WEDDING SERVICE
Reston VA

Four Ways to Preserve
Your Wedding Flowers

When it comes to floral preservation, wedding commissions at Queen & I split into two approaches. Shadowboxes, Pressed Flowers, and Resin preserve your actual blooms and return them to you inside the finished piece, a piece you live with, day to day, in your home. Bas-Relief takes the other path: your flowers become the material an original work is made from, consumed in the process of making it. In both cases, Daniel builds a single custom commission around your flowers, never a templated product.

All four formats are made by hand in the Reston, VA studio, using the same museum-grade archival materials throughout.

Most brides who book ahead already know which format they want. If you’re still deciding, the timeline depends on the format: Shadowbox and Resin both begin with freeze-drying, which preserves your flowers, so there’s no rush. That decision can wait until your design consultation, after the wedding. Pressed Flowers and Bas-Relief are different: both are made from fresh flowers rather than freeze-dried ones, so that decision needs to be made before your flowers are handed off, not after.

Shadowboxes

Your Bouquet, Exactly
as You Carried It

Shadowboxes are the format most brides picture when they imagine wedding flower preservation, and for good reason. Freeze-drying holds your bouquet’s full volume and shape. The piece you receive is your flowers, dimensional and intact, framed in a deep box built to hold that depth.

This is the format to choose if you want the display to read, at a glance, as your bouquet, recognizable to anyone who saw you carry it. It’s also the most forgiving format if you’re not sure yet exactly where in your home the piece will live: a shadowbox reads well in a hallway, a bedroom, an entryway, wherever you decide to hang it later.

Every shadowbox is custom-built to fit the bouquet, not the other way around. Most preservation companies work from pre-sized frames instead.

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Pressed

Your Bouquet Reimagined

Pressed flower preservation takes a different starting point than the other three formats: instead of preserving the bouquet as it was carried, it transforms it into something new. Rather than fading as dried flowers tucked in a drawer or hung in a closet, your blooms are taken apart, pressed flat under traditional wooden presses, and rebuilt into a single composed arrangement, closer to botanical art than to a display of your bouquet.

This is the format for a bride who wants a piece that reads as fine art in her home: something a guest might notice and comment on without immediately knowing its origin. Because the piece is built from individual pressed blooms rather than the bouquet’s original shape, no two arrangements ever come out the same.

Because the finished piece is flat rather than deep, it sits close to the wall, a difference in depth, not overall size, that can matter in a narrower hallway or a tighter room.

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Resin

Your Bouquet Fully
Present in the Room

Resin is the format to choose if you want your bouquet to be a presence in a room rather than something mounted on a wall. The entire bouquet is freeze-dried first, then set inside optically clear resin on a stand built specifically for that piece, meaning it can sit on a console table, a mantle, a shelf, wherever it’s meant to live, and be seen from every side.

Because light passes through resin rather than reflecting off it the way glass does, the piece changes through the day: brighter in direct sun, softer in evening light. Brides who choose resin tend to want that dimension: something that feels alive in the room rather than static.

It’s also the best-suited format for a bouquet you want fully visible at once, rather than viewed straight-on: every angle, not just the front-facing one a frame would show.

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Bas-Relief

Your Flowers
Cast in Plaster

Bas-relief works differently from the other three formats, and it’s worth understanding why before you decide. Rather than preserving the bouquet itself, selected blooms are pressed into clay to capture their exact shape and texture, then removed. Plaster is poured into that impression to create a raised, sculptural tile.

Choose this format if you’re drawn to something that reads as art first: a piece with shadow, texture, and a physical presence closer to a wall relief than a framed display. It’s also worth knowing upfront that timing works differently here: because bas-relief is made from fresh flowers rather than freeze-dried ones, that decision needs to be made before your flowers are handed off, not later at a design consultation.

The tradeoff is real: your flowers themselves won’t come back to you in this format. What you get instead is a permanent record of their exact form, in a medium built to last far longer than the flowers ever could.

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Questions About Choosing
the Right Format

Shadowboxes are three-dimensional: the bouquet is freeze-dried and displayed in depth, exactly as it was carried. Unlike dried flowers hung upside down or stored away, pressed flower preservation is two-dimensional: hand-arranged in a flat composition using traditional wooden presses and framed using archival materials. Both formats return your actual flowers inside the finished piece.

Neither is better. They serve different preferences. Shadowboxes are wall-mounted and display the bouquet in recognizable three-dimensional form. Resin is freestanding and fully three-dimensional, showing the bouquet from every angle with light moving through it. The right choice depends on where you want the piece to live and how you want to experience it. The design consultation is where that decision gets made.

Each of the four Wedding Service formats is built as a complete, standalone commission. Shadowboxes, Pressed Flowers, Resin, and Bas-Relief are each their own piece: one bouquet, one format. If you want to explore combining formats (for example, a preserved piece alongside a bas-relief commission for a family member), that conversation is worth having during your initial call, before your wedding.

That’s what an in-person studio visit is for, not the design consultation, which happens after the wedding, once your flowers are already in hand. A studio visit, available by appointment before your wedding, lets you see finished examples of every format in person rather than judging from photos online. Daniel walks through each option with you directly, so you get a real sense of scale, texture, and presence before you decide.

Very little. Before the wedding, you and Daniel will agree on a point of contact (your wedding planner or maid of honor) who will hand off the flowers at the end of the reception. Keep the bouquet in water as long as possible before pickup. Daniel handles everything from there.

If you’re not sure yet, that’s normal, plenty of brides don’t decide until later. Shadowbox, Pressed Flowers, and Resin all start with freeze-drying, which preserves your flowers, so there’s no deadline pressure. You can decide at your design consultation, after the wedding. Bas-Relief works differently: it’s made from fresh flowers within a day of drop-off, with nothing preserved in between. If Bas-Relief is a possibility for you, let Daniel know before your flowers are handed off.

Yes. Personal pickup on the night of the reception is available for an additional fee, and it’s strongly recommended: the sooner preservation begins, the better the outcome. Personal delivery of your finished piece is available the same way. Both are priced at a flat $100 fee plus $0.50 per mile, round trip from the Reston studio. Studio pickup and drop-off remain free if you’d rather handle either end yourself.

Ready to Choose
Your Format?

Wedding
Coming Up?

Availability moves quickly, since Daniel takes on just 2–3 DC metro brides each week. Booking at least 3 months out gives you the best shot at securing your spot. When you call, Daniel will walk you through the process and pricing for each format, and help you plan how your flowers will be collected. If you’d like to see the formats in person, you’re welcome to visit the Reston VA studio by appointment. Most formats are finalized at your post-wedding consultation, though Bas-Relief must be locked in before your flowers are handed off.

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wedding
already passed?

Depending on the type of flowers, it doesn’t have to be fresh for preservation to still be possible: most bouquets can last up to three days after the wedding if you keep them in fresh water and store them somewhere cool, like a refrigerator. The first step is texting a few current photos to Daniel’s cell, the same number listed below, so he can see the real condition of your flowers rather than guess based on timing alone. From there, a quick call lets him talk through what’s realistic for your specific bouquet, and help you get your flowers to the studio.

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Daniel Marcey, owner of Queen & I - Floral Preservation, Reston, VA

Daniel Marcey

Owner, Queen & I - Floral Preservation │ Reston, VA

Daniel has worked with flowers for 35 years, 25 of them in flower preservation, and serves as head of sales and lead trainer for Botanique, the equipment manufacturer whose freeze-drying technology much of the industry runs on. Every Wedding Service commission is overseen by him personally, from the moment your flowers arrive through to the finished piece.

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