Friday, February 21, 2014

Sarah and Mark: Fall wedding Inn at St Johns

Fall weddings are some of my favorites.  I love the colors, the weather, and the brides.  Couples are realizing how wonderful a time fall is to get married too.  Every year I get more and more fall weddings.  Last fall I had the pleasure of doing a wedding for a friend from college, Sarah.  Sarah knew exactly what she wanted, which made my job as the florist so easy. Her professional images just came back so I had to share them with you.
Love the purple dresses for fall!
For flowers we used the orange/yellow variegated mini calla lilies, green hypericum berries, yellow roses, circus roses, and purple orchids and purple leucadendron.  I love to put personal touches in a brides bouquet. The mini photo frames Sarah gave me were such a sweet way for her to have her loved ones with her on her wedding day.  



Groomsmen at The Inn at St Johns chapel.

Sarah's design for the centerpieces were simple and elegant.  We used LED lights under the glass marbles and then a floating candle at night.  They look beautiful at night glowing with the mini callas.  


One of my favorite tips to give brides is to use the ceremony flowers at the reception too.  This is a side photo of the flowers I made to go on the sides of the alter in the chapel.  Placing them on the ends of the head table is a great way to get more out of your flower budget.

Some of my favorite roses, Circus Roses, have a yellow, orange, and red petal like a sunset.
I'm so honored to have done Sarah and Mark's wedding flowers.  The atrium at the Inn at St John's is a perfect place to have a wedding anytime of year. 

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Do you want to start a home business?


I was thinking today about how far I've come on this journey of being an entrepreneur and how far I still need to go.  Its been a big learning curve for me.  Here are several points that I've learned along the way.

1. Have a strong support system
For me this is my husband's constant encouragement.  I would have never started down this journey without his pushing.  He pushes me in the best way possible...it brings the best out of me in a way that I wouldn't do on my own.  He knows what I'm capable of before I do.  My immediate family is also a huge support.  They are my extra hands, my childcare and overall amazing.  Finally don't financially depend on your new business for a few years.  I've rolled my earnings back into the company the past few years to help it grow.

My friend/cousin-in-law Angie helping at bridal shows
My beautiful family last year summer


2. Don't have fear
Before I started on wedding flowers I experimented with many different business ideas.  My original company was Crystal's Cakes and Flowers.  I taught myself cake decorating and worked on several weddings before I realized it wasn't my nitch.  Wedding cakes are HARD and I didn't have any professional training.  My creative instincts did help, but I can say I'm honestly much better at flowers.  Also...doing cakes out of your home with little kids is impossible!  They want to touch, eat, help ect....  After I resigned that I wouldn't be the best wedding cake lady I tried my hand at making soap.  I thought it would be a great idea to open a shop that sold organic handmade soaps and flowers.  Again, I lacked complete knowledge before I started this adventure.  Which brings me to point three.

(my last cake, a wedding gift to my good friends Gayla and Chris)


3. Do what you already know!
Don't try to start a business just because you have a good idea.  The best advice can give is go work for someone else doing what you want to do.  I worked at a flower shop almost on accident.  I left my high stress, high hours, big box retail management job and was interviewing for other jobs.  While I was job searching my mom told me the flower shop in town was hiring.  This was the best learning experience I've had.  I took a job with low pay for the opportunity to learn a new skill.  When I started there I had no intention of starting my own company, but without this experience I would not be successful.

My first wedding on my own.  T his is when I realize this is what I needed to be doing full time.

4. Network
More than any advertising can buy having a good network of other business that support each other is priceless.  For me this has been joining the Genesee County Bridal Alliance.  For each business this is different.  It may be reaching out to your local church community, BNI, or Chamber of Commerce.



I'm by no means an expert yet, but I'm so grateful to have a job that I love.  My plan is to continue to gradually grow the business over the next few years.  I will have something of my own when the kid are in school and someday I hope to have something of value to pass on the them.  Do you have a business that you started?  What have you learned along the way?



Katrina and Kort Inn at St Johns

Last Friday I had the pleasure to work on a fantastic wedding at one of my favorite venues.  The Inn at St John's is a gorgeous location that has both a chapel and beautiful ballroom making it a popular choice for weddings.  
(Photo taken from St John's Webisite)
My bride and groom Katrina and Kort found their way to me from the mother of the bride Kathleen.  Our wedding planning started with several mock up designs of the flowers.  I'm happy to do mock ups for any of my brides.  I only charge the cost of the product and you can take home all the extra flowers to enjoy.  First we choose a peach garden rose, but after some reconsideration dark red garden roses were featured.
These are the first samples I made:

While they were gorgeous they were just to big for what Kathleen had in mind.  The second time I got it right:


The big day was finally here and I delivered the bouquet and centerpieces.  I was simply amazed by all the details Kathleen had worked so hard to incorporate into the wedding.  
Katrina's bouquet featured Rosa Prima Sahara roses, great heart dark red garden roses, ivory spray roses, stephanotis with crystals, a little bit of white wax flower, crystal branches, and greens.  The stem was detailed with an ivory lace wrap and crystal brooch.  Kort's boutonniere was a matching smaller rose with seeded eucalyptus, a crystal branch, and a stephanotis with crystal.  White Katrina's bouquet was a cascading bouquet the bridesmaids were round.  I can't wait to see the professional photos.  Some of the details included gold silverware, caramel apples in satin bags, and crystal bells on the tables to ring for making the bride and groom kiss.


Overall this wedding was very fun to work on.  I really appreciated the communication from the mother of the bride letting me know exactly what she wanted.  I will share the professional images when I get them.  I'm also adding the mercury glass vases to my rental collection.  









Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Wedding Show Season


January has been a busy month for me at Floral Sense.  Over the last four months I have been focusing on advertising so I can get my amazing affordable designs out to many more brides.  Sunday January 26th was the third annual Wedding Marketplace at Woodfield in Grand Blanc.  The show started off a little slow with all the snow we were worried that the turn out would be low.  About an hour in things really started pickup up. Big thanks to my girl Angie for all the help with the show, Nordlie Flint for being the best wholesaler, Kitchen Glam for the matching aprons, and Special Occasions for the table and chair linens.  I can call the show a big success thanks to all your help.  I will definitely be busy all summer now!


Coming up next is our Vintage Wedding Inspiration at The Durant Hotel in Flint.  The next couple weeks I will be working hard to get all the amazing details coordinated with our participating vendors.  I'm also excited that a much better writer Mary will feature the shoot on her new blog The Wedding Roost!

Lastly our blog page has been giving a much needed face lift from my talented cousin. You can follow her blog at Life Unscripted.  She writes a little bit of everything and its all worth reading!  Thank you Elise!



Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Summer 2013

What a great busy wedding season!  This summer has been all about the rustic and romantic.  One of my favorite weddings this summer was Alissa's soft pink wedding.  I love the touch of rustic with the twine on the stems and boutonnieres.


A big thanks to Comer Photography for the awesome photos!

Another great light pink wedding I was super honored to be a part of was for my friend Natalie.  Her beautiful wedding was at Medowbrook Mansion.  The Mansion was more like a castle and Natalie looked a real princes.  Her bouquet was soft roses, orchids, ranunculus and some bling to top it off!




Thanks for all the great weddings this summer!  I'll be posting more soon.  BIG thanks to Denny at Double Exposure Photography for lots of referrals and I will be posting his photos as soon as I get them! 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

2012 Weddings

Hello!  I have neglected this blog for the last year!  For those that don't know me personally, I've had a very busy year.  I had my third child in March, did over 20 weddings, and moved from Holly to Fenton.  My new shop is coming together and I'm excited to be planning many 2013 weddings!  Here are a few photos from some of the amazing weddings I got to work on this year.















Thursday, June 23, 2011

It's all about the PINK!

Here are some of Sonya's professional photos.  I love how her photographer was creative and focused on the hot pink bouquets!






Bride Ashley's gorgeous pink Gerber wedding was a hit!  Here request was simple and elegant and that's what I delivered.  Special thanks to my cousin-in-law Angie and new designer Cristy for all the help with this one. 




This was a bouquet that I made just for fun.  My bank proudly displayed it for two weeks, when I picked it up its was still pretty!  My flowers are so fresh you could display them for two weeks after a wedding.





This wedding was white and light pink mini callas. The centerpieces were elegant and contrasted with the bright tables. 





Here is an wedding from last year, my sorority sister Carmen and her lovely hot pink roses!