To Fridge or Not to Fridge…That is the Question

March 21, 2019

At least, it’s one of the questions you should ask when prepping your flowers for preservation. Believe it or not, there are practices that make a huge difference in how well a bouquet and its flowers actually respond to the preservation process before and after the bouquet has done its wedding day job.

DO use the best quality flowers possible. The bouquet that requires the least amount of replacement flowers are those that begin with the highest quality flowers which have been properly processed and handled by the florist.
DO use the least handled flowers and bouquet designs.
DO use a water source when possible. An oasis holder and fake hand-tied handle are more than helpful. If you use this method, make sure the foam is well hydrated pre and post event.
DO cut the stems an inch shorter at an angle and place them in enough water to submerge the ends. Cutting the stems at an angle provides the stem with more surface area and better access to the water. If the bouquet has hand-tied stems untie and unwrap the ribbon a bit before cutting the stems and placing in water.
DO refrigerate the bouquet before shipping. Refrigeration locks in the cold and slows down the aging process, keeping the flowers fresh through their journey.
DO have a kit ready to ship your flowers to Keepsake Floral. Pre-order an FEK or look up instructions on our website and put one together yourself. The quicker you ship your flowers, the quicker we can put them into preservation and the better they will turn out.
DO choose an overnight shipment for your flowers. The quicker you ship your flowers and we receive them, the quicker we can put them into preservation.

DON’T use aged flowers, they often fall apart before the end of the wedding day and don’t hold up through shipping and preservation.
DON’T use over-mechanized flowers or bouquet designs. Flowers that have been wired unnecessarily (think roses that have a wire pierced through the bloom and wired down the stem) or taped “just for security” mean that they have been handled A LOT. More handling equals more wear and means those blooms are tired before they’re even put into the bouquet.
DON’T overly pierce the foam. A worn-out oasis foam defeats its tight-water-contact purpose.
DON’T leave the stems uncut or unwatered. DON’T leave or recut the stems at a straight angle. This limits the flowers’ access to water. DON’T overfill the water glass. As clients often use the original ribbon within the keepsake, we don’t want the ribbon to get any more wet or stained than it has to.
DON’T put an unrefrigerated bouquet in a floral express kit (FEK). The coolant is just meant to keep the bouquet cool through shipping and will fail at cooling the bouquet through this process without a little help.
DON’T place the bouquet in the freezer, or next to the sides of the fridge or the coolant pack. This can freeze the bouquet and we all know what frozen vegetables look like after they’ve thawed; flowers look even worse!
DON’T take too long to put your flowers in the mail. The older the blooms, the less likely they are to perform well during the preservation process and need replacing.
DON’T ship your flowers through priority mail, it is too slow and the coolant will not last long enough to do its job properly.