Sending Smiles ~

Owning and managing a flower shop is not always about being around gorgeous flowers. Take this photo for instance, my adorable and hard working business partner/husband Kevin was hard at work this weekend re-flooring our retail cooler. Keeping the store fresh, clean and organized is so important to any retail business but I admit that I'm more particular than most.  In addition to the new floor, the designers now have new counters in the production room, the carpets are getting cleaned and we'll be painting a few walls.  Floral related we have decided to now organize our coolers by color rather than by variety. We are hoping this will make it easier on customers who are drawn to certain colors.  The next time you in the area of our Princeton Forrestal Village location, we hope you'd stop in for a visit! www.sendingsmiles.com  

Many of our regular blog readers should be familiar with our fabulous and energetic customer care coordinator Alanna! Today I caught her with a free moment and noticing how many new items we have in stock decided to pick her brain about some fresh favorites! We had a fun "Christmas In July" event last month and showcased some of the awesome new Holiday items we have; one of Alanna's top picks was this unique take on an Advent calendar/Christmas count down! The blackboard in the middle allows you and your family to track the days until "Santa comes," and the best part is, since you write in the number of days yourself you can start tracking Santa's arrival ASAP! Woo! Just because I mentioned Christmas doesn't mean it's time to lament the end of summer just yet! Alanna loved this playful and summery yellow checkered handbag and so do I! It's the perfect gift for that special someone in your life with a sunny disposition (maybe you perhaps?) and

The designers were especially creative this week! Love the pairing of this vase and graceful orchid designed by Alanna.  Designer Holly went hog wild with the brightly colored flowers filling the cooler with arrangements for our walk in customers at the Princeton store.   It's always a treat to bring in a case of fresh cut phaleanopsis orchids like these. They are a dream to design with.   Our designer had fun playing with these colorful blooms. Don't you love the silk flowers in the base of the vase? This would be the perfect floral arrangement to send to a little girl for her birthday !   We also had fun creating this Pave style design. Don't you love the way she layered the colors. We especially love the playful grasses dancing over the arrangement !  Which one was your favorite? We'd love to know!! 

 Do you love roses? When you receive them or cut them from your garden, do you know how to arrange them? If not, this workshop is for you.  Join us at our Princeton Flower Store on August 6th fro a floral demonstration followed by a hands-on floral design instruction! Roses are flower world's most amazing blooms. Let us show you how to care for them and uniquely display them in your home. This class includes demo, rose' wine and snacks for only $40 per person. Space in this class is limited so reserve today!  5:30-6:30 pm ~ demo , wine and snacks & 6:30 - 7:30 pm hands on instruction and floral project.

This past week had out designers hard at work creating amazing one of a kind floral designs! Which one is your favorite?  Someone was going to be surprised when this colorful designed arrived for her Anniversary .  The color purple is so dramatic. We especially loved the combination of these roses, hydrangeas, alstroemeria, asters and lily grass.   This fun design was styled to look like a gift package. The bright and vibrant colors were perfect for a birthday .   A corporate client asked us to create happy centerpieces for an event they were having. Needless to say, they were thrilled with these!   This tight and compact design was both modern but natural. The pops of hot pink spray roses along with the orange and yellow tea roses, purple statice and lavender stock made for such a pretty desk top design.   For someone feeling a bit tropical, this one sided high style design held a little secret. In the center sat a little bird perched on some lily grass.

We understand the average consumer sending flowers , loves the idea of "seeing" what they will be sending out as their floral gift but the flip side, is that each floral arrangement is hand crafted and hand designed. Matching pictures on our website requires both attention to detail and the having in stock at all time wide selection of flowers . Whew, that's hard work!!  Above is our designers version of one of our best sellers on our website and I have to say that not only did she do a great job, I think the actual arrangement she created far exceeded the "stock photo" arrangement we display on our website. Imagine having this beautifully fresh floral design arriving to your desk? We think it would make you might happy, right?  In my next blog, I'll show some of our unique and one of a kind arrangements created for our customers this week! Until then, feel free to check out our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/localflorist or our website at ww

At the beginning of the year we launched Fresh 10 ~ Our $10 bouquet. Similar to our $5 Fridays, we feature a different bouquet every Monday. It has been a lot of fun picking out more unique flowers and combinations. I thought it would be fun to show some of the styles we came up with over the last few months. We love finding great deals and passing them along to our customers. Being in a corporate park, it has given more of a chance for our customers to bring a bouquet to their office. If you ask me I think that's a perfect way to start off a work week. Today's FreshTen are bouquets of protea, lilies and tropical foliage's ~ for only $10, what a deal!  Our store is located in the Princeton Forrestal Village between the Westin Hotel and Cando Fitness Center. To reserve a bouquet or to place a flower order we can be reached at 609-520-2005 or shop us online at www.sendingsmiles.com