Sending Smiles ~

My designer Gaby and I were talking the other day about the poor flower industry. Have you ever noticed how often other types of business's will put down flowers just to say that their product is better? Society of American Florist spends so much of their time letting other business's know that it's not cool to put us down to make their product look good. It's amazing how those that sell jewelry, candy, chocolates and goodness knows who else use flowers as a point of reference when saying their product is better. Yes, flowers you send today may be gone next month but is that what it's all about? What about the beauty of flowers or the way they can be personalized? What about how special they make people feel or how they physically brighten their mood? Does everything have to be about the long term? In a society of "let's collect as much stuff as possible" doesn't it make sense to bring a thing of beauty into your home that won't be collecting ...

Ok, I want to start off by saying that I have the utmost respect for anyone who waits tables for a living. The closest I ever got to doing that kind of work was my 6 month stint at a Dunkin Donuts my summer before College. Thank goodness I found my calling in Entrepreneurship and being a Floral Designer because I was not good at it! Why am I calling all Waitresses (and not waiters for that matter)? It's because yesterday while reading an issue of Floral Management I read about a study that was done back in the 80's that showed that waitresses that wore a flower in their hair earned 17% more in tips than those who did not. So, that explains why I did not include the men in this blog but that really got me to thinking about the true power of flowers. Our very own Shop Coordinator Sheryl often tucks a flower behind her ear while working and darn if it doesn't just make me want to hug her. There's something about a girl who feels care-free enough to risk lookin...

Thought I'd share some pictures from our very busy weekend!! Five weddings , 4 Mitzvah , 2 showers, 1 anniversary party , 2 Walk-a- thons and 2 sweet sixteens! I may be forgetting something! This picture above if from a garden wedding at Chauncey Center. Simple violet plants in purples and blues in silver mint julep cups. Truly simple but elegant!! Wow! That's a long table. Elegant white flowers create a runner at this event at Salt Creek Grille, located right here in the Village near our shop! This one will be a personal favorite of mine. No wonder the client was happy! This balloon arch was designed by our Event Coordinator David!! He builds them tough and he builds them fast. This was for the Kidney Walk that took place on Sunday, also here in the Village! These cool Chocolate Brown and Pearlized Pink balloons decorated the Nassau Room at the Westin Hotel, also here in the Village. Yes, we actually did leave the Village this weekend but it pays to be so close ...

Whenever I do a wedding consultation, one of the elements I'm always sure to discuss is the process of tagging all the flowers for my brides and grooms. This insures that not only is there no confusion about whose flowers are whose but also helps us to make sure that each floral is delivered to the correction location. How we do this is we e-mail each Bride a questionnaire for them to fill out and send back to us. There we ask for all contact information such as day of cells, wedding planner information, drop time desired, banquet hall and church contacts, etc. Then there is a place where we ask to the Bride and Groom to name each person in the wedding that is either wearing or holding a flower. Not only does this include bridal bouquets but also boutonnieres, corsages, etc. Lastly, we ask for this list to be broken down by drop off location. Most Brides forget that they may need their bouquets at one location for pictures and the gentlemen flowers might need to go directly to chur...

There is one question that I get all the time from brides. Want to guess what that is? It's "how much are my wedding flowers are going to cost", of course! That is such a difficult question to answer, and not because we florists don't want to answer it. The truth is that some brides want lots of flowers and others want the bare minimum. I find that most fall somewhere in between. Taking the time to find out what the bride envisions for her day along with any budget she has set, is priority #1 during first consultations with me. The issue that have is that most families have not set an overall budget for their weddings. This is not good!!! Not setting a budget allows for overspending. You wouldn't ask your realtor to show you houses without telling them how much your mortgage was approved for, would you? You don't go car shopping with an open checkbook? Planning a wedding will be one of the most expensive "purchases" you will even make and I can not i...

"When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other." Chinese Proverb Lovely Lilies: I would not want to do event designs or wedding creations without them in my bag of "floral tricks". Large blooms that come in many colors, some fragrant and others not. People often confuse Asiatic Lilies with Oriental Hybrids and so below is a bit of an explanation regarding what makes them different! Asiatic Hybrids: The Asiatic hybrids are among the earliest to bloom, and also the easiest of lilies to grow! They have the broadest color range of any division, including whites, pinks, plums, yellows, oranges, and reds. Their flowers can be up facing , outfacing, or pendant, and generally are not scented. This variety general has a low cost than Hybrid lilies! They are also easy to use in hand tied bouquets and smaller sized centerpieces. Floating in a bloom or two in a small bowl makes an easy, elegant floral centerpiece. ...

Recently I wrote a blog singing the praises of the color Pink for wedding flowers. Now it's time talk about yellow. In the past 2 months alone, we have done 6 weddings (including one that we are doing this coming weekend) with yellow as the predominant color theme. For our bride Jihan we mixed lavenders, creams and buttery yellows using a mixture of hydrangea, tulips and roses for an elegant spring mixture and an accent of lime green foliage softened the look. Another dramatic combination has been yellow and steel grey. Our bride Jen used a mixture of forsythia branches, roses and orchids in shades of yellow to create her beach themed wedding. Accents of platinum along with soft yellows were an unexpected but gorgeous combination. Even her bouquet carried the theme using fragrant yellow freesia. A very convenient aspect of using this color theme is that there are so many gorgeous flowers that come in various shades of yellow. Orchids, roses, freesia, tulips, dahlias, mum, carnati...