Change Guide
All-White Bouquets
At Pressed Floral, we work with all-white blooms. Many Floral Preservationists choose not to work with all-white florals due to their tendency to brown throughout the preservation process. While we respect this decision from a design standpoint (all-white bouquets lack dimension and variety for our designers to work with), we believe that every bloom deserves to be cherished forever. Things to keep in mind when placing an order for your all-white blooms:
Expect Browning
Browning starts even at a molecular level the second that your flowers are snipped from their stem. This is a natural part of the lifecycle of flowers, and while we try to minimize the look of browning in all of the blooms that come to us, white flowers will brown 95% of the time. Even the freshest picked, brightest white flowers will end up browning in the preservation process--although it will be significantly less than flowers that arrive already browning. Flowers will fade over time, even after being sealed securley into the frame.
Flowers are delicate vessels of life, not so different from everything else that has lived. We believe in the beauty of allowing nature to maintain its natural essence. However, it's important to note that pressed flowers may not retain the same vibrancy they had when fresh.
Design Tip:
Add Greenery And Filler Flowers To Your All-White Bouquet To Add Contrast And Depth To Your Final Frame!
Every Bloom Browns Differently:
While we already know that white flowers can darken through the preservation process, all blooms dry into different shades. Expect your all-white blooms to have a variation of ivory, natural yellows, and light brown hues. This can be disconcerting information when trying to match neutral decor. We advise getting a darker frame such as our natural wood, walnut brown, or sleek black as white frames often accentuate the natural fading of white flowers.
Your Options
DON'T PANIC. We'll always tailor our communication and service to your needs. Just focus on following our shipping instructions promptly. Once your flowers are with us, nature and our team take over. To minimize browning of your white blooms, send them to us as soon as possible. Delegate or prepare shipping early to ensure freshness. Avoid wrapping flowers in plastic during shipping to prevent suffocation, molding, and browning en route. Here is a video to show you STEP BY STEP how to ship your blooms to us:
Replication of Your Blooms
There is ALWAYS an option to replace your flowers with fresher ones from our inventory if your original flowers brown too much for your liking. However, these will NOT be flowers from your original bouquet! They are brighter blooms we have stocked in our inventory just for situations like this. Despite the replacement of original blooms, these flowers will be designed to symbolize your special moments and are pressed with the utmost care to create something you can cherish forever.
*Fresh White Blooms that are DIFFICULT to press well
Snapdragons
Chrysanthemum
Juliet Garden Roses
White lizyanthus
Delphinium
Scabiosas
White Lilies (pollen stains)
white magnolia
white gardenia
*Fresh White Blooms that press well
Larkspur
Ranunculus (butterfly)
sweet peas
hydrangeas
stock flowers
roses
Anthurium
White lilac
white hellborn
anonome (green center)
*fresh-- get's to us in optimal condition--no excessive browning or wilting.
Plan Ahead: What Flowers Press Best?
Every single flower is different in the way they require special attention and preperation for professional preservation. Pressed Floral has perfected our technique in handling delicate, fragile, and unpredictable blooms that would break and mold in most traditional DIY preservation methods.
The results of the preservation process will also depend on the freshness of the blooms when they arrive to our shop. If you send already yellowing flowers, they will yellow further in our process.
Although we can preserve most flowers, there are certain flowers that tend to hold their color and shape better than others through the preservation process. Again, we believe in the beauty of naturally aging flowers, and don't use any chemicals or dyes to work against their nature.
Here is a list of some of our favorite flowers in case you are still planning on what florals to add to your event! (and want to consider how well they prederve in your decision making.)
Alstroemeria
Anenome
Astilbe
Astrantia
nina rose red
tiffany rose peach
lady eva pale pink
Baby's Breath
Butterfly Ranunculus
Caspia
Chamomile
Ranunculus
Delphinium
Dusty Miller
Eucalyptus
Ferns
Hydrangea
Japanese Anemones
Larkspur
Orange Poppies
Pampas Grass
Peonies
Protea
Queen Anne's Lace
Quickand roses
Rice flower
Scabiosa
Snapdragon
Spirea
Spray Roses
Stock Flowers
White Sweetpeas
Tweedia
Veronica
Variety in Your Bouquet: Good or Bad?
Our team of skilled designers have an eye for form, shape, color, harmony and balance. But there are some choices you can make for your bouquet that will make your bouquet and pressed frame stand out.
Have a Variety of Flowers in Your Bouquet
We believe that a variety of colors and shapes of blooms create beautiful, moving pieces where sometimes lack of variety causes frames to be a bit stale. There can be a solid, geometrical and symmetrical feel to bouquets with all the same flower, but we prefer the life about bouquets with a variety of filler-flowers, greenery, and focus flowers that allow our designers to play. The more variety, the more room we have to play with design and cater to your vision!
At the end of the day it's all up to preference and your own unique style.
Thinking About Tropical Blooms?
From the enchanting orchids of the Far East to the vibrant proteas of the Southern Hemisphere, these blooms ar the jewels of the floral kingdom. Preserving these flowers presents a unique challenge- one that we have mastered.
The unique challenges that are faced when preserving tropical blooms include:
Fragilty, high moisture content, complex shapes, fading colors
To combat these specific challenges, Pressed Floral has developed an advanced pressing technique that is custom for every tropical bloom. All of our frames are sealed in UV protectant glass, but because tropical blooms tend to be outstanding in their vibrancy and pigment, We highly recommend our art glass add-on option to shield your flowers from further excessive discoloring through light exposure.
