Sending Smiles ~

Fresh Flowers Have Arrived! The world has gone a bit crazy but  flowers  spreading good cheer still remains the same. The Governor has said that we are allowed to continue doing No-Contact flower deliveries and that's what we intend to do. Our customers have been so grateful that we are able to  send  their loved ones a pretty bouquet on their birthday or let them know that someone is thinking of them while they are sick or grieving.  Look at all these gorgeous flowers that just arrived. Here's a list of what just came in!! Rainbow Spray Roses Purple Statice Cremone and Spider Mums in all colors Gorgeous Full Size Carnations Rainbow Alstroemeria Pom Pon Daisies Hypericum Berries Blue Thistle Dianthus Flowers Solidago Asters Full Size Roses Tulips Just name a few! Isn't that amazing? We are also grateful to all our wholesalers and suppliers for all their help getting this product to our shop during this difficult time. Do you know someone ...

MEMORIAL LUNCHEON AND DINNER FLOWERS ~ A TREND IN FUNERALS Memorial luncheon and dinner flowers are the latest trend in funerals allowing people a chance to grieve and celebrate a life well lived.  How like the flower business to go from one blog post that talks about wedding trends to sympathy trends. Although honoring the life of a loved one during wakes and viewings is important, many families are opting to host larger events such as luncheons and dinners. For example, the pieces below are for a luncheon being held in honor or a wonderful man who spent many years of his life as an artist. The family believes he really would have enjoyed both the vibrant tones and the unique blooms. 4 of these designs shown below will be for small cocktail tables and include exotic flowers such as bird of paradise, protea and orchids. The host venue is going to be Grounds for Sculpture out in Hamilton/Trenton. If you have never been there, it's an amazing setting and these flowers will re...

Amazing Summer Flowers at our store in Princeton, NJ. The one thing that never gets old for me is viewing pretty  flowers . When I go on vacation, I stop to look at flowers. When I'm at home, I read flower books. When I'm at work, I ooohh and aahh over the pretty stems in the shop. Let's face it, my job is pretty awesome! A big part of my daily responsibilities is sharing our products on Social Media and that is no hard task! Imagine being a plumber or lawyer? Talk about having a "hard" product to showcase. Luckily, I have not only brightly color blooms but fun and inspirational giftware to show.  This  summer  the sunflowers have been spectacular and the other flowers aren't shabby either. This design includes other flowers such as spray roses, tea roses, stock, spider mums and even tropical protea. Designer Alanna got this pretty shot on the side walk looking down. We're thinking that whoever gets this design is gonig to be pretty happy about it. ...

Whether you can or can't be with your Mom this Mother's Day ~ sending fresh flowers to either her home or work is never a bad idea. Nothing makes a woman feel more appreciated and special than when our driver pulls up with a fresh flower bouquet complete with your personal message. Mother's Day is May 12, 2019 this year! Have you checked out all our new designs we have added in time for this years Mother's Day holiday ?  Every year we are surprised by what our clients choose for their mother and this year's trend seems to be our "Mono-Floral" designs. What is that, you may ask? It's when the design has all the same type of flowers but perhaps in different colors. A few of the designs pre-selling very well are our all Orchid design, our Amazing Alstroemeria Vases and our simple but elegant all Spray Rose Bouquets. Have you seen a design on our site that your mother would love? Open and delivering 7 days a week to town such as Princeton, Lawrencevil...

If you ask me what is one of the most stressful parts about running my business, it would be finding talented, hard working staff with a can do attitude. Honestly, we have been searching for someone for more than 2 years and then along comes Alicia who not only is the best fit but goes above and beyond what we could have hoped for.  MMF: Alicia, we're so happy to have you join us at Monday Morning Flowers (MMF). Tell us how you became interested in the flower business! Alicia: My career started as a cashier at a local supermarket but the floral manager asked me to help out in that department one Mother's Day and the rest is history. That was 3 years ago.  MMF: What have you been doing to further your design skills? Alicia:   I'm currently attending Buck's County Community College and taking classes in their AIFD (American Institute of Floral Design) Floral Design Certification Program. I've already taken basic and intermediate design classes along with...

Did you know that when someone orders from our shop we send them a survey? One of the questions we ask is "other than our shop where do you buy flowers" and the number one answer we hear is "From the Supermarket". Now we know we can't compete on convenience because most folks hit the supermarket several times per month but we can compete on freshness, price and selection. Announcing our "Buy the Bunch" program. Here's how it works. Stop in our shop to see our amazing selection of flowers by the bunch. Choose 1 fresh flower bunch for $10 or choose 3 for only $20. These bunches are not only super fresh but also a very good flower deal  with a savings as high as 50% off our "by the stem" prices.  For example this week we have by the bunch.... Roses Spray Roses Bells of Ireland Alstroemeria Ranunculus Carnations Daisies Thistle Veronica Bupleurum Jumbo Asters Gladiolus Dianthus Tulips Dendrobium Orchids and more! ...

If you have been in our shop over the last few days you may notice a few changes. It was time and we we're all so excited for the New Year to arrive! The first part of the remodel was to remove our dated, over sized walk in/display cooler. Folks seem surprised that we wanted to remove this unit but we had some very good reasons. It was 18 years, it had a slow leak that required either $11,000 worth of repairs or $1,000 worth of freon every 3 to 4 months. The most compelling reason for removing this cooler was because although it looked brand new from the outside, it was actually now too big for our needs. Most of customers are unaware that when we expanded 9 years ago, we added another large walk in cooler measuring 12 feet by 15 feet which is more than an enough refrigeration space for our needs. A new large 2 door cooler will be replacing the one we took out but see below for how open and airy the shop looks now! We're really having fun displaying more plants, gardens and...

It might be very white outside but the colors in our Princeton store are anything but white! Did you know that we now organize our Retail Display Cooler by color? This way when you come in you can see the flowers you love in the colors we have them in that day!  We've recently added some new floral designs to our website .  Be sure to check them out! 

December is a fun month to be working here at the flower shop for multiple reasons but the main one is that our days are so varied. One day we might be making 34 cookie bouquets for a corporate client , like I'm doing below.  Or we may be making 24 Chocolate Sled Gift Baskets to be delivered to the Pavillions, like Alanna is working on below.   Or perhaps we making really pretty centerpieces for a holiday party, like Holly is doing below.   Not to mention hosting a design class where the students have fun and make new friends.   And at the end of the class the students pose with their creations!   Design Rosy makes boxwood tree after boxwood tree , all created by hand, one piece of foliage at a time and then decorated for the holiday.  Whatever we work on at the shop, including sympathy designs to show love to grieving families, our days in December are extremely varied and rewarding. While others might be slowing down at wor...

Did you ever wonder where the tradition of hanging a wreath on your door began? Back through many cultures and religions, the hanging of a wreath, the symbol of eternal life, has been a way of celebrating happy occasions and holidays . Even during years when my husband and I were too busy to even put up a Christmas tree (yes, the florist who decorates for others does not always decorate for herself) we've always celebrated the holidays with a wreath. Each year Kevin and I do something different and it's just our way of expressing ourselves at home. Ask any floral designer and they'll tell you that creating custom holiday wreaths is one of the most fun parts of their job. Why not let us create one for you! 

We know Christmas is right around the corner but we could not resist these amazing and colorful flowers. Haven't heard about our $5 Flower Friday's? Each Friday we offer the freshest most amazing flower bouquets for only $5. Perfect timing for the weekend, this weeks flower are alstroemeria. They big bouquets are extremely colorful and long lasting and the perfect way to being a big of color into your home this weekend. Want to be notified via text each Friday about what flower we are offering that day? Just text the word FRIDAY to 555888 and we'll add you to our text list! You can also find our specials by visiting our Facebook Pages - www.facebook.com/localflorist for our Princeton NJ flower shop or www.facebook.com/sendingsmiles for our Yardley PA flower shop. 

Here at the shop , not only are there 2 Vinicombe's running the store ~ my husband Kevin and myself, of course but did you know that Kevin's Mother Arlene also works at the shop? 7 or 8 years ago when she retired from her Corporate Position, she joined us as a Sales Associate and she learned about the business from the ground up. Although she was also supportive of us, she was even more so when she realized how hard we worked! She ended up working almost full time for about 5 years before she went to part time working for Kevin in the office helping him with bookkeeping and office management duties.  This week and I took a quick photo of Mother and Son hard at work in the office. At Monday Morning Flower and Balloon Co, it truly is all in the family! 

We've been having some fun over at our Facebook Page and folks seem to be having fun too. Today we posted the photo below and asked our Fans to name that flower. Do you know what this flower is?  Oh no, we're not going to tell you! If you want to know, link over to our Facebook Page  to either take your own guess or see the reveal! Wondering if this is really a flower we design with? The answer is yes and our proof is the bridal bouquet pictured below from last year!  

Did you know our Princeton shop is located in the Princeton Forrestal Village? Yes we are and we are just up from the Westin Hotel and are located between Exquisite Brides (how convenient to be located next to that) and Tre Piani and Tre Bar (again, how convenient is that?)! We've actually been in the Village for just over 12 years and we really love it. We moved out of downtown Princeton when we lost our lease and needed more space. People often ask if anyone finds us in this mixture of corporate and retail and the answer is yes they do. We actually do a very brisk walk in and thanks to customer deciding to shop local and the recession lightening up it's grip a bit, our walk in is up this year very nicely. We make speedy delivery into down town Princeton, the whole Route 1 corridor, all of Mercer County, parts of Middlesex and Somerset, not to mention Lower Buck, each and every day. Offering delivery to over 70 zip codes keeps our 3 to 5 delivery trucks busy all day long,...

This past spring we were lucky enough to have a camera man come into our Princeton store to shoot our new video and I have to say, I love the way it turned out. It was fun seeing the employees all buzzing around going about their day! What do you think?

This particular arrangement was created for a wedding but can you imagine getting this arrangement for your birthday or because you were feeling a bit under the weather. I've written many blogs about the attributes of receiving flowers but can you honestly look at this sunny arrangement and not smile? Last year when I was in the hospital over night, my staff sent me the most lovely floral arrangement and I have to tell you how happy it made me feel. Not just to have those lovely flowers in view but also because of the card message, which let me know that my staff missed me. Don't ever under estimate the Power of Flowers!!

Oran Alycia's bouquet , originally uploaded by Georgianne at Monday Morning Flowers . This bouquet, created for our bride Alycia, has been causing quite a stir on Facebook and Flickr.com showing me that Orange is a hot color for just about any season. Customers phoning in to request flower arrangements for get wells and birthday has shown a real preference for shades of orange, lime green and even yellow. Sunny colors, the perfect introduction into Summer!

Wow, talk about a term that gets over used. Not all "local" florists are local. Some out-of-state telemarketing and online firms pose as local florists. These companies mislead consumers into feeling they are ordering flowers from a local florist, but without their knowledge, are being call-remote forwarded to another state. These firms charge higher fees and take business away from legitimate local florists. Consumers are deceived into thinking they are doing business with a local company when they're not. That's unethical and unfair. Any local florist would be happy to assist you with your out of town orders but they will let you know upfront that they are using an affiliate shop to make the delivery. To make sure you are doing business with a local professional florist, just follow these tips from the Federal Trade Commission. Ask for directions to the shop. If they hesitate or refuse, chances are they are not a real florist. Deal only with shops that list their ...