Preserving Memories – Melbourne Wedding Flowers
Flowers quintessentially represent the that beauty nature has to offer.
Coming in all different colours, shapes, and sizes, the combinations for a bridal bouquet are seemingly endless. While your love stays strong after the ceremony has long since concluded, the same can’t be said for the gorgeous floral arrangements painstakingly picked out for your perfect day. Some may think this a shame, as it seems the flowers wilt and die too soon after the wedding, but not all hope is lost. Here, we explore the fun trend of resin preservation for your flowers and why this might be an avenue worth exploring if you’d like a meaningful keepsake for your wedding day. Melbourne Wedding & Bride’s Robin Harper sits down with Jaclyn Carlyle, owner, and resin artist/specialist at Bloomy Days, to discuss the preservation of wedding flowers and the process, care, and time that is poured into her resin artwork.
WHERE ITS ALL BEGAN
Based in the city of Ballarat, Bloomy Days is a flower studio specialising in custom wedding flowers, floral accessories and resin flower preservation. A former award-winning wedding makeup artist for eight years, Carlyle was inspired to explore the wonderful world of flower drying in 2020, – in amidst the throes of the pandemic. With the extra time to venture into a brand- new hobby, she found herself falling head over heels in love with it. “What started as a hobby quickly grew into a busy dried flower studio,” Carlyle says. “The colour, creativity and sheer fun of dried flowers saw us as a business weave them into an ever-growing range of products, which in-turn saw our customer base grow to a now nationwide network,” she continues.
Once restrictions wound down and world trade loosened its reigns once again, Carlyle knew she wanted to combine her newfound passion with her love of all things weddings. Having a soft spot for love, to her it was a business decision that felt like a no-brainer. “Fast forward to now just over three years into our Bloomy Days journey and eleven years in the wedding industry, I feel like this is where I belong,” Carlyle says. “From accessories, bride-to-be floral headbands, hen’s day accessories and bridal clutches, wedding flowers and now wedding flower preservation – I like to think we are a none-stop shop for anything wedding florist related,” she says.
What fully brought Carlyle into this floral landscape can be chalked down to her personal connection with weddings – contributing to the bridal journey. “I wanted to be able to offer our clients something for every stage, pre-wedding, wedding day and post-wedding. Our floral bridal collection and wedding floristry was a big hit with our customers and the resin flower preservation was the final piece of our puzzle,” she says. In Carlyle’s personal and professional opinion, the concept of preserving flowers from your wedding day offers “a unique way to display [your] flowers … it’s a way to preserve the flowers to ensure they last the test of time!”
The act of preserving the delicacy of flowers, in Carlyle’s words, “allows our brides to have an everlasting keepsake they can pass down for generations.”
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Some of you, dear readers, must be curious as to the process that goes into resin preservation – especially when it comes to flowers. If this is something you are seriously considering for after your wedding, then it is only natural to express interest in what exactly will happen to the flowers that you lovingly chose. The first step is to deliver the flowers to Bloomy Days, whether that be by dropping them off in person, or by the postal service. If you plan to post them, Bloomy Days has a list of instructions you can follow on their website to ensure that the flowers are delivered safely to the store.
Upon arriving at the business, the best blooms are selected before the drying process begins.
“To preserve the flowers, we go through two stages, which essentially removes all the moisture from the flowers by drying them out while also retaining the delicate nature of each flower by keeping their colour and structure,” Carlyle explains.
Amazingly, this process can take anywhere between seven to twenty-one days depending on the flowers. Once the flowers are completely dried out and preserved, Carlyle and her team then start arranging the flowers in the mould and the resin stage begins.
“We pour our resin in stage to ensure the best quality and maintain the design. Each stage/layer takes between two to three days to set before we can repour. Once all the main pours are complete, it’s time to let the word complete harden/cure and then we can remove it from the mould, this usually takes a couple days,” Carlyle reveals.
The resin then received a topcoat, is cured again, and is then polished and prepared to be send back to clients.
GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
This unique and fun way to celebrate the longevity of your love can act as a daily reminder of the memories had on your big, special day.
Carlyle reassures that they have a diverse range of moulds available to you, from shapes and letters to smaller pieces such as jewellery trays, ring holders, coaster sets and little bears. Bloomy Days offers a fifteen per cent discount on resin flower preservation to clients that book their wedding flowers through them, and also offer a bundle price if you order two resin letters and an ampersand for $520.
If this is something you are keenly interested in, Carlyle advises to allow for six to eight weeks before receiving your resin artwork – seven to ten weeks if it is during peak wedding season. “We don’t just preserve wedding flowers,” Carlyse says. Bloomy Days also preserve wedding bouquets, memorial flowers or even favourite flowers from your own garden. There’s also the option to add handwritten notes, vows, photos or little keepsakes alongside your flowers, allowing room for you to make your resin as personal as you wish.
Images courtesy of Bloomy Days