Sending Smiles ~

One of the challenges of any business is having people know what your business is about. For me, it becomes especially hard because we do the normal flower shop stuff, which in itself has so many facets, but then add balloon decor , candy and funeral flowers into the mix and it becomes many run on sentences instead of one clear concise description!! One minute you are getting balloons out the door for a festive affair and then next you are creating a funeral spray that includes a symbol meaningful to the family. Anyway, that's pretty much what I love about my business, even if it does make it hard to describe. My husband is fond of telling people the flower business is about everything from the craddle to the grave and it really is true. New Baby, Birthdays , Proms, Graduation, Congratulations, Weddings, Get Well, Sympathy and Funerals . Our product touches people, makes them happy, and even comforts them. From joy to sorrow and back to joy again. The cycle of life......

Well, the holiday is over and it was an eventful week. First, I scared the heck out of my staff by fainting at the shop on Monday. After a scary ride in an ambulance and a less than perfect nights stay in the hospital (I would have been more rested sleeping on the floor of the flower shop) I was released back into the watchful eyes of my husband and staff on Wednesday. I'm also proud to announce that we did over 720 deliveries in about 3 days!! Not as many as last year (just over 800 last year) but considering that the holiday fell on a Saturday this year, we were tickled pink! All our hard work on marketing the business and attention to customer service really has paid off. We also designed, delivered and set up two gorgeous weddings on Valentine's Day. Mary Beth and Leah were the most adorable brides and absolutely loved everything (much to my delight). Leah's wedding was fun, earthy and funky using all blue hydrangea, green hypericum berries and brown gerbers !...

In my bridal consultation area I have a picture of my niece. This picture is special to me because my niece was taken from us just before her 21st birthday and I miss her like crazy. As a matter of fact, her birthday just passed and even though I think of her every single day, I always feel sad on both her birthday and the anniversary of her death. I think of the "what if's " and the "why her" on those days more than usual. Getting back to this picture, it's of my niece and she's about 11 years old when the photo was taken. She's sitting in a neighbors back yard, holding her hand out towards a dandelion and from her side profile, you can tell she is smiling. The reason I display this in my bridal area is because it reminds me that what one person may see as a weed, another may see as something beautiful. It's really all about your perspective. I love reminding brides that anything can be nice for their wedding, it's all how they look at it. E...

You know how they say the older you get, the faster time seems so go? That is certainly true for me. I can't believe it's February already and it's another Valentine's Day holiday around the corner. As a florist, I have a love, hate relationship with this holiday but truthfully, it's more of a love these days, than a hate. Why you ask? It's because after so many years of coordinating the business during busy times, it seems like each year it gets a bit easier and easier. Remember that line from "You've Got Mail" where David Chapell's character tells Tom Hanks - "It's a well oiled machine my friend". That's the way I feel about my business. Each of us have become so good at what we do that each detail is carefully orchestrated and executed. A well oiled machine indeed!! I remember in years past going to bed at 3 or 4 am only to have to get up again at 5 or 6 to drive back to the shop. It's been years since we've even ha...

Well, I could not resist doing a "Scenes from our shop" Part 2. So many cute pictures to show! To the left is a shelf of all baby items, stuffed animals and cute novelty containers that hold pretty floral displays. To the right is a shelf themed for Valentine's Day. Satin ceramics and red glass vases, chocolates, love themed stuff animals make for fun shopping. Below is a picture of designer Rocio who is wrapping her creation for the trip in the delivery van. In cold weather flowers need extra attention to keep them from freezing! The photo to the right show Design Coordinator Dianne Legg putting the finishing touches on a wedding cake at the Nassau Inn. Simple touches of fresh flowers are a very popular way to dress up a simple wedding cake. Most people find it surprising when I tell them that we did exactly 100 wedding in 2008. Now, that's a lot of wedding flowers and many, many hours of meetings with brides! No wonder I'm tired! :o) To the left is a tin of yumm...

So let me start off by saying, this blog has absolutely nothing to do with flowers. I'm a Jersey Girl. Always have been, always will be. You can imagine how excited I was when I heard that my favorite artist (who happens to be from Jersey) was going to be playing the half time show at the Superbowl. Who? Who is this Jersey boy? None other than Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street band!! Normally I would go to my cousins along with my husband to watch the game but yesterday I was feeling a little less than perfect so I stayed home. Flipping back and forth between the game and Ghost Hunters Marathon made for a relaxing night but as soon as Bruce took the stage, I was up, I was cheering, clapping my hands and singing along. No lack of energy then!! My poor cats are still recovering from the off-key singing! I remember in the year 2000 when I was in Paris on vacation. I entered a little shop and the sales clerk said "Bonjour" I awkwardly replied "Hi" with my NJ accent...

Have you ever noticed how sometimes it's hard to think of a business in more than one way? For example: maybe you always think of McDonald's as the place to get great burgers or even fries but we forget they make wonderful salads and really good coffee. Now, this is not an advertisement for McDonald's, even though I'm a huge fan, even own stock! No, it's just that even for my business, it's hard to get my customers to think of us as more than a florist. Even though the word Balloon is in our name, sometimes people don't realize that we do all kinds of balloon event decor such as balloon columns, arches, centerpieces. As a matter of fact, I did balloon decorating quite a few years before I started doing flowers for weddings. We blow up over 40,000 balloons every single year! Now that's a lot of balloons. Anyway, the point of the blog is that we are more than a florist, we are event decorators and I want to scream it from the highest mountain (well, maybe ...