The 12x8 Pressed Flower Serving Tray: The Piece That Built Our Studio

If you asked us which product feels the most like Wild Coast, we'd probably point to the12x8 pressed flower serving tray. 

It's our most ordered keepsake. We've made more of them than anything else in our studio, and honestly, this one tray played a big role in getting us to where we are today.

Almost 200 couples ordered one through our website in the past year. Another 350 came through Etsy during that same time.

That's more than 500 wedding bouquets turned into trays that people actually use in their homes.

And after making thousands of them, we still love seeing what each new bouquet becomes.

Here's the story behind the tray, how we make it, and why it continues to be one of the most important pieces we offer.

The tray that helped grow Wild Coast

Back in 2023, we were making these trays nonstop in our old warehouse space.

The team was smaller. The studio was smaller. We had a lot less room to work with—and plenty of long days.

But the 12x8 tray kept us busy.

It was one of the products that helped us learn what Wild Coast was really becoming.

People loved it because it wasn't just something to put on a shelf and look at.

You can actually use it.

It might hold coffee on a Sunday morning. Maybe it comes out when friends are over. Maybe it sits by the front door holding keys and mail.

Then someone notices the flowers inside and realizes they're from your wedding.

That's always been one of our favorite things about functional flower preservation. Your flowers don't have to sit somewhere protected where nobody touches them. They can become part of your everyday life.

The 12x8 tray helped us figure out how to make that happen.

What makes our trays different?

There are plenty of resin trays out there.

What makes this one different is that it's made from your flowers and designed around the things that matter to you.

It is genuinely customizable

One of the questions we hear most often isn't just, "Can you preserve my flowers?"

It's, "Can you make it feel like mine?"

Usually, the answer is yes.

You can customize your tray with:

• Handle color. Choose the finish that matches your kitchen or your bar cart.
• Inlaid items. Your wedding invitation, a handwritten note, a ribbon, a program. We can set meaningful paper items right into the piece alongside the flowers.
• Text personalization. Names, a wedding date, a line that means something to the two of you.
• Metallic flake. A subtle shimmer worked into the resin.
• Painted edge. The border color is a design choice, not a default.
• Color correction. If your blooms browned or faded before they reached us, we can hand-paint them back toward the color of your original bouquet.

No two bouquets are exactly alike, so no two trays are either.

Even if two couples chose all of the same options, the flowers themselves would make each piece completely different.

It's made to be used

We wanted this tray to be something you could actually pick up and use—not something so delicate that you're afraid to touch it.

It's thin and lightweight, but still sturdy enough for everyday use.

One detail we're particularly proud of is the handles.

The handles make up about half the weight of the entire piece, so how they're attached matters. Instead of simply casting them into the resin, we install them through drilled holes.

That means they're built to handle years of use.

And if a handle ever gets damaged, it can be replaced.

A handle permanently cast into resin can't.

It's not necessarily the first thing someone notices when they see the finished tray, but details like that make a big difference when you're creating something meant to last.

The resin we use is also UV-resistant and food-safe, so you can comfortably use the tray for food and drinks.

How one gets made

Every 12x8 goes through the same path.

Arrival & Preservation. First, your bouquet is carefully taken apart and the flowers are pressed individually. This part takes time. Flowers need to dry completely before they can be sealed. If they're removed from the press too early, leftover moisture can cause problems later, including browning. We don't rush this step.

Design and approval. Once your flowers are fully dry, we begin arranging them into your tray. Then we send you photographs of the proposed design. You get to see how your flowers will look before anything is cast in resin, and nothing moves forward until you've approved the design. It's your bouquet, so we want the finished piece to feel right to you.

Resin Casting. Once the design is approved, your flowers are set into resin and cured.

Sanding and buffing. This is one of the most hands-on parts of the entire process. Each tray goes through a nine-step sanding process, working all the way down to a 2000-grit mirror finish. A lot of work goes into getting that final smooth, polished surface and most of it happens after the flowers are already sealed inside.

Photos and shipping. The final steps include details like painted edges, handle installation, and finishing touches. Once everything is complete, we photograph your finished tray and prepare it for shipping. Shipping is free anywhere in all 50 states. You can see more of what happens to your flowers throughout the process on our process page.

How long does a 12x8 tray take?

We want to be straight with you about this, because it is the question we get most.

In a vacuum, with your tray as the only project in the studio, a 12x8 takes roughly two to three months from flowers to finished piece. On an extremely expedited timeline, with an expedite or rush fee, we can compress that to about a month.

That is not the real world. In the real world we have hundreds of bouquets in various stages of pressing, design, casting, and finishing at any given moment. So every order, regardless of size, runs about five months start to finish. A single tray does not move faster than a full package, and a full package does not move slower than a single tray. Everyone waits the same amount of time, and nobody's bouquet gets rushed through the press to make a date.

The one thing you control is the start. Fresh flowers need to reach us within about five days of the wedding, so booking your spot ahead of time is the single best thing you can do. Save the Date holds your place on our production calendar before the wedding even happens.

The tray line the 12x8 built

The 12x8 got popular enough that couples started asking for bigger, smaller, and different. So we built out the line. By size:

• 12x8 pressed flower serving tray. The original, and still the one most people choose.
• 18x10 pressed flower serving tray. The next size up, for a fuller bouquet or a bigger surface.
• 12x16 serving tray with raised edge. The raised edge means it actually holds things, which makes it the most practical piece we make.
• 24x12 live edge wood charcuterie board. Real wood with a live edge, paired with your preserved flowers.
• 27x20 stove top cover and serving board. Our largest surface, sized to cover a range and double as a board.

We also make two edge styles. The straight edge is a clean, squared border, available in the 12x8 and the 18x10. The geode edge is an organic, scalloped border that follows the shape of the piece, available in the 12x8 and the 14x9.

Pairing your tray

A full bridal bouquet almost always holds more flowers than one tray needs. Most couples use the rest on something smaller.

The natural pairing is coasters, which is why we offer the 12x8 tray and round coaster bundle and the 12x8 tray and geode coaster bundle. The 12x8 tray is also the anchor of The Necessities, the most approachable of our preservation packages, where it comes with round coasters, an ornament, and a letter keychain.

A little bouquet goes a long way, even calla lily bouquets! 

Why we still care this much about one tray

We have made thousands of these. It would be easy by now to treat the 12x8 as a production item and move on to whatever is newest.

We do not, and here is why. Somebody carried those flowers on the biggest day of their life. The craftsmanship, the back-and-forth before we cast anything, the hours of sanding nobody sees: all of it exists so the finished piece is worth the weight of what it holds. Making art with meaning is the whole job. The tray is just the form it takes.

Ready to See What Your Bouquet Could Become?

You can start with the 12x8 pressed flower serving tray, browse finished pieces in our gallery, or see what other couples have shared in our reviews.