Review of Floral Preservation

[maddiesdaddy]

I wanted to write a review of our floral preservation. It took us awhile to get it and that's why this review is so late..but more on that later..it was planned that way..well sort of.

A floral preservation has to start off with a floral bouquet. And ours was AMAZING. Laura Kidd with Disney Floral designed it and put it together. We got a sneak peek the night before and it only made my wife more excited. When it arrived, she was overwhelmed. Laura and her team did an AMAZING job. The colors. The flowers. The teardrop shape. Everything was exquisitely done and amazing. We loved it. Laura Kidd was...is...amazing.

Here is a close up:

And here is a full length shot...

My wife gushed on it so often.

So..we wanted to save it...we talked to Laura Kidd about it and asked how to do it. It was so easy. Just put it in a refrigerator and Keepsake Floral would pick it up. Easy peasy. Except...we did that..and our fridge's motor burned and the flowers were trapped for a whole day in a hot burned up fridge..so they were ruined. My wife was sad...cried...carried them home all wilted because she couldn't part with them. They sat on our table for a few days before they just couldn't last. My wife cried again.

So, fast forward and we were 'forced' to come to Disney again in March...and we would be there on our 6 month anniversary (wedding date was 9.16.11)

Haha..we always go in September so we couldn't wait to celebrate our 1 year anniversary this September...but we were blessed with a pregnancy and 2 babies (yes twins!!!) in Disney in September wasn't work. So we fast forwarded our trip and came in March. We would be there on March 16th.

I secretly contacted Laura Kidd and she remade my wife's bouquet..with one small flower substitution because one of the flowers was out of season.

Then she sent it directly to Keepsake Floral to get it preserved. This was going to be her surprise! So, from the minute they got the flowers, Keepsake was so great to me. This was odd since it was a brand new arrangement and I hadn't even seen it. So, they were great. Keepsake called me when they got the flowers in and assured me that they were beautiful...and told me all was well.

They were great with the surprise and sent all of our paperwork to my work location to keep the surprise going. They told me what to expect and how long it would take. We would just barely make it because it takes a great deal of time to properly preserve the flowers. They told me what to expect and that the flowers would be a bit richer after the preservation process.

There are A MILLION options and, while it could be a very pricey option, they honestly have something for almost every budget. There are so many opportunities to preserve your flowers in a way that meets your wants at a price you want to pay. Plus they have such a close relationship with Disney that it is seamless. They are great for everyone, I would imagine, but being a Disney wedding couple, it was a cinch to get through this.

So, after the flowers got preserved, we had our consultation call and I tried (in guyspeak) to communicate exactly what I wanted. Which was something as close to the original as possible. My wife loved her bouquet. So, I wanted to preserve it as much as possible. They talked to me and confirmed and reconfirmed everything. The lady was sooooooooooooo nice when she walked me through the process. I very much felt comfortable that she knew what I wanted and would make it happen.

So....we get to Disney and have our dinner planned at Citricos. I called the day before to make sure everything was on track and talked with the sweetest woman in the entire world. She knew of what I was doing and told me that they had it couriered to the Grand Floridian. She told me she was getting off work but gave me her personal cell in case I had questions. I called her on her cell just to make sure everything was on track and she took the call, answered my question, and everything. It was such personal service and I really appreciated the effort to make my surprise work.

And it was beautiful. So beautiful. My wife was so happy..it was such a great moment to see her face when I pulled the shadow box out of the bag. Her bouquet...preserved for life. Recreated in stunning beauty and preserved so perfectly. They did EVERYTHING I wanted EXACTLY how I wanted it done. And my wife was thrilled.

Here is the picture in our living room:

And here's a closer up shot:

So....I am very happy with the preservation service of Keepsake Floral. It started with an amazing bouquet from Disney and a bride that loved her flowers. It ended with a memory to last a lifetime. When you just get married through Disney and you are used to the personal service that comes with it, the continuation of the personal service was truly great. We are already planning a VR which will hopefully have another Laura Kidd creation, but we will happily get that preserved as well..hopefully without it getting ruined by a faulty fridge!!!

Thanks for reading!

 

[pixie921]

Beautiful! And CONGRATULATIONS on the babies!!!!!!!!!

 

[giffy231]

Ok a bit off topic! The flowers came out lovely. Please tell me about the painting/picture next to it! What a beautiful shot of the castle!

Congrats on the babies! Glad yo hear you had a good experience with Keepsake Floral I have heard some bad reviews and was told to steer clear. Good to hear some people have a good experience. It is so hard to trust online reviews, because people are more apt to seek out a place to review when unhappy.

 

[maddiesdaddy]

Ok a bit off topic! The flowers came out lovely. Please tell me about the painting/picture next to it! What a beautiful shot of the castle!

Congrats on the babies! Glad yo hear you had a good experience with Keepsake Floral I have heard some bad reviews and was told to steer clear. Good to hear some people have a good experience. It is so hard to trust online reviews, because people are more apt to seek out a place to review when unhappy.

Hi. Thanks for the compliments. We have been told that the picture looks like a Kincaid painting, but it is a photograph..of us. It was part of our Bridal portrait the day after. It was one of many favorite shots but we chose that one for our large picture from our photography package and had it framed at Michael's. The person doing the framing was astonished by the picture. That was Regina's work. She is a genius.

I had read some of the reviews about Keepsake which shocked me really because I had nothing but good experiences..nothing went awry. I know people post reviews mostly if to advise people to steer clear which is why I chose to post a positive one. I wanted people to hear a good result because I couldn't imagine it being any easier. Maybe if we would have had the original bouquet preserved..but that was our issue. It was a seemless process and well worth every penny for us.

 

[tric8783]

Thanks so much for posting this! My mom bless her heart took my bouquet after my wedding a few weeks ago and my husband and I took off for our honeymoon. when we got back my mom gave me my bouquet and handed it to me in a bag- ugh. Obviously without air it rotted and was gross. My all white bouquet was a dark brown mess. Most of the flowers fell out as I took it out of the bag and it's not anything someone would want to keep. I still hung it up but eveyrtine i look at it i want to cry. I loved my bouquet so much. I've been thinking about having mine recreated and now I think I will. We had Laura as well. Do you mind sharing how much the preserving you got was? I assume recreating the bouquet was the same price as it was for your day?

 

[maddiesdaddy]

Thanks so much for posting this! My mom bless her heart took my bouquet after my wedding a few weeks ago and my husband and I took off for our honeymoon. when we got back my mom gave me my bouquet and handed it to me in a bag- ugh. Obviously without air it rotted and was gross. My all white bouquet was a dark brown mess. Most of the flowers fell out as I took it out of the bag and it's not anything someone would want to keep. I still hung it up but eveyrtine i look at it i want to cry. I loved my bouquet so much. I've been thinking about having mine recreated and now I think I will. We had Laura as well. Do you mind sharing how much the preserving you got was? I assume recreating the bouquet was the same price as it was for your day?

Hi. Congrats on your wedding and I know your mom was trying to be sweet. But I understand the disappointment all too well. So, let's start with the easy part. Yes, recreating your bouquet is exactly the same price as it was on the day. My recreation floral BEO looked very familiar!!!!

So...then the preservation. There are a WORLD of options depending on what you want done with it. The most frustrating charges are the fees to get them from Disney to the preservation place. That would be a cost no matter what the company is so not a slam on Keepsake, just saying getting the flowers to the place to preseve them is a sunk cost unless you drive them there yourself. That is $75 each way-courier. If this had worked out perfectly and you had a perfectly fine bouquet, there are cheaper ways of getting it to them with their mailing kits, but having Disney recreate and ship to Keepsake is $75. I chalked that up for us as cost due to the bad fridge.

Getting the flowers there is a no brainer but you might save some $ by having the completed product shipped directly to you. Sure, that will also costs but in my mind, it has to be cheaper than the $75 courier charge. Then, the cost depends on what you want done and the fabric inside and the frame you pick. When your flowers are done being preserved, the person who will work on your design will set up a call and your finished product will determine the size. The size is one of the biggest determining factor in cost. Obviously the bigger, the more expensive. I think ours was an 11x14 which totals to somewhere over the $450 range. That would be it with standard frames and standard backgrounds, but we upgraded our frame and went with a silk dupioni background. Those all have extra $ attached. And then we wanted something as close to the original as possible so we went with what they call a 'bouguet resemblance', but you can do a number of different designs if you want to flatten it out or whatever. Your designer can help you with the difference. And our designer was so nice and friendly..it was easy to go through the process.

It does seem like a lot of money, but for us it was worth it to preserve the memory forever. Also, the process takes a ton of time..at least 14-16 weeks for the preservation process so we just made payments as time went on. You have to put down a deposit when you book and then we just made periodic payments so there wasn't a big hit at the end because you have to pay your balance due after the phone call before they finish your design. The design call is after they preserve your flowers so 14-16 weeks or more after you send your flowers to them.

If you have any further questions, feel free to PM me or ask here. I'm happy to help however I can.

Thanks.

 

[tric8783]

Thank you so much!! Its great they take a deposit ad spread out the payment. My bouquet was mostly peonies which are now out of season I think but I'll check with laura if I can do this now or have to wait til next spring. This has made my day, thank you thank you!! Your wife's looks absolutely gorgeous!

 

[maddiesdaddy]

Thank you so much!! Its great they take a deposit ad spread out the payment. My bouquet was mostly peonies which are now out of season I think but I'll check with laura if I can do this now or have to wait til next spring. This has made my day, thank you thank you!! Your wife's looks absolutely gorgeous!

Yes. To be clear, it's up to you to spread out the payment. They don't hae a plan, they just allow you to pay as much as you can whenever you can. Ahhh..peonies. We wanted those as well, but were out of season for our wedding and our redo!! I'm glad it helped and I hope everything goes smoothly with the preservation. If you have any questions through the process or after you talk to Laura, don't hesitate to ask.

And thanks...she's as beautiful in personality as she is physically. My true soul mate through and through.

Best wishes to you and your husband!