Packaging Your Flowers

Making sure your flowers are carefully packaged is one of the most important steps. The best way to ship your flowers to leave your bouquet fully intact. You can use newspaper, tissue paper, or packing peanuts to cushion your bouquet inside the box. If you do not want to send your entire bouquet, you can carefully remove the flowers you’d like to send for preservation. You’ll need to wrap their stems with damp paper towel and put them in a tupperware container, taking extra care to make sure they’re not squished.

Flowers need to be shipped overnight (preferred) or by 2-day shipping to ensure we receive them as fresh as possible. Any Damage, delays or lost packages sent by the client are not the responsibility of SK Designs.

​You will receive detailed shipping instructions after booking your preservation and paying your deposit.

Trimming and Drying Your Flowers for Preservation

We professionally dry your flowers in high-quality silica gel. Silica gel works wonders for drying flowers, as it preserves the shape and color of the flower unlike other techniques like hanging upside down, refrigeration, hairspray, etc.

Once the flowers are fully covered in silica gel, they will stay in a cool, dry place in an air-tight container until we are ready to design your order!

Remove from Silica Gel and Design

Once your flowers are fully dry and we are ready to design your order, we will contact you. If you have requested design layout approval, we will provide a layout for you to review. We will adjust the layout as many times as necessary until both parties feel it is perfect.  

If you have not requested a design layout approval, we will design your layout and arrange your florals in the most visually pleasing way.

Pouring the Resin

Creating with resin is a time sensitive process! Each piece requires multiple layers of resin, which each need 24 hours to cure in-between. Some pieces, depending on their depth, may need upwards of 8 individual layers. Once all the layers have been poured, the piece stays in the mold for at least another 24 hours before it is removed. Most larger pieces (e.g. blocks and hexagons) take up to 2 weeks to be completed and ship out.

*This timeline does not include add-on items.

The Finishing Touches

Once your preservation item has cured for at least 24 hours, we will remove it from its mold. At this stage, we will photograph the order and send you a photo of the finished product. Then the order will be packaged up for shipping or for you to pick up locally. After that, it will be yours to enjoy!

Preserving your flowers in resin is incredibly beautiful, but it doesn’t come without risk, as your flowers are fragile, and this is a very delicate process. Please ensure you read and are fully aware of the information below before booking floral preservation with anyone.

 ​Drying Your Flowers

When you look at my website and social media posts, you will see arrangements of beautifully preserved flowers. This is obviously the perception that I want all clients to have, because while yes, they are beautiful, the flowers you see have gone through changes as they dry which can cause them to look different than they were in their fresh state. All flowers and greenery dry differently and can experience changes in their color, size and texture as a result. While silica does a wonderful job of preserving your flowers and greenery, you need to remember that your florals and greenery are no longer living, so they will never look exactly the same as they did at your wedding/event.

Red Flowers. Red flowers are the most notorious for changing colors after they are dried. Sometimes they dry very red, like in their original state, but most of the time their color turns darker into a burgundy, purple or even a brown color.

If you have red flowers in your arrangement, please be aware that we have no control over the color change that can occur once they are dried. If you don’t think that you will like the color of the red flowers after they are dried (e.g., if they dry darker as mentioned above), then please consider not including them in your preservation order, or reconsider spending money on floral preservation at all.

​Greenery. Just like with flowers, some greenery can change color once it is dried. Some greenery will turn darker. Some may look wrinkled.

Flowers that Fall Apart. Please be aware that there is a level of risk with flower preservation, with or without resin. We remove your flowers from the silica with the utmost care, however there are specific flowers that are prone to falling apart (e.g., sunflowers). We will do everything we can to piece a flower that has come apart back together, but there are times when a flower completely falls apart. If this happens, we will need to discuss how to proceed.

Flowers that are Difficult to Ship. The most difficult flowers to ship are peonies, anemones and garden roses. They wilt very easily and are extremely fragile because their petals are barely attached to the stem. Extra care needs to be taken when shipping these flowers. They should be placed in a container cradled with tissue paper or paper towel. SK Designs is not responsible for any flowers that are damaged during transit.

​Shipping Considerations

Please keep in mind that your flowers need to arrive to us as soon as possible so that they can be preserved in their freshest state. We require overnight (preferred) or 2-day shipping the next business day after your wedding/event.

Special Items

If you would like to have a special item included in your preservation piece, such as your invitation, pendants, photos, lace, etc., you MUST put them in a separate bag inside your shipping box and have it labeled with a large handwritten/printed note to let us know to look for the item(s).

Our Turnaround Time

Floral preservation is not a quick process! It takes serval weeks just to dry your flowers properly so that they are ready for resin. Our turnaround time ranges between 12-16 weeks, however, sometimes it can take longer. It can take 2 weeks or more just to pour the resin for your order, and that doesn’t include the time it takes for your pieces to fully cure before they can be shipped.

If you would like your finished order to be shipped to you, please be aware that we cannot control shipping. If we could hand-deliver every order, we absolutely would - but that is impossible. We almost always select 2-day shipping to return your order to you, but we cannot control any issues that arise once your package leaves our hands. We have no control if a box gets damaged by the carrier along the way - this is a risk you are taking as the client and is the reason why optional shipping insurance is offered. We’ve never had someone tell us that their package was damaged along the way, but we understand that this can be a concern, so we need to transparent with all potential clients and address it.

Resin Pouring Process

Creating art with resin is just that – it’s art. It’s not a science or a machine-perfected process. These are handmade items and as such, they will not be perfect and can have small flaws.

Please read the information below so that you are aware how resin can affect your florals.

Resin can affect the color of your flowers. Once resin touches a flower, or a piece of greenery, it can enhance the color. It can also become more pigmented. The colors of your florals and greenery can vary once they come into contact with resin.

Flowers are porous. If you look closely, you may see some transparent parts on the petals of some flowers after they have been preserved in resin. This happens when the resin penetrates into a thin part of a flower’s petal. It’s very common and there’s nothing a floral preservation artist can do to correct it. If you think you won’t like the look of your preservation piece because of this, then we recommend researching other forms of floral preservation that don’t involve resin.  

​Translucent Spots. When you see translucent spots on your flowers after they have been encased in resin, it’s called “bruising”. Bruising can occur anytime your flowers are handled – by your florist, by you at your event, during shipping and while we dry your flowers. Instead of looking at them as something negative, you should look at them as reminders of all the beautiful moments they were touched during their journey!

Bubbles. Bubbles will always be present no matter what. SK Designs tries our very best to minimize the amount of bubbles in a preservation piece, but please understand that they will still happen. Bubbles are most likely to form along the edges of a preservation block as well as on top of flowers as the air inside them is releasing. We do everything we can to reduce the amount of bubbles in your piece, however please bear in mind that some bubbles are impossible to remove.

​Resin Ambering. This is not a popular topic, but it has to be addressed. All resins amber over time – yes, you read that right. Ambering is a chemical process that depends on many factors. While we use resin that is designed for the clearest casting possible and which includes UV-inhibitors, your piece may still amber over time. One of the best ways to avoid this is to keep your preservation pieces out of direct sunlight.

Final Product

We really hope you love your final product! We do everything we can to keep the color and shape of your preserved flowers as close as possible to those of your original, fresh flowers.

Still deciding whether or not Floral Preservation is right for you? Please take a read through our FAQ’s to help answer any questions. You can also email us directly at shantel@skesigns.ca.