1. Avoid touching the petals with your hands or bumping the blooms in general. Body oils and bumps can create “bruises” on the petals that can become especially pronounced in epoxy.
2. If your bouquet is hand tied, trim off the exposed stem ends and place in water to rehydrate *if stems are too hard to trim, make small vertical slits up the stem starting from the bottom
3. If your bouquet or arrangement is held together with plastic and foam, run the foam under water for a few seconds to “fill” and shake off the excess
4. Mist blooms with water as well to help rehydrate bouquet, varieties such as hydrangea love an extra drink thru their petals
5. Keep them in a cool place 

I must receive flowers within 4 days of the event. Flowers received past that time may be rendered unusable. I will not be held responsible for bouquets that arrive late and unusable. 

Supplies:

• A CARDBOARD BOX Your box needs to be slightly larger than the flowers you are sending so we are not cramming the flowers and there is room to pad the blooms with crumpled papers
• PACKING MATERIAL use crumpled newspaper to pad blooms, do not use bubble wrap or plastic of any kind, this could cause blooms to rot in shipping. Packing peanuts are also not recommended.
• PACKING TAPE

How to pack your flowers:

1. Remove flowers from water
2. Wrap ends of stems in wet paper towels or wet rag
3. Place wet wrapped stems into a plastic bag, such as a ziplock or grocery bag, to catch any water. *Make sure they are wet enough that the flowers can drink while traveling, but not so wet there is standing water in the bag.
4. Secure the bag to the stems using a rubber band or tape. DO NOT PUT THE BLOOMS IN A PLASTIC BAG AND MAKE SURE THE PLASTIC IS NOT TOUCHING THE BLOOMS IN ANY WAY!
5. Fill the bottom of your box with crumpled newspaper, please no packing peanuts or plastic
6. Place the bouquet in to the box
7. Gently pack in more crumpled paper around your bouquet. Be sure to fill up all the open spaces in the box, all the way to the top, so that the bouquet cannot bump around inside the box. 
8. Be sure to include your additions (jewelry, photographs etc) slid down near the box away from the flowers *If you are including extra items in your package other than the flowers, MAKE THEM KNOWN! Place extra items in a separate baggy so they do not become lost
9. Include a note inside the box with the NAME your order was placed under, and a LIST OF CONTENTS. I will not be held responsible for small items being lost or thrown out due to improper packaging and labeling
10. All done! Tape up your box and send!  

1. Write “FRAGILE” on your package to give those flowers a little extra chance
2. Do not select signature required. This could cause a delay in receiving the flowers. I will not be held responsible for flowers that showed up late due to a signature issue.
3. Overnight ship your bouquet Time is of the essence! The sooner I receive your flowers, the better the overall outcome. I will not be held liable for moldy or otherwise damaged bouquets due to improper packaging and or shipping. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND OVERNIGHT SHIPPING TO AVOID ANY SPOILAGE

SILICA BEAD METHOD

This method produces the most “perfect” version of your flower, preserving it in its original shape.

IMPORTANT! Working with silica sand can be messy and toxic. Please do not process your bouquet in an area where your children and pets play, or your family eats. It is best to do this outside if possible. Silica dust is very fine, becomes air born as soon as you pour the sand, and is almost invisible making it difficult to understand just how contaminated your surfaces may be after using it. 

SUPPLIES:

• Silica sand (make sure you purchase silica SAND not silica beads.)
• Clear plastic container with lid
• Dust mask (non-negotiable. Silica sand when inhaled is extremely toxic.)
• Gloves (optional but will help keep body oils from transferring to petals)
• scissors

METHOD

1. Pour a layer of silica sand into the bottom of your container about 1/2” deep.
2. Starting with the largest sturdiest blooms first, using scissors, snip the blooms off of their stems as close to the base of the bloom as possible.
3. Place the bottom of the blooms into the sand so they are face up, filling up the entire bottom of the container. Leave a tidbit of space between blooms, and gently press down just a smidge to make sure they are snug and up right in the sand
4. Using a scoop such as a 1/2C measuring cup or a solo cup, gently sprinkle sand down onto the blooms carefully filling up the voids between the petals. 
   HOT TIP sprinkle sand down around the base of the blooms as you work to fill them in so that they remain supported and do not become crushed by the sand.
5. Continue to sprinkle sand over the blooms until the first layer is completely covered or almost covered.
6. Continue steps 2-4 until your container is full. 
   DON’T FORGET TO PRESERVE GREENERY when your container is basically full, place some leafy greenery from your arrangement right on top. You don’t need to worry about burying the greenery on top, it will dry just fine!
7. Lid the container and place it somewhere to dry for a minimum of 4 weeks.

NOTES: 

• Depending on the size of your bouquet, you may need multiple containers and many pounds of silica sand. 
• Not all blooms survive the drying process, so, take your time, work gently, and preserve as many blooms as possible to account for flower loss during the process. It is also important for me to have backup blooms in case some are damaged during shipping or during the casting process.
• If along your journey you find info online claiming cat litter can be used in place of silica sand to save money preserving your flowers, DO NOT DO IT. Just don’t. 

HARVESTING YOUR FLORAL FROM SILICA

Once again you may want to choose to do this outside.

SUPPLIES:

• Your flowers to be harvested
• An empty container to pour silica into
• A tray or container to place ready flowers
• Dust mask
• gloves

METHOD

1. Open your container and very slowly very gently start pouring off the sand into your empty container. 
2. As the flowers start to reveal themselves, reach in and gently help lift the flowers out and into a new resting place.

NOTES:

• it is ideal to ship your harvested floral to me right away to avoid rehydration. Refer to the “How to ship your flowers” info tab.
• If circumstances do not allow you to ship your dried flowers to me right away and you find yourself holding on to them, Pour a shallow layer of silica into the bottom of your drying container, place in all your dried florals, put the lid on and store in a dry place. This should help keep your blooms crisp until shipping. When you are ready to ship, refer to my shipping instructions. DO NOT MAIL ME YOUR FLOWERS WITH ANY AMOUNT OF SILICA SAND WHATSOEVER. The Sand will move around in shipping and destroy the flowers. 
• As far as I can tell, it is impossible to leave your floral in silica for too long, but you can pull it out too soon. 4 weeks seems to be a good sweet spot for pulling flowers out of sand, but feel free to leave them buried for up to a year. Some may become slightly more fragile with extended burial time, but this just underscores the importance of preserving many blooms. 

HANG DRY METHOD

This method produces beautiful flowers, but the original shape and color is less likely to remain intact. Flowers tend to darken and shrivel.

SUPPLIES

• Scissors
• Twine, wire, or string

METHOD

1. Cut excess greenery off of stems and snip stems to about 6 inches in length
2. Tie stems together using your string
3. Hang upside down in a dark dry location.

NOTES: 

• This method can take a very long time. You can check your bouquet intermittently by gently squeezing the blooms. They should feel crispy, not tender. 
• It is important to ensure excess leaves have been trimmed out of the bouquet before tying and hanging to keep the bouquet from harboring moisture and molding. 
• Sunlight can greatly impact the results of your bouquet, substantially darkening and breaking down your flowers, it is imperative you hang your flowers in the dark for best results.
• If you have the time and space, hanging flowers individually is also another option.

PRESSED FLOWER DRYING METHOD:

This method is by far the most intuitive, but also the most intensive. If done improperly you will produce mildewy, moldy, ugly blooms every single time. If a pressed floral arrangement is something you are interested in, I highly encourage you to have Desert Daughter to do the pressing for you.

If you are adamant about pressing your own flowers, you are absolutely welcome to. I will not be linking instructions, though I would like to provide a few tips.

HOT TIPS:

•  For most blooms, especially large full juicy blooms, such as roses, I HIGHLY recommend deconstructing the flower and pressing it petal by petal. Yep. I said it. Petal by petal. When it is dry, you glue the flower back together using little teeny drops of Elmers (dries clear.)
• Change the paper OFTEN. Some would say daily, I say use your own discretion, but for best results, you must change the paper.
• You may run into people recommending microwaves to speed up your floral drying processes. I have seen this be successful, but I personally do not recommend it. Microwaves are all so different and unpredictable when it comes to their cooking power.