Sending Smiles ~

Isn't this rose amazing? I snapped this photo this week in the shop this last rose sat in a bucket next to Designer Norman who was using them in an arrangement. Ordered in just for our daily designing pleasure, this rose is always a hit with recipients and senders alike. It's considered a bi-colored roses as on each petal it has two distinct colors. In this case a back color of golden yellow and a tip in a bright orange/red shade. It's high petal count means it opens full and lush, almost like a garden rose variety. Basically just a stand Tea Rose, it's affordable and of very high quality. Looking for an amazing rose for your wedding or next party centerpiece? If this is anywhere in your color theme, you can't go wrong with this variety. Grown in South America, it's of very high quality and the color is just to die for, don't you think? To see time where we have used this rose in our daily designs and in our wedding creations, visit our website at www...

If you've read my blog before you know how I feel about funeral flowers. Yes, those obituaries sometimes say "In Lieu of Flowers" and you all know, that it does not mean not to send flowers. It merely means if you want to make a donation, yadda, yadda. You know that floral tributes not only express your sympathy for the grieving but don't you think the funeral home looks very sad if there were no flowers there? Sending flowers for funerals is a tradition that goes back ages and the reason is that it helps folks know you care, flowers make them feel loved, make it known the person who has passed was loved. It helps make the funeral more bearable. This blog is not about that. It's about NOT sending flowers that arrive to the funeral home in a box! We are not against ProFlowers, who just happens to be pictured here. They are not the only ones that sell flowers delivered in the mail. FTD and 1800flowers sell those, among others.  This blog aims...

 No two the same, it's what I always say, no two weddings we do are ever quite the same. Just a look at these recent wedding bouquets proves my point. Take the brides maids bouquet above for example. Roses, gerbers and dahlias in red, accented with deep sapphire blue delphinium, green garden roses and accents of fresh buplurium make for a colorful bouquet. If you like the way they look in our design area, you should have seen them up against the sapphire blue brides maids gown! Wow!  This bouquet is set to be delivered for bride Kristen even as I type the blog. The colors are amazing and what makes this bouquet even more special is the unstructured design. With an eye towards it not being overly round or symmetrical, this bouquet delights in different ways from different angles. I love, love, love, pink and brown together and how simple is this brides maids bouquet of light pink roses accented with chocolate brown cosmos. Yes, those are a flower that are a deep ...

Last weekends wedding for bride Allie had us using lots of peach flowers such as these gorgeous Alejandra roses. What we love about this rose is the vintage coloring of the outer petals. A hint of green along the edge and then a deeper shade of peach towards the center, looks especially gorgeous as it opens more fully. To see more of the flowers we created for Allie's wedding, visit our facebook page at www.facebook.com/localflorist or our website at www.sendingsmiles.com

If you've ever been on our wedding website - www.perfectweddingflowers.com you might have seen that we have an informal wedding survey. It's been great fun watching the results come in and at this time I felt I had a enough to share. These were all taken by bride who remained anonymous and were all beginning their search for a wedding florist. A few of the stats I found very interesting. 10% of brides were not enjoying their wedding planning experience and only 30% were loving every minute of it. A full 60% were somewhere in between. 60% of brides found my company through a venue who referred us compared to only 20% finding us through an online directory such as Wedding Wire or the Knot. 80% said they were hiring a florist to create all their wedding day flowers and 40% said they wanted to create some of their own wedding day decor. 40% of brides had budgeted between $500 and $1,500 for their flowers and 20% had budgeted between $1,501 and $4,000 with another 10% sayin...

Today's wedding had us using a brand new variety rose (well, it's new to us) called Purple Haze. Judging by the number of kind comments on our Flickr page, it seems like this rose is going to be heavily used in our design work in the coming months. A lovely shade of lavender with a hint of magenta on the tips (or at least that's what I might call that color), there's no way this rose could ever be called boring. Purple and lavender still remains strong in our event design, especially weddings, so it's nice to have such a lovely new variety to offer to our customers. To see more of our designs visit our website at www.sendingsmiles.com or our facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/localflorist

Fall has finally arrived here in New Jersey and PA . With temps in the low 50's in the early am and sunny skies, it's the perfect time of year for a wedding. Yesterday we had the pleasure of creating pretty floral designs for bride Jennifer and her now husband Eric. It took a bit of work but finally their vision was transformed into flowers and as you'll see below, with wonderful success! Below is Jennifer's bridal bouquet . Green garden roses (called Super Green), white hydrangea, ranuculus, gardenias and touches of silvery dusty miller. Hand tied for a compact design, we can't wait to see her professional photos! Now here is where the colors come in wow, what colors they were. Deep blue delphinium, orange spray roses (that were a bit two toned, similar to Circus Roses), Santana roses which were a deep orange, orange mokara orchids, yellow craspedia (billy balls) and accents of dusty miller. Each bouquet had their stems wrapped in an antique gold ribbon secu...

Ok, ok, I know what you thinking. Why do you have Christmas product displayed at the shops already?? Right, come on, you were thinking it. I could hear you through my computer but honestly it's because people seem to want to buy it. Take these pretty ornaments that just came in. The first day we displayed them, someone came in and bought 2 right off the bat!   Another cute product to arrive are the funny, little pillows and matching coffee mug - nice until proven naughy, the nice list is over-rated. How cute! How could we not put them out when they make us laugh just reading them.    Above and below is some of our fall products. Every year at this time we bring back our peanut brittle - yum and our fall and winter scented candles from Yankee Candles.  Don't forget about our $5 Friday specials. Each Friday we have a special floral deal for only $15. Last week we had mixed bouquets that normally would sell for $15 for only $5 bucks. You can't be...