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April 2, 2025 12 mins

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Every bride knows the heartbreak of watching her wedding bouquet wither away after the big day. But what if those meaningful blooms could become a permanent keepsake of your celebration? 

Wedding planner and wedding content creator Kathy Piech-Lukas of Your Dream Day Weddings and Events welcomes Sebra from The Rambling Florist to explore the fascinating world of bouquet preservation. With passion and expertise, Zebra breaks down the artistic process that transforms wedding flowers and wedding bouquets into lasting works of art. She details her two primary preservation methods—pressing flowers between glass and creating dimensional arrangements in shadow boxes—and explains the distinct beauty each approach offers.

Timing emerges as crucial for successful preservation, with Sebra recommending couples book services 6-8 weeks before their wedding and get flowers to her within three days after. She walks listeners through her entire process, from initial booking to collaborative design to finished artwork, typically completed within 4-6 weeks. Sebra shares stories of her most memorable projects, including a stunning fall bouquet of dahlias and a striking blue-and-orange arrangement complemented by the couple's wedding invitation.

The conversation expands to creative possibilities—incorporating boutonnières, wedding photos, invitations, and even flower girl crowns into preservation pieces. With prices ranging from $375-$550, these keepsakes allow couples to transform fleeting wedding elements into daily reminders of their special day. As Kathy poignantly notes, while most wedding elements disappear, preserved flowers join photographs as tangible memories you can treasure forever.

Ready to transform your wedding flowers into lasting art? Find Sebra at www.theramblingflorist.com and ensure your bouquet lives on as beautifully as your wedding memories. Subscribe now for more expert wedding planning insights!

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, this is Kathy Piech Lukas with Your Dream Day.
Today, we are going to betalking about bouquet and flower
preservation, and I have aspecial guest, Sebra, from The
Rambling Florist.
Hi, Sebra, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm good Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Good, tell us a little bit about your business
and how you came to be.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Absolutely so.
At The Rambling Florist, likeyou said, we focus on wedding
bouquet preservation and flowerpreservation in general for any
special occasion focusing onweddings, obviously,
specifically.
And a little bit how we cameabout was I've been in the
florist industry in and out fora couple of years now.
It's a job I really love doing.

(00:41):
So I knew that I wanted to beback in the floral industry in
some capacity and that reallystarted out with a pipe dream of
, like, growing my own flowersand being like a flower farmer
florist.
But I live in a two bedroomapartment right now and so I
don't have any space for that atthe moment.
So that's like a dream, maybein the future.

(01:01):
But I was just scrolling onInstagram one day and I saw that
a really lovely in the future.
But, um, we're just scrollingon Instagram one day and I saw
that a really lovely woman inUtah.
Actually she was doing bouquetpreservation and I was like, ah,
it like clicked, you know, likethis is something I could do in
my home.
Um, I have all of theexperience, um, as, like an
artist and a designer in myfield.
Um, so I was like this is justwhat I think I want to do it's,

(01:23):
you know, in part of the weddingindustry, but also in the
florist industry, and I'mconnected to you know, flowers
in that regard.
So that's kind of a short andsweet way of how it all started.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
That's amazing.
So you were really inspired bywhat others were doing online
and you're like I can do thattoo and bring your artistic
talents to it.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
That's amazing Thanks .

Speaker 1 (01:41):
So what are the different types of bouquet
preservation that are available?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
bouquet preservation and basically I'm taking your
flowers, I'm dismantling themand putting them into like a
traditional press, which youknow it takes quite a long time.
It takes about, you know, threeto four weeks, depending on
mother nature and how she'sfeeling, depending on the
weather, basically, and how longthings dry, and those, you know
, become very flat in the press,right.
So once they come back out ofthe press, I'll reassemble them,

(02:18):
excuse me, and put them inbetween, basically two sheets of
glass, what we call like afloat frame, and so that's a
typical pressed flowerarrangement.
And then the second one is justa traditional drying process,
and so I can either take yourbouquet and dry it upside down,
or I can also use a method withsilica sand, and that's
basically.

(02:38):
I'll take the heads of theflowers and I'll put them in
basically a drying agent thatwill, you know, suck out all the
moisture, and for the dryingprocess I'll do those in shadow
boxes, so those have a littlebit of depth in them, and I'll
reassemble them kind of based on, like, the style that you like.
So a lot of my brides do like atraditional bouquet style which

(02:58):
, like, looks like you'relooking on top of the bridal
bouquet.
So those are the two differentkinds of styles I have at the
moment.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Now do you have, like what happens if you get a
bride's bouquet and let's saythere's a flower that's being
temperamental and it doesn'tpreserve correctly what, what do
you do?

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, so yeah, as you know, flowers are temperamental
and they typically only last aday after the wedding unless you
preserve them.
But yeah, those flowers,unfortunately I have to usually
compost.
So I'll take what I can use outof the bouquet and do my best
with what's what I've got,basically.
So I always recommend to mybrides one to three days at most

(03:37):
they need to get me theirbouquet, otherwise we don't know
what's going to come out of thepress, basically.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Absolutely Well.
I know whenever I do weddingplanning are you planning to
preserve your bouquet?
Is on my list of questions thatI'm asking them six to eight
weeks before the wedding andit's for that exact reason.
The sooner that you can getyour bouquet to the person
preserving it, the better it'sgoing to turn out, as the
flowers are still alive.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Absolutely yeah, yeah , absolutely yeah.
The fresher the better.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Exactly, exactly.
So, price-wise, what does aservice like this cost?

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Sure, so I have a range of prices I would like.
The minimum um that I do forlike the drying process is about
375 and I go up to about 550and that's like my largest frame
for pressed florals, um, andthe largest frame is about 6 by
20 um and the price range isthere only because like pressing
takes a lot more of my time andyou know abilities versus like

(04:37):
the drawing is a little bit likehands off, so it's not as
complicated.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Basically, Gotcha, Gotcha, Um.
So what does a couple do ifthey decide, yes, we want to
preserve our bouquet?
Um, what?
What are the next steps?
How does this work?
How does this whole processwork?

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, absolutely so, um.
I asked all my couples ifthey're ready to preserve, to
look at my availability on mywebsite.
I do book out, usually almost ayear in advance, or have
availability to do that.
I recommend six weeks to abouteight weeks, like you said,
before your wedding date.
If sooner, the greater, thebetter.
So if you have your event dateavailable, um, on my site, we go

(05:18):
ahead and purchase your frame.
It's really easy.
Check out, Um.
I'll get your, of course, yourframe purchase.
I'll email you withconfirmation.
Then you like enjoy your specialday, your big wedding day, Um,
and then after that make sureyou get me your flowers between
one to three days.
I also recommend to a lot of mybrides and couples that, um,

(05:40):
you have a lot going on.
So we like give this task tolike somebody you trust, like
you know a bridesmaid or your,you know your mom or whoever's
there, to like drop it off orship it to me.
Basically, um is probably best,and then I'll pretty much take
over the rest of the hard workthere.
Um, pressing and drying againlike takes about three to four
weeks.
I will do a design, I'll sendyou a mock-up and you'll agree

(06:04):
to it or we'll work on ittogether and collaborate, and
then after that I'll glue it andI'll get it back to you.
So you have your nice piece ofartwork, your wedding keepsake.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
That's a great turnaround time.
Yeah, four to six weeks, cause,no cause.
I mean there's there's a lot ofdifferent types of floral
preservation and you know someof them.
I mean I've heard people takingas much as nine months to a
year to get their pieces back.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Gosh, yeah, I, when in the busy wedding season, that
timeframe does stretch a littlebit.
So the drying is about three tofour weeks and it probably
takes me about like on a like areally quick turnaround, like
six weeks max.
But if I'm booked up um whichdoes happen especially during
the summer and the fall um, itwill take me probably like max
three, three months, three tofour months.
So there is a little bit of a,you know, range of timing for

(06:52):
sure, yeah, no, that's still afantastic turnaround time.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
What are what would you say is the most, some of the
most memorable bouquets thatyou've ever done?
Oh gosh, that's a greatquestion.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
I did this one bouquet that was a fall wedding
last year and we did the silicadrying method, and so I really
love this bouquet because it wasa bunch of dahlias and dahlias
are really hot right now Um, andthey just came out like really
stunning, like the colors werejust amazing.
Um, she had gold in her bouquet, which was like really charming

(07:25):
, um, and whatnot, and so we putit in the shadow box and it
just I don't know, I use it allover my social medias Cause I'm
just in love with that bouquet.
The colors just were likesocial medias, because I'm just
in love with that bouquet.
The colors just were like theyblew my mind basically.
So, um, that was a lot of fun.
I also have a soft spot for fall, so that, um, and then another
bridal bouquet that I didrecently we included, um, their

(07:45):
wedding invite into the frameand I thought that was really
special and like a unique touchthat they added into it.
But her flower colors, orwedding colors, were blue and
orange and those just like youknow the complimentary colors
just like really stood out.
It was really stunning.
And she had white anemones init and that's like a not so

(08:07):
common flower and they just likereally popped, so I really love
that one as well.
That was a pressed flowerarrangement, so that was a lot
of fun.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
Well you bring up.
Another point is with thebouquet preservation.
They can also put accessoriesfrom the wedding day in their
box, Like I've seen grooms puttheir boutonniere in the box
before, like you had said, theinvitation or the program.
What are some other things thatyou've seen put into?
Uh, the bouquet preservation?

Speaker 2 (08:36):
box.
Yeah, absolutely.
Um, a lot of my brides love toinclude like their favorite
photo that that came out of thewedding day and that's always
always special.
Um, I've had, I've done, quitea few flower crowns.
Um, people, I'll usually drythem and I'll also um put in the
little boutonniere as well.
I think that one's reallyspecial.
It's like a complimentary framethat you can include with the
larger bouquet preservation.

(08:57):
I've had a few clients who havelike charms on their bridal
bouquet, so that's always reallysweet to add in, like those
little nice touches that arejust like so sentimental to the
couple and besides that you canalso include like your, like
other frames outside of it.
So I've had brides preserve aslike a thank you gift for their

(09:19):
bridesmaids, like their ownbouquet with like a photo of
them together or, you know, yourmother's flowers or grandma's
flowers.
So anything that really is likea sentimental, like moment from
the wedding that you can keepafterwards is really great and I
know people really love themand to give them out as gifts.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
No, I love that idea.
I mean, I'm just thinking ofthe halo that would have been on
a flower girl.
I mean what?
A beautiful gift to give themafter the wedding that they can
hang in their home.
And then, you know, 10, 20years down the road they can be
like wait a minute, I was anaunt.
You know whoever's wedding,that's the halo from it.

(09:58):
What a great idea.
Very sweet, yeah, absolutelywonderful.
Um, what are some other thingsthat you've been seeing as far
as trends go in flowerpreservation?

Speaker 2 (10:05):
oh yes, um, there's like a triptych trend that's
going around, so it's like threedifferent frames where you'll,
um, preserve the bridal bouquetand probably like some smaller
bouquets, like bridesmaidsbouquets, along with it.
So it's like this big,beautiful, like statement piece
that you can have done.
Obviously, this year, like goldand reds are really popular, so

(10:27):
I'm expecting that to be like abig trend as well.
What else A lot of trends inthe space are like having like
vinyl, like your name and yourwedding date kind of put onto
the front of the shadow box oryour flip frame is just kind of

(10:49):
a cute.
You know little additions likeall the you know your new name
and your wedding date is kind oflike moments that you get to
keep and make everything unique.
Um, so, yeah, I think those arelike.
I'll talk in my head.
Those were like the three thatwere like very trendy that I
keep seeing popping up, so verycool, very cool, so um how do

(11:10):
people find you?
Yeah, Um, I have my website, theramblingflorist.
com.
You can find me there.
I have.
I'm on Instagram, TikTok, Iguess.
Linkedin.
You can find me on LinkedIn.
I don't think that's a verycommon place.
I also have a listing on theKnot.
You can find me there on thispodcast.

(11:31):
All my handles are @therambling florist.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Oh, fantastic.
Well, I'm so excited.
Thank you so much for sharingall these different like trends,
with bouquet preservation andhow you know, couples can
preserve their flowers Becauseat the end of the day, at the
end of a wedding, you have adirty dress, dying flowers, you
might have some leftover food,maybe some leftover cake, but at

(11:59):
the end of the day, you'regoing to have your photos and
that's it.
You know.
So, 20 years down the road,wouldn't it be great to have,
you know, your bouquet preserved, intact, hanging on your wall
so that you can relive thosememories every single day?
Absolutely, yeah, well,wonderful.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Day Absolutely, yeah, well,wonderful.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Thank you for listening.

(12:19):
Be sure to subscribe to ourpodcast so that you can be up to
date on the latest and greatestgoing on in the wedding
industry and, as we talk withwedding professionals, learning
more about, from our perspective, what you can do to help with
planning your upcoming wedding.
This is Kathy Piech Lukas withYour Dream Day.
Happy planning!
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