Our Floral Preservation Process... 18 Steps to a Beautiful Keepsake The purpose of our business is to receive flowers from weddings, anniversaries, proms, funerals and other milestone events and to make those flowers into beautiful and meaningful keepsakes. Officially, we are "Floral Preservationists." Each bouquet, corsage or arrangement we receive goes through an 18 step process- 9 steps to bring the flowers to their optimal preserved state, amd an additional 9 steps to create and finish the final keepsake display. Step 1.   Photograph bouquet as soon as flowers reach our shop. This documents color, flower condition and design details. Step 2.   Disassemble bouquet. Great care is taken to save all materials for freeze-drying. Step 3.   Inventory. All flowers and foliages are counted to ensure that you receive the full count in your finished keepsake. Damaged or broken flowers are listed so we can discuss replacement with the customer. Beads, ribbons, etc. are counted and cataloged for future use in the keepsake design. Step 4.   Hydrate. After re-cutting the stems of all flowers, a cold water drink and rest in our cooler overnight rescues many "droopy" blooms. Floral and foliage materials need to absorb their full capacity of water to be at their best for the freeze-drying process. Step 5.   Trim any torn, brown or broken edges on flowers. Step 6.   Bathe in special pre-treatment solutions which open the cell structure of the flower in order to retain color and shape. Step 7.   Air Dry. Flowers are placed in front of fans to completely dry the pre-treatment solutions. Step 8.   Freeze. Flowers are placed in long plastic boxes labeled with customers name and date of receipt. Boxes are then placed in one of our chest freezers to await freeze-drying. Step 9.   Freeze-Dry. The boxed frozen flowers are positioned on one of the 10 8-foot racks of our state-of-the-art Cuddon 1015 Freeze Dryer. A vacuum is drawn and over 4-5 days the temperature in the chamber rises from -11 to 90°, this combination of freezing and vacuum drying results in a floral product very close in appearance to fresh flowers, and is known as sublimation. Step 10.   Protect. Apply special shatter-proofing spray to prevent breakage of fragile dried materials. Step 11.   Color Enhancement. Spray flowers and foliage with special transparent pigments. Step 12.   Ribbon. Clean, press and repair bouquet stem wraps and ribbon loops. Step 13.   Prepare acid-free mat and add-ins. Step 14.   Create Design. All flowers are wired and reinforced to ensure design integrity and longevity. Silica gel packs and 1" square solid insecticide are incorporated into the design. Step 15.   Rest in Warm Room. Completed design is placed in a special "warm room" at 80°+ for 2-4 hour in order to remove any moisture the materials may have absorbed while the keepsake was "under construction." This also prevents future condensation inside the dome or bubble. Step 16.   Seal UV bubble, dome or glass to frame/base with clear acrylic caulk or silicone adhesive. Step 17.   Install keepsake in frame. Seal backboard with archival tape, apply dust cover and add hanging hardware. Step 18.   Finish. Polish, photograph for our "before" and "after" album, and put on display in showroom. Call customer for pick-up.