If you ask Kirsten Bashford, wedding flowers and antique glass make the perfect pair. She’s the owner and artist behind Beyond the Wildflowers, a boutique floral preservation studio based in Hunterdon County specializing in preserving flowers into antique pieces of glass, stained-glass and farmhouse windows, traditional frames, resin and more. Founded in 2021, this small business “creates one-of-a-kind heirloom pieces of functional and decorative art,” says Kirsten. “[It’s] a non-traditional way to preserve flowers and blooms from someone’s special day.”
You can check out the Beyond the Wildflowers retail shop and studio at 99 Kingwood Stockton Road in Stockton this weekend during their open house on April 25-26, 2026, from 10 am-5pm. There will be live music, raffles, treats, and a DIY flower bar hosted by the flower shop, Greens & Beans Florist. Guests can also shop the curated collection of items on display.
“Throughout the decade of vending at various art fairs, the most-asked question I received was, do you have a store? ” explains Kirsten. “Being able to finally say ‘yes’ to that question is a thrill in itself.”
The most popular items among wedding clients are antique glass cake stands, with or without a cloche, and stained-glass or farmhouse windows. Kirsten’s clients provide the flowers and she preserves them in an FDA-approved food safe resin on the glassware of their choosing.
Kirsten and her colleague, Danielle Battistella, source glassware from antique dealers, private estates and salvage yards. “We focus on collections from time periods starting in 1860 all the way until 1970 and we value these pieces as true antique relics,” says Kirsten.
Some couples provide their own glassware, such as a dish from their grandmother. “By preserving their wedding bouquets into these heirloom pieces, it creates a new piece to be enjoyed for future generations,” says Kirsten. The perfect Something Old and Something New!
Beyond the Wildflowers also offers two other flower-art services. Restoration of dried bouquets, “is for folks that have gotten married between 10 and 20 years ago and have had their flowers sitting in a freezer or the closet or the garage and would like them to be restored,” says Kirsten. And flower re-creation is for couples who no longer have their bouquet but want to create a keepsake. “They send a photo of their flowers, we work with our florist to reorder the bouquet and then create it into anything that they’d like,” she says.
At the Stockton studio and shop, couples can shop a variety of flower-art items, view sample work and set up a consultation for their own keepsake. Beyond the Wildflowers recommends booking floral preservation services three to six months prior to your wedding date. A $500 flat-rate labor cost is applied to all orders that consist of a la carte items, or they offer several bundle and save collections.
