5 Types of Bouquet Preservation: Every Format, Price, and Trade-off Explained

Written by Ana Constantinescu, owner, artist and floral preservationist at Bloom and Make

You’ve seen pressed frames on Instagram, resin blocks on TikTok, jewelry on Etsy. Every preservation artist offers a different mix of products, and the pricing is all over the place. It’s hard to compare options when you’re not even sure what the differences are.

As the artist behind Bloom & Make, my small flower preservation practice in the Chicago area, I’ve worked across every major format over the past five years: resin blocks, functional resin decor, jewelry, shadow boxes, and pressed flower frames in multiple styles. Having created all of these and watched how they hold up, I’ll walk through each option honestly so you can choose what fits your life, space, and budget. 

And if you’re still weighing whether preservation is the right move at all, I wrote a separate guide on three ways to repurpose your wedding flowers that covers the full range of options, from professional preservation to donating arrangements to crafting with dried stems.

Pressed flower frames

Pressed frames are 2D art. Your flowers are flattened and dried over several weeks, arranged into a composition, and framed behind glass. The result hangs on your wall like a painting or photograph.

Professional pressing is an incredibly time-consuming, laborious process that may involve deconstructing every flower and rebuilding it petal by petal. This is why pressed flower frames tend to be more expensive than other formats.

You’ll encounter a few frame styles as you consider your options:

• Matted frames give you control over the backdrop (mat) and present cleanly over time.

• Floating frames create a striking suspended look, though your wall color shows through and any dust or detached fragments stay trapped inside.

• Brass hinged frames are smaller, portable, and easy to gift.

Longevity is where pressed frames shine. With archival materials (museum glass, acid-free matting, proper sealing) and color correction, these pieces can look beautiful for decades. Without them, expect noticeable degradation within a few years.

Pricing: $250–$460 at the low end, $500–$1,150 mid-range, and more for large frames with archival materials.

Resin blocks

Resin blocks preserve flowers in three dimensions. The blooms are dried (usually with silica gel), then suspended in clear epoxy that hardens into a solid block. When they’re done well, the effect is striking: flowers frozen in glass-clear resin.

All epoxy resin yellows over time, typically within 12 to 24 months. Thicker pieces show it sooner. UV-stabilized resin slows the process but doesn’t stop it. Blocks also come with inherent imperfections: air bubbles, debris, and sometimes visible layer lines in larger pours. Even experienced resin artists deal with these because the material is unpredictable. Choose an artist who is transparent about these limitations and stands behind their work.

Pricing: $300–$900 for a 10x10” block.

Shadow boxes

Shadow boxes display dried 3D flowers in a deep frame, sometimes alongside mementos like invitations and ribbon. If preserving your bouquet’s exact shape matters to you, this is the format designed for that.

On a wall, shadow boxes can feel more like a display case than art. Their depth and bulk can work against them, depending on your space. Worth looking at photos installed in real homes, not just product shots, before committing.

Pricing: $200–$1,000 depending on size and complexity.

Functional resin decor

These are pieces you use in your daily life: serving trays and boards, coaster sets, and statement side tables. Couples who want something tactile and present in daily life often land here.

The trade-off is wear. Daily handling means surface scratches and dulling of the finish. Layer resin’s natural yellowing on top of that, and functional pieces age faster than anything behind glass.

Pricing: Coaster sets run $100–$400; serving trays and boards $300–$1,000; side tables $2,300 or more.

Jewelry and small keepsakes

Pendants, rings, earrings, ornaments, keychains, bookmarks. These are the most accessible preservation options and popular for sharing a bouquet across multiple family members: mothers, grandmothers, or bridesmaids.

Smaller resin pieces hold up better than thick blocks, so a pendant will look good longer than a large resin pour. The quality range in the market is wide, particularly for jewelry, so ask specifically about materials before ordering.

Pricing: Jewelry runs $50–$250, depending on materials. Ornaments, bookmarks, and similar keepsakes fall in the $30–$75 range.

Knowing what’s out there is the first step. The harder question is which format fits your life, your space, and how you feel about the way materials change over time. In an upcoming article, I walk through the decision-making side: how to choose between formats, why color correction matters more than most people realize, and whether shipping your flowers is worth the risk.