Sending Smiles ~

Every year leading up to Princeton University Reunion Weekend, I'm sure to bring into the shop lots of Tiger Head Balloons and Orange Flowers of all kinds. Between Graduation and the folks coming in to town to party with their past classmates, we are called upon to create arrangement after arrangement in these colors.  Take this centerpiece above, we are creating many of them for a graduation party being hosted by a very proud mom at one of the local Princeton restaurants.    Grab and Go - Folks will want to grab a bouquet and dash off to Graduation when the time comes.    A Princeton University Themed bridal bouquet ? Not on purpose, this bride chose some of our cool orange blooms such as mini gerbera daisy, protea, berries and succulent plants for her Civil service on Saturday morning.    All hotels dress up their lobbies to welcome the alums and families coming into town for Commencement .    The University Departments love to have us decorate for their sp

Yes, I admit we had 7 weddings this past weekend ~ 2 on Friday, 2 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday but  goodness, they all came out so pretty. Take this place card table below for a pink themed wedding at Nassau Inn.   I really loved the simple but elegant look of the silver branches on some of the tables and the soft romantic pink roses and hydrangeas on others. Bride Rebecca was very pleased!    Now moving on to vibrant and dramatic wedding colors, like those done for bride Jean and her new hubby at Grounds for Sculpture . It was chilly outside but these colors warmed it right up, don't you agree?    Moving on to the reception, the tables were filled with many, many mercury glass vases filled lushly with roses in shades of orange and hot pink. So vibrant and alive.    The place cards are my personal favorite; each card had a tiny clothes pin and were clipped to a single rose . Isn't that clever? If you think so, I'll take credit for that!  Moving on to a

We love getting rare and unusual flowers here at the shop and Banksia is one of them!  Banksia is a genus of around 170 species plant family Proteacea. If you have ever seen our very cool Pincushino Proteas at the shop, they are from the same plant family. These Australian wildflowers are easily recognized by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads.  Heavy producers of nectar, Banksias form a vital part of the food chain in the Australian bush. They are an important food source for all sorts of nectariferous animals, including birds, bats, rats, possums, sting less bees and a host of invertebrates. Furthermore, they are of economic importance to Australia's nursery and cut flower industries.  When we purchase these super cool flowers, they come by way of the Dutch Flower Market. Long lasting and quite large, our designers love making arrangements with them. If you are looking for something a bit unusual, perhaps ask us to add a few

This past weekend the hubby and I were out and about with a family function, so of course, I had my camera. I just can't walk anywhere without taking a picture of any flower I see. This one above was a single gladiolus stalk that was in front of a restaurant in Hamilton, NJ. This single bloom was gorgeous and as you can see against the blue sky, the color was very striking. I personal love this flower but sadly many of our customers won't let us use them in our design work. :(  Now, this is obviously some kind of daisy and was found in my Mother-in-Laws garden. I especially loved the pods, which I think is the left over center of the daisy once the petals fall off. Sadly, I don't know much about growing flowers but love designing with them. If I could buy these for the shop, I would but they are most likely just a garden variety meant to be enjoyed like this and not a flora culture variety meant for cutting. :( Once again, we are back at the restaurant and this

Have you ever seen Mountain Mint? Well, this is the variety that we get here at the shop to design with and it's one of our favorite foliage's to use in the summer. With it's lovely mint fragrance and bright lime green foliage's and little balls of sunshine, it's missed when it goes out of season in late summer. Locally grown right here in New Jersey, we use it in just about every wedding we do all summer long. It's lush and full bunches are long lasting and very economical. As you can see from Designer/Sales Associate Alanna holding them - the bunches are huge! To see more of our floral designs be sure to check out our website at www.sendingsmiles.com and we'd love it if you liked our Facebook pages at www.facebook.com/localflorist (for our Princeton shop) and www.facebook.com/sendingsmiles (for our Yardley shop).

How fun to have a wedding in a Winery.... In New Jersey no less. Yes, we grow grapes and make wine in New Jersey and what a wonderful spot for a wedding in May. The perfect location, the perfect couple and the perfect weather! Here's a quick and fun video. Spring Peony, Hydrangeas, Wheatgrass, Burlap, Twine and Curly Willow all take center state in this Elegant but Rustic Wedding. To see more photos from this wedding check out our Facebook Page or our visit our website at www.sendingsmiles.com LinkedTube

I can tell you that if you don't care, you really should. Did you know that 80% of the flower bought in the US are grown outside the US? It's true, that means that only 20% of the flowers sold in America area grown on American soil. You might wonder why this is and it's as simple as this - consumers want low cost. But wanting everything at a low cost can be a high price to pay as we see less and less being "Made in America". As I read a view point in Floral Management Magazine written by Lane DeVries, who is the current Chairman of the California Cut Flower Commission, part of what makes flowers less costly coming from Columbia has been because of the Andean Trade Preference and Drug Eradication Act, which provided duty free access to flowers from being imported from South America. As part of the geopolitical interest of the US, through "Plan Colombia", as the federal government called it, our government has "Invested" an estimated $570 m

Every year we get a call from the White House Florist (yes, that White House)  ordering a memorial wreath for President Cleveland's Grave. He's buried in the historic Princeton Cemetery for those of you that did not know that! Each year they send a memorial wreath from the current President in honor of his birthday. This year was a huge event being it was his 175th! You may not know that he was President of the United States twice, at 2 different times. He was the 22nd and the 24th President. President Cleveland moved to Princeton, NJ in 1897 after his second term as President. He became a beloved member of the community. He died on June 24th, 1908 and was buried in Princeton Cemetery. Our local Princeton Packet newspaper always puts a photo of his ceremony on their front page. All deceased Presidents are honored this way and we are honored to be the local florist that creates this amazing wreath for our very own local President.

It's always fun to open up the paper and see our balloon or flower handy work. In this case a local Princeton business was celebrating their first anniversary with a ribbon cutting and festive balloons. What about this arch that we created for the Trenton Thunder Baseball Team when they wanted to celebrate making it into the playoffs? Flying over 70 feet long, 20 feet above the heads of arriving fans, it sure showed that it was time to celebrate! Spring is one of our busiest times of year for balloon designs such as this arch we created for Mercer County Community Colleges graduation last year. What better way to celebrate a milestone than with balloons! They are big and showy and sometimes it's just what you need to celebrate! To see these and many other of our balloon designs check out our website at www.mondaymorningballoons.com or www.sendingsmiles.com

 We love last minute corporate gigs like this one for Choose NJ, which is located here in the Princeton Forrestal Village. A bit more about Choose NJ later. Anyway, looking to brighten up their offices for a office grand opening tonight, they contacted us yesterday to see if we might be able to provide them with fresh floral decor. Can we do that??? Is the sky blue!! We live to do that! As you can see, Design Manager Holly went to town making festive arrangements to decorate the event.  This will greet guests as they arrive! The coffee table piece below just adds a touch of color and freshness to the entrance sitting area.  How cool is this, our amazing state and touting all the wonderful reasons to have a business in New Jersey!  The piece below was a colorful addition to the board room. A touch of fresh spring flowers really livened up an otherwise, colorless room. They just might love it so much that may want flower every week - a flower girl like me can only hope.  Y

We did it, we survived an unexpected October snow storm on a busy event weekend. Taken with the hubby's cell phone, these floral centerpieces were set up at Prospect House on Princeton Universities Campus. Look at the snow covered trees and gardens in the back ground. With 4 teams on the road doing daily deliveries, setting up this party (a Corporate function) a full sized wedding (with church and reception set ups), a flower and balloon decorated Mitzvah and a Halloween party thrown in for good measure - it took nerves of steel to pull it off. Thank you to my amazing crew who without the benefit of boots, gloves or chains for the their tires, managed to set up all parties and get back safely to home base, each with their delivery vans intact. With power outages, electrical poles on fire, party locations being changed at the last minute and all around mass confusion, I think we did a pretty darn good job. I don't think I'll ever think of October as "no need to worry

Hey, anyone out there that is nearby to our shop in Prinecton Forrestal Village, feel free to swing by and visit us during our Customer Appreciation Event. It will be held on November 18th from 6 - 9 pm at the shop. There will be food, drinks, give aways and music. Come on by and tour our production space, smell the flowers and meet the staff. Hope to see you there!