Timeless Moments: Preserving Your Memories for a Lifetime
The music fades, the flowers die, but the memories will last forever. But, what if the flowers didn’t have to die? What if there was a way to keep them as vibrant and beautiful as they were on your wedding day? That’s the goal of Timeless Moments Floral Preservation.
Timeless Moments has been in business for 17 years, but Linda – the owner – has been in the wedding industry for even longer. We had the opportunity to talk with Linda about Timeless Moments, the services she offers, and what brides need to know about flower preservation.
What made you decide to open Timeless Moments?
I love the wedding industry. It’s so special. Before opening Timeless Moments, I owned a bridal shop selling gowns, veils, accessories, etc. But then I lost my mother and father very close to each other. I would go through items and think This is the last tangible thing I have from them. Being able to keep items became very personal to me after that, and flowers are one thing you’d never expect to be able to keep.
What type of preservation services do you offer?
One of the main types of preservation is freeze-drying. This is something brides do after their wedding. With that, we’re able to make shadowboxes, framed domes, and all kinds of different things. We can actually take the flowers and turn them into jewelry, as well!
We also have a new service with wood flowers that we’ve recently started. The flowers are made from the wood shavings of a tapioca plant, and then shaped into flowers. They can be custom dyed to match your wedding colors, and we make them into bouquets. They’re very eco-friendly and sustainable, and because they’re wood, they’ll never die!
Finally, we have an added line of freshly preserved flowers. These are live flowers that are preserved before the wedding. They come straight from the wholesaler and we do the preservation process and then have a bouquet made from them.
What are the differences between freeze-dried and freshly preserved flowers? Is one better than the other?
Freshly preserved flowers look more like a fresh flower and are soft to touch. Freeze-dried flowers are very delicate and have to go into a shadow box or domed frame after being preserved, whereas freshly flowers can just sit on a shelf if you like. However, freeze-dried flowers’ life span is much longer than freshly preserved flowers. So if you’re looking for really long term, freeze-drying is the best. If you’re happy with a 10+ years lifespan, you could go with freshly preserved flowers. Eventually humidity and other environmental factors will fade freshly preserved flowers, whereas freeze-dried bouquets are guaranteed for a lifetime.
Personally, what’s your favorite type of preservation?
I’d say freeze-dried because I’ve been doing it the longest. Freeze-dried will last longer. If you’re investing in something this sentimental, it’s because it means a lot and you want it to last, so freeze-dried makes the most sense. Although, I do like the uniqueness of the freshly preserved line because they are very cool looking. A lot of people know of the eternal rose, but there are so many more options now and so much more variety. We just did some peonies, calla lilies, and hydrangeas.There’s getting to be more variety, which is exciting. But again, you’re still looking at a limited life time on that.
Is there a certain type of flower that can’t be preserved or is better for the preservation process?
Typically, delicate flowers and flowers with smaller petals are harder to work with. But we’ve been very successful with even orchids, which are very, very delicate. Most people don’t really have good results with those, but we do very well with orchids. We’ve been doing this for 18 years, so we see success with pretty much any flower.
When should a bride preserve her flowers?
You really want to look into it before your wedding. The fresher the flowers, the better the drying results are. We like to talk to brides prior to the wedding so they can arrange for someone to bring the flowers in right after the wedding. That way, you can handle picking the shadow boxes, the frames, styles, and sizes after the honeymoon, but your flowers will already be in the process of getting freeze-dried. We’ve had people bring their flowers in 2 or 3 weeks old, and as long as you love the way they look as they are, we can work with it.
How long does the preservation process typically take?
It depends on how well the bride works with us and what they want in their boxes. If you want photos from your wedding, we have to wait for the photographer to get them back to you and you to print them. Shadowboxes are registered completely dry inside and have no air exchange, so though we start preserving the flowers as soon as we get them, box can’t be sealed until everything is inside. If the bride gets everything to us within 30 days, I would say 9 months is an average turn around.
What are some common misconceptions brides have about preserving their flowers?
When people thing about dried flowers, they don’t realize what the results will actually be. They typically think about their mom’s domed frame bouquet or a dead bouquet. Nothing compares with freeze-drying. Your flowers still look alive and fresh. We’re moving away from recreating the bouquet in a domed frame or shadowbox. People are thinking outside-the-box. We want you to think about what you’re going to love 20 years from now. Are you going to want your bouquet hanging on the wall? Some people do, and some people won’t. So we can do framed art and turned them into collages of flowers that are really artfully put-together so that instead of screaming wedding, it’s a piece of home decor that they can put in their home. But they know it’s their wedding flowers, and that makes it really sentimental.
Also, pricing is a huge deterrent. You don’t realize the cost it takes to run flowers though the pharmaceutical machines we use and there are certain chemicals we use to stabilize the molecular structure of the flowers.
So what kind of price tag should a bride expect when preserving her flowers?
It really depends on the size of the bouquet, the type of bouquet, and how much stuff you want to put in the box. I have things that go as low as $149, but you’re not going to get a full bouquet. If you come in and you just want a few flowers, we can do something like that. If we’re talking about a full bouquet, you have to understand that we have to account the size of the flowers, so we have to use a frame big enough to accommodate it. That’s usually a 12×16 or 16×20 shadowbox or framed dome. Those are about $595-700. If you’re putting your bouquet, invitation, garter, and a picture, you need more space which is a bigger frame size.
We do packaged pricing so it’s a flat price based on the frame size. You can pick whatever framing you like – we have a lot of options in colors, designs, clean lines vs. ornate designs, background colors, etc. It’s quite customized, but once you decide the size frame you want, you’ll only be charged for that. We don’t charge extra if you want the bouquet recreated or a boutonniere done or an invitation put in. Ours is just a flat price of the size of the box.
What else should we know?
Everyone always says “Oh, the music fades, the flowers die,” etc. Well they do if you do nothing with them. But if you have the ability and a knowledgeable person who can preserve them, they’re not going to die. You can hold on to them forever. After your wedding, you’ll look at your pictures and say “I remember my bouquet. It looked so beautiful and smelled so good that day,” but how special is it when you can look at them hanging on your wall? The realization is there and it’s tangible for you. They didn’t fall apart and they didn’t die. But you won’t even know how much you wish you still had them until they’re already dead.
The same thing with the jewelry. When people make jewelry, a lot of times these girls are thinking “I’m going to hand it down to my daughter so she’s able to wear it. And that can be their something old on her wedding day.” How cool is it that the daughter is wearing her mother’s flowers as her something old on her wedding day? You’ll have something so precious to hand down to your future family. It’s impossible if you don’t do it now.
That’s why it’s so important to think about this process before your wedding. Just take a little bit of time to do research and come talk to us before the day. Figure out what it is you want to do with your flowers and assign a family member to bring them in right after the wedding. The fresher the bouquet is, the better the results.
Timeless Moments was recently on New Day Cleveland! Watch the clip here:
