By Anne Ruisi
Your great-grandmother might have saved her wedding bouquet by pressing individual blooms in a book kept wrapped in the attic, but you now have the option to treasure your flowers as an artistic memento of the day you said your vows and display it in your home long after your Golden Anniversary.
Preserving wedding flowers by encasing them in artistic shapes made of transparent resin is gaining more attention among brides as an alternative to traditional ways of floral preservation. HeidiCat, a new business based in Mountain Brook, is helping brides preserve their flowers for a lifetime.
“It’s a unique memory of that day,” said Catherine Romero, who, with her longtime friend Heidi Hallman, started the company in August.
Flowers can be preserved in spheres, bookends, decorative trays, rectangles, squares, hexagons and other shapes, some in different sizes, to create substantial pieces with weight. Smaller pieces can be made for a jewelry dish, ring holder, ornaments, a cross, and bottle stoppers and openers. Their website, heidicat.com, showcases the variety of items.
Each piece can take from two to four months to produce. The process begins with a careful preparation of the bouquet or other floral piece, Romero said. The freshest and best blooms and greenery will be preserved.
The first step in their studio is to dry each bloom in silica gel an average of three weeks to ensure all moisture is removed. The piece is then designed. Once it’s reviewed and approved by the customer, the work to pour multiple layers of resin to preserve the flowers begins. Each layer can take 24 to 48 hours because they have to cure before another layer is added.
“We often say we need a degree in chemistry to do this,” Hallman joked, noting that the process isn’t as simple as it sounds and that working with resin can be tricky.
Precision and attention to detail are key. For example, materials used, such as resin, have to be at precise measurements and temperatures when the piece is being created or the work will be ruined. The items also have to be watched for bubbles that might form as each layer is poured.
“We do all we can to minimize them,” Romero said.
Brides are ordering HeidiCat’s pieces not only for themselves but for relatives and the wedding party. At Christmas, a number of brides ordered ornaments to give as gifts, Hallman and Romero said. And some bridesmaids and groomsmen give the happy couple the company’s service as a wedding gift.
While they both shared a similar interest in art and flowers, home décor and weddings and knew what they wanted to do to open their business, it took plenty of preparation. Hallman had worked in advertising and Romero in marketing, and Romero had a background in art and some experience working with resin but not with flowers in resin.
They did their research mostly on their own, with plenty of advice from vendors who sold the materials needed to make the pieces.
Since August, they’ve preserved flowers from about 20 weddings. Their client base is in Birmingham, and their business is growing, with customers in Huntsville, Mobile, Tampa and North Carolina.
Social media and word of mouth from satisfied customers are the ways most potential clients hear about their service. Romero added that some wedding planners they’ve worked with have helped get the word out.
“We’ve been very blessed,” Hallman said.
