Latest / The Preferred List: A Wedding Vendor Podcast / Episode 59 She Bought a Flower Shop at 19 and Never Looked Back: Blossom and Basket Boutique

Transcript

Episode 59 She Bought a Flower Shop at 19 and Never Looked Back: Blossom and Basket Boutique · The Preferred List: A Wedding Vendor Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Preferred List, a podcast about the people behind the best wedding days.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm James, a wedding filmmaker.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: I've spent years in the industry working alongside incredible vendors, and this show is all about real conversations with the ones who make it happen.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you're a vendor or a couple, you'll get honest insight, good stories, and maybe a little inspiration along the way.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Let's meet today's wedding vendor.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Hey Rene, how's it going?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, I'm good.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for having me.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being on Raini Runs Blossom and Basket Boutique, which is so fun because at the time of recording this podcast episode, we just had, I believe, episode 37 come out.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: 37.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's like an insane number to think about when this all started.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: But we have yet to interview a florist, which is crazy.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: So excited to be number one.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I was like, what are y'all doing?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And she's like, I'm here.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I know, it's not you.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's everyone else.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm just kidding, it's not everyone else.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: But seriously, um, so excited to pick your brain on everything.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Florals, bouquets, all the things.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many questions that I have about really just opening the door to the behind the scenes about your story, your business, but also the tips and tricks for couples as they're planning and making a gajillion decisions.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is yet another category that they have to make probably another, you know, handful of decisions on.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited to pick your brain on all things florals.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Before we go any further, let's stop to talk about the location for today's podcast episode.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Interim 1844 is truly a dream destination wedding venue.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Known for its exquisite cuisine and stunning gardens, the estate provides an ideal setting for both the ceremony and your reception.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Choose from the versatile locations like the classic formal English T Rose Garden or the chic, weatherproof, glass-enclosed pavilion ballroom.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Your dedicated wedding coordinator will ensure every aspect of your day is flawless, from the artful cocktail hour in the mansion's drawing rooms to the exceptional dining experience crafted by their executive chef.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Located in Tinytown, Maryland, the 24-acre estate is proudly listed on the National Historic Register, and it features a majestic mansion complemented by 11 outbuildings for a total of 40 beautifully appointed guest rooms, offering an all-inclusive event experience.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Interim 1844 is definitely a place that you should check out.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now let's jump back into today's episode.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Before we jump into the wedding stuff specifically and the decision making and all the different options that couples have, I would love for you to just take me back and kind of fill us in on how Blossom and Basket Boutique got started.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a really kind of a cool story.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um I was in a high school floral design class.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: I got dropped into the class because I needed a half credit to fill a spot.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: And I fell in love with florals.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm gonna get so emotional because it's it's when you find what you're supposed to do, you can find it, you know what?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: And by day two, I came home and told my mom, sorry, this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: And she was wildly supportive, but also said, um, learn everything you can from anyone who will teach you.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_03: Because if this is what you want to do, you gotta be really good at it.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_03: And you gotta learn from the people who know what they're doing.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: And but I'm behind you, you know.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I was in this wonderful floral design class who the teacher is still one of my dearest friends.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: And um, goodness gracious, I will get beyond this, I promise.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: That was a fair warning.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Y'all didn't hear it because we didn't hear a court yet, but she's like, I am going to cry, it's gonna happen.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: I did not think it was gonna be three seconds in.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: I thought question one was gonna do it, but just not this.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: But it's so cool.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we'll we'll dive into more, but I just wanna I want people to see your heart, even in just this first question that I'm asking um and your passion, because that's really what gets you through the ups and downs of business.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, absolutely.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not passionate about it, oh my gosh.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: If you don't love what you're doing when you're waking up at four o'clock in the morning after going to bed at 11, going back to it, you you're in the wrong thing.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, so you gotta love everything about what you're doing, even the dirty stuff.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: So you came back, you're like, mom, this is this is it.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: This is it.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: I love to hear that she just like jumped right and was like, yeah, let's do it.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: Most supportive mom in the whole entire universe.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: I know everybody says they got the best one.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: I I got the best one.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um so I was in this floral design class, and my teacher um helped me to join FFA, which is um a wonderful organization about agricultural education.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I did floral design, floral culture through there.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: I was already in 4-H raising show rabbits through my whole 4-H career, but 4-H also has a horticulture program.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I started doing things through there, um, took classes, did all kinds of things, did a demonstration contest, won through the ranks, got up to, I won the state competition, which sent me to Memphis, Tennessee.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_03: I won the national convention up there doing um the, I forget exactly what my plaque says, but it was an educational demonstration.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I was the grand winner at the age of 17.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: So that was when my mom was like, okay, this really, really could happen.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and she remembers this.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_03: I wasn't a part of this conversation, but she remembers my teacher saying to her, you know, sometimes you have a Van Gogh and you just need to give them the tools that they need to succeed.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, hmm, cool, that's me.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's so special.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'm dead and crying, I promise.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: One more TV break and then we'll be back.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: Commercial.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's so cool.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's so interesting to me that you had this random class, like you're just like, no, I'll just do it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: I need to have credit, and I'm just gonna put myself in there.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's like two days in, you're like, oh, this is more than just like this is set up for you in a way, in in my mind, it's like a clear path forward for you.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: But that's just and I'm just seeing like, okay, that's a passion, but how do you take a passion like that that you're just figuring out, taking to, you know, competitions and stuff into an actual business that's year over year growing and and you know, providing for your family.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so when I was in high school, um I didn't really want to go to college because I was already working in a flower shop um part-time, and he had given me the option to work full-time, and I thought that was great, but both my parents were in education, and they said um college is not a question of if but where, so pick one and go.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: And so I found Delaware Valley College at the time, it's now become Delaware Valley University in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: They have a or had, they've they've changed it since then.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it was called Ornamental Horticulture and Environmental Design.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then I did a minor in business because I felt like it was the closest that I could get to majoring in a flower shop.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_03: Because with this major, I was in floral design classes, I was in floral business management, I was in greenhouse management, I was in agribusiness, I was in ag marketing, I was in actual business classes, I learned agronomy, I learned about dirt, I learned how to climb a tree, I learned all kinds of cool things, but the basis was around floral and floral design.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um and it was wonderful.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it was it taught me a lot more than I think I needed to know, but I always feel like it's so much better to know the hows and whys and what's for all of the facets that go into a business.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_03: And so it it made me, I think, a lot more well-rounded than if I had just taken a floral design class and just stopped there because of all the plant pathology, the classic.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you got the background of the background so that when the product comes to me and it doesn't look good, and I know it's got botrytis, I'm like, okay, there's here's the problem and here's why.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: Because it got left too long in the box, or it was cut too soon and packed too soon and it was packed wet, or those kinds of things.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so when I have an an issue or something that I need to solve, I don't have to say just, hey, this is your problem.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: I can say, I know why this happened.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: Here's what I need you to do to help me fix it.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a lot more beneficial.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um, halfway through my sophomore year of college, um, my mom was walking in our hometown, which is Mount Erie, Maryland, which is where I grew up.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and a gentleman that she and my dad knew 30 years prior, um, stopped her in the parking lot of the nursery school where she was working and said, Hey Ellie, do you know anybody who wants to buy a flower shop?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: And she said, Well, yeah, but she's 19 and in college, so that's not gonna happen.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, Well, it needs to happen.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: So she needs to come home this weekend and we need to have a conversation.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: So I came home and we met at a restaurant, and I still have the the pieces of paper that we used, the little scrappy piece of paper that we wrote out.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because Mr.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: Bob and Nancy Hilton um owned the Blossom and Basket Boutique.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, both were in their early 80s at the time, and both had gotten bad health diagnoses and needed to close.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: And they wanted somebody to take it over right away.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I didn't have any money, and I was in college, and my mom worked at a nursery school, and we said, We can't we can't do this, and they said, Oh yes, you can.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: And my mom thought about it overnight and she said, Yeah, we can, we can do this, we can figure this out.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_03: She knew that I could do it.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know yet that I could do it.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: Now I do.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but she knew that I could.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_03: So the Hilton covered the note for us because no banks would talk to me.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: The lawyers thought we were crazy, the accountants were like, you're nuts, you have no idea what you're doing.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but a month later we opened.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: And we were in less than a thousand square feet on Main Street in downtown Mount Ari.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_03: And we had the flower design space in the basement of the building, and upstairs was retail.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I hired my then coworker from a flower shop in Frederick that I had been working with to come in and be the floral business floral manager during the week.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I was able to, I was really close to being done with my sophomore year.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: Going into my junior year, I scheduled my classes at college um from Monday to Thursday morning so I could drive home Thursday afternoon, work Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, drive back on Sunday.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_03: I did that for two years because I wasn't allowed to finish or to stop going to college.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um and we just celebrated 25 years of business in April.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_03: And mom and I still like each other and we still like what we're doing.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: And we still don't have a business plan.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Who needs a business plan?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: We just keep answering the phone and saying yes.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which I think, you know, sometimes it could get you in trouble, I'm sure.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: But sometimes I hang up the phone and say, Oh my gosh, what did I get myself into?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: But it has always helped us to build or grow in a new way that we didn't even know was gonna be requested.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but then we found out that it was exactly where we're supposed to be.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you have you to preface, she did say the story was good, but it is very good story.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's so cool.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's so cool to see so many pieces coming together seemingly randomly, but also all at the same time.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: And the people, it just goes to show, like, if people are there believing in you, sometimes you just gotta take the chance, and you know, you will find out quickly if it's gonna work or if it's not.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um but what what drew you into the wedding world specifically?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: So you'd been doing some like floral design stuff, and then you know, uh maybe it's just a natural path, or or what's that look like?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: It really was very, very natural.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: It was my my answering the phone and saying yes.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: That was what really started it.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: And when you get the first couple of brides in, and you, you know, I worked with them and we I didn't have any consultation space in our in our room.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: So in our our first um building that we were in, we were actually in a room about this size was our whole design or our whole um retail space.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I had a little bistro table with two folding chairs right next to the register.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: Very, very unprofessional now.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_03: But I these wonderful brides, you know, trusted me to take what they wanted me to do and to make it happen.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it was just a a progression of learning along with the brides and and having them say, Well, this is what I would like to do.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: And then, you know, I kind of learned how to do it along with them.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: So to put into perspective, we opened in April of 2001, which was six months prior to 9-11.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: In 25 years, the world has changed a lot.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: And there have been a lot of ups and downs of the economy and the way the world feels about money, and the way the world feels about celebrating, and and it's been really interesting the way that the business is set up to be my mom's side of the business being the gift shop and gift baskets and things, and my side of the business being floral, being everyday floral deliveries and weddings and events.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um really I love weddings the best, but don't tell the rest of the children that because I they're all important, but my heart is really with the weddings.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um but prior to 2009, I would say the business was more focused around gift baskets and gifts and everyday floral deliveries.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, my my mom broke her arm, let's send her some flowers and a get well tea gift basket kind of a thing.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_03: But then the economy changed in 2008 and the extraordinary gifting, because prior to 2008, a lot of people thought they had a lot more money than they really did.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_03: And they were spending it, and we were thrilled to help them spend it.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but in 2008, with the kind of the recession that we went through from eight to pretty much ten, in 2009 is when we started doing weddings that were kind of getting more noticed.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: But I also feel like that was the time that Facebook started being a bit more prominent in small businesses.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: And so it was a lot easier for me to show the rest of the world what we were always doing.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_03: So it wasn't like I was doing anything new, but I could take a picture of it and put it out there and everybody could see it.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah and I to this day remember my fourth grade teacher stopping me in the grocery store saying, Oh my gosh, Rainy, I'm so happy to see that you're finally doing weddings.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_03: They're just so beautiful.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Oh my god, I've been doing them for eight years.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_03: But you just now they can be seen and they could be shown and and shared.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: And so I feel like having an online presence, and we are very lucky that our products are beautiful, so everybody wants to follow us because we've got pretty pictures, and you know, puppies and flowers are like the best things to have as as um like the subject of the Yes, exactly, because everybody wants to see them, and so it was a a very natural progression of we did some really beautiful weddings and they got to be seen, and so then more and more people asked, and we just kept saying yes.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, it is powerful, uh, you know, as we've kind of mentioned before, that explanation of just like saying yes gets you maybe an open door that you weren't expecting.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I know, like we said, it can get you in trouble too.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: So don't don't just say yes to everything.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_03: No, I've learned um I'm getting better at no.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh maybe the next 25 years you'll you'll figure that out.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um could you describe to us a little bit about your floral design style and kind of how it fits in the grand scheme of like more generally, like what the other styles might yeah, how they're different than yours.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um and and if I had I wish I would have brought my book to show you.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um because I have an old school portfolio.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I know I'm very proud of the work that we do.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: So all of the videos and photos and everything on all of our um online platforms are all photos of work that we've created.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I also, when I have a consultation with a bride um and groom, or this year I've been working with a lot of moms, and I've I've also had a couple of weddings where I haven't met the bride till the day of the wedding.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's been really interesting.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: That's just kind of the first year of that.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um but whoever comes to me to want to talk about things, I like to show books of work.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the things that I really try to explain extra is that my goal is not to have a style.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to say, I don't want to have anyone ever look at my stuff and say, oh, I know Blossom and Basket made that.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_03: Because that's the only thing that they know how to do.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: So if we're doing more kind of the sophisticated modern clean line, great.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: Love that.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: I love to do that.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: If we're doing it looks like I went to the meadow and swooped up some stuff and wrapped in burlap, cool.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_03: I want to do that too.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: If I have a bride who wants all peonies and just lush and full and wonderful and beautiful, I want to do that too.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: So my goal is to not have a style, but to be able to make the style that is requested of me to have it.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like with a book, I'm I'm imagining you sitting down, maybe not at the table you had when you first started, but a more a more sophisticated table, if you will.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: I do.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_03: I have a beautiful room.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: And it's full of pictures and good lighting, and it it's my happy place.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm picturing you sitting down, and instead of being like, What do you want?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're asking that question, but almost like a here are all the things that we can do.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: And just like opening the door.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a floodgate at first, but just being like, there are more options than you could probably dream up because we've done them all, which is so cool.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's very it's a testament to what you're saying of like you're able to serve every couple the best because you're just like, hey, we'll just make it work.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_03: And my typical question is is where are you when it comes to planting flowers?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like, where where are you?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: Do you do you just have colors and you know you need to have flowers because you're having a wedding and somebody told you?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: So are we like starting, okay?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: The bridesmaids are in lavender, where do we go from here?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: Or do you love roses and want all the colors and we need to then figure out where they should go?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: Or are you the bride that comes to me with a 42-sheet guide of exactly what you want, where you want it, where you want it, and you already have the containers for me to fill, and you just need me to make it happen.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, provide the flowers and put them up.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I'm having all of them, and that's great.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel like it's my job to meet them wherever they are.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and my goal is to again, like answering, never say no.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes I have to say, unfortunately, we can't do exactly that, but here's option.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: Like, let's pick one of these.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna in the end be better than maybe what you thought in the beginning.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what are some things?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Being that flowers are, you know, once alive, right, as they're growing, what are some things that couples should be paying attention to, looking out for in this world of like making sure, hey, you put the stuff out at 11 a.m., you finish up the arch or whatever you're working on.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: You're dipping and going doing the next thing, and we Want that to look good at 3, 4 p.m.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: when the ceremony starts, or same thing, you're putting stuff up in the reception space and you want it to look good at 7, 8, 9 p.m.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's like the flowers still look just as good as when you drop them off.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: What should they be thinking about, concerned about?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and those are it's so cool that you asked this question because my I have lots of things that I kind of have as set rules of kind of what we try to do.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um so my goal when I'm receiving the flowers is to always care for them in the best way possible so that what I am providing to the couple day of hour of the wedding is at peak, no matter what that flower is, no matter if I had to get it last Friday to get it to be where we need it to be, or if it came in yesterday to get it to be perfect for what we need.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_03: That's my job to know all those things and to have all of the places in line.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um when it comes to day of delivery, um, I always strive to time it along with the day and the temperature and the photography schedule so that we're working right ahead of, but not too far ahead.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: Because I don't want anything in the heat and the sun.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: The sun, um hot sun is I don't want to say the worst.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_03: Wind is awful.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: Wind, wind is my number one nemesis when it comes to weddings.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I wish more people knew that because they always think, oh, rain.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I can deal with rain.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: Flowers love rain.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: Flowers love water.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: We all love water, it's fine.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_03: Wind does you don't think about all the drama that it can cause.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so that's that's kind of my job though.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like my job is to offalize all of the things that could go wrong and have a strategy in place to make sure that it does it.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, how I'm thinking of the couple that's sitting there and maybe they're listening from far away, and you know, we're just picturing that they can't get you for whatever reason.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um what should they be taking to that meeting with their florist?
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, maybe demystifying some of the process, or like you're saying, you know, I'm almost thinking like they should be asking, like, hey, how are you sourcing everything to make sure that it's fresh?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: What are some other things that they should be asking like that?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um sourcing is always a great question.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_03: And I know that I'm always more than happy to share all of my sources.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I would almost more be questioning the the storage capacity that that florist has to make sure that their storage and delivery is on par with keeping everything in the in the um atmosphere that it needs to be.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because a lot of flowers really love to be refrigerated.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_03: And and so the more refrigeration the better in a florist.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's also really good to have appropriate vans and and kind of delivery capacity um because some things, I mean, for example, I just built a freestanding arch for uh an event that we did, a wedding we did last weekend.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I have a cargo van and those were built in my shop because I always try to build things prior to so that I don't have to work in the elements so that I can go out right before.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and they needed to be laid flat in in a vehicle.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_03: So nothing less than a full-size cargo van was gonna work for that one.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, we need another van.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: The the owner of the car dealership in town is always happy to see my name when I call him.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Literally one more minute, yeah.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's just interesting to me too, because um you'll find this hilarious probably.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and because you're the first florist, I get to share this story with you.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: My wife and I, we were we did a very DIY type of wedding day.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, a little rustic, not like too barn themed, but definitely barn themed.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we for flowers, we were like looking at prices at that point, it's like, you know, let's just try to figure out something, like, let's just do our own thing, right?
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so I remember being back in the back of the floral place in state college that we were looking at uh buying our flowers from, and we were like opening fridges, and he's like, Yeah, this would go really well with this, and this and this and this.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, taking pictures of these flowers and drawing prices on like whatever bundle of this thing would be five dollars a piece, and like so you can picture where this is going, right?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we had buckets of flowers.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think we had spent like$250 or maybe$300, just buckets of flowers, right?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we get to the wedding and we're looking at our buckets of flowers, and we're like, okay, so how do we transform the buckets into bouquets and an arch thing, or whatever you call that?
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, the center pieces were kind of an easier thing.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: You just kind of cut it down a little bit and put a little bit of the baby sprouts in there.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's good, it's okay.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we we like were not sure what we're gonna do.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then come to find out, one of uh her close family friends has always wanted to be a florist, and she just swooped in and saved the day and was like, let me just make everything look beautiful, like you paid someone thousands of dollars to put this all together professionally.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um but it's just so funny that you're talking about like storage and the refrigeration and all these things.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like stuff you don't think about when you're like, oh well, isn't it?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you just like put them out and they look great?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like no, there's so much that goes into the sourcing and the storage and the delivery process that is like way past just they look out, they look great and they look nice.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm all about empowering and you know, whatever it is my couples want to do is great.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: So you would have sold those buckets too and just been like I sell buckets of flowers all the time.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, what I try to do is to kind of divide and conquer at that point in time.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_03: And the things that take a little bit more technical knowledge and or tools or mechanics or things that are not readily available on the retail market.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I can do those parts and then I'll sell you buckets of flowers if you want to do something on your own.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_03: But I do have a heart-to-heart conversation of where are you going to store them?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: How are you going to transport them?
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_03: Who is going to set them out two hours prior to the ceremony when you're doing hair and makeup?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_03: Who is going to take it back down again at the end of the night?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_03: Because that's the number one thing that people forget about is that when you buy these puppies, you put them out.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: Guess what?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: You also got to take them down too.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's a conversation of what do you have time for?
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: What do you want to do?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_03: What do you have capacity to do?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_03: And and so we try to meet in the middle.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: Which is, I mean, that's life.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: You're either trading time for money in some capacity or another.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: But um, it sounds like it would be a good conversation to have if you're thinking of doing your own thing and you you know reach out to Blossom and Vice, like you're gonna get, you know, an authentic answer.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds like that.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, absolutely.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I I mean, because everybody's got a passion, and I am just lucky enough that I get to do my passion as my day job.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: Not everybody gets to do that.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: So there might be an accountant whose passion is flowers and really want to do them.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna stand in their way.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_03: I'll try to get them what they need at the best prices possible, but also the best quality.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_03: Because that's what I have built for over 25 years is quality.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because I have four different local wholesalers that I work with, but also five different local farms that grow for me.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so everything that I I can't say everything because the world is not perfect, but the product that comes to me is the highest quality that's available.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_03: Might not be the least expensive because we're going for quality.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_03: Now, if you need the cheapest white carnations possible, I'm gonna find them for you.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_03: But that's not usually what we're going for when we're going for an event like this.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_03: And so the the ability for me to get product delivered six days a week from wholesalers, from local farms to kind of gather the best of what's available for what you need it to be, and then present it to you to do with, you know, for me to do it or you to do it, whatever.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that's what I've worked really hard to do.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we just lucked out that we had a friend.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes, yeah.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was just so funny.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's just such a funny story.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh she just was like, Oh, I've always wanted to be a floral decorator.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, you do your thing, and it turned out great.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm sure over 25 years you've done countless events, whether they're weddings or just, you know, some of the stuff on the side.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm just curious, like, where do you where do you get your inspiration from?
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, at you know, not wanting to just like repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, but like really taking each couple's vision and each, you know, wedding day and the the design and and keeping stuff fresh.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes we feel a little stale.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_03: We I we really do because every bride, it's their day.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so I'm my job is to do exactly what they want to do, even if it's exactly what last week's bride wanted.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_03: And that's okay.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna tell this week that last week had kind of the same.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_03: Sorry, we did this last week.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_03: You can't do this last week.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_03: And we're not gonna do it for you because we did it last week.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_03: That's not what we do.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: But it is really fun for me to make sure that each bride is getting exactly what they want.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and each couple is getting exactly the vision that they're looking for.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I feel like about I don't know, 10, 15 years ago, we had more true trends that were happening.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and and I don't know if this is true or not, but this is just kind of what I have come up with.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_03: When there were wedding magazines that were like 600 pages, like a phone book, there were eight, ten, twelve real weddings in there or kind of inspir inspired weddings events, kind of what we do now as like styled shoots, what what we call in the industry.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_03: They were there were eight of them or so in each magazine.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_03: And the brides of that year, that's kind of what they saw.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_03: That's what they kind of felt like they got to choose from because we didn't have the internet full of inspiration of whatever it is that you like.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it really rang true to me when I had a bride with a pretty n atypical request.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_03: She wanted super dark red roses, black, like kind of black accents and and some burgundies and and plums.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_03: She's like, I had no idea my my um request was gonna be so popular.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, I don't want to tell her that it's that I mean, and popular is is not the word that I would want to use, but she used it because she's like, that seems like all I'm seeing now.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, oh, that's the algorithm because you liked one, you're getting all of the other ones.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I kind of feel like each time a couple locks into an idea, all of the different sources are giving them more of those.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so then they feel like, okay, this is like this is great, this is awesome.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_03: And so it almost gives me as a florist a little bit more variety because if they have started on a path, they're gonna keep going with it, and it's not gonna just be one of those eight.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm curious when you're working with couples, because I I I think it's would be so challenging the more we have time in this world where everything is out there to be planning and making all these decisions, because you're seeing, you know, sometimes you're seeing a styled shoot where if you were to get the floral arrangements that were in this styled shoot, it could be way more than what you think.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just curious, um, from your perspective, like kind of bringing up the budget kind of topic, is like how do couples manage like what they're seeing versus reality, and then like how do they come up with a number that makes sense for florals and and you know, maybe there's not like there's not a number that works for everyone, but just I'm just like, man, they're seeing these like draped greenery and it's everywhere.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's like that's not gonna be cheap.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just like it's just so hard because you just consume, consume, consume, consume, and then it's like okay, but how does it actually work?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right, exactly.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_03: And that's and that's where I I feel like I'm getting better at saying no.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, unfortunately, because I have I've had to pretty recently within the past couple of years, start saying, Okay, this is beautiful.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_03: Would you like me to price this out for you just to see what it would cost?
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: And or do you want to tell me what your budget is?
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_03: And we'll use this as inspiration and I'll help you to get there.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_03: And most of them are kind of a let's meet in the middle.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_03: Because I can look at something and say, okay, were it 10,000 for just that piece?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_03: Do you want to keep going on?
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_03: And they're like, oh no.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's not true.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because you just don't, it's just something that you don't understand.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_03: You don't have any uh any idea.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I look at this fully covered, fully, you know, 360 arch, and I say, okay, that's got 1200 roses on it.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: All right, here we go.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_03: Let's, you know, let's do it.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_03: But those numbers don't add up.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so there's room for inspiration.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yes.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then we can get reality and we can mash them together.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: Match them together.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have the inspiration and the vibes and the and the look, but we have it in a way that makes sense numbers wise.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly, exactly.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_03: And when I'm talking to my couples, I always try to add in the this is an inspiration photo.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_03: You were looking at one quarter of the place card table.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_03: And there's about$600 worth of product on one quarter of the place card table.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_03: Is that really where we want to go?
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_03: Or do we love the way that this looks?
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: And do you love the color and do you love the placement of it in the room?
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_03: And let's go from there.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_03: Because there's this reality.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_03: And luckily, more people are realizing that real life is different than that.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: So it sounds like it might be helpful to kind of come up with some sort of number before you start maybe looking at pictures or starting a conversation with a florist like yourself.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey, this is what we like, or maybe they don't know what they like, and but this is kind of where we want to land.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you can like take your knowledge and expertise and be like, boom, we're right on that number, and everything that once they want covered will be covered.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_03: And it is also good to be flexible.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because sometimes it's a coverage issue, how much do you want versus what is the actual product?
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_03: Because sometimes I will get a, oh my gosh, these are my three favorite flowers, and I have to have them everywhere, and they have to be everywhere.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then we come to budget talks, and I say, Okay, well, you've got great taste.
• 38:36
  unknown: Yeah.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I love those flowers too.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_03: I love them too.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_03: I would love to use them everywhere.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know that they're going to be able to hit your number.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_03: So if we use those three favorites, a couple of places, and in some very instrumental and very impactful spaces, but then we fill in with other things to get you the look that you're going for.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_03: So it's definitely a back and forth.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I would say to have a number kind of in mind-ish, but then also know that the importance factor is also a good thing to weigh into this, yeah, into the uh the equation because are flowers really important to you?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe you should put a few more dollars.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_03: If they're not, maybe you put your money towards food or flowers or you know, whatever.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's I know that there's all kinds of different scales of charts of how much what percentage things food.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny too, because like there's really no top to the flowers.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_03: Like you can I can hang them from the ceiling, I can put them on the floor, I can I can put them anywhere.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_03: But I can also sound like a Dr.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: Seuss book.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: We need we need a florist, the Dr.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: Seuss book, like a wedding florist, Dr.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: Seuss book.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and the Trophala trees and all the things.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_03: But and there are really a lot of flowers that look like they're gonna be this is a lot of flowers.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's great, it's great.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's a little bit um because there are so many flowers that look like they have come from a Dr.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_03: Seuss book that I I love it, absolutely love it.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_03: But the flowers are really the icing on the cake for the whole event.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_03: And the other thing that I really would love to add to the education of all of this is that it's important to talk about flowers in the beginning, but not to make final decisions on flowers till a few months out because the flowers go on top of all of the other decisions that have to be made.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_03: And when I get a bride, right after she's engaged, she got engaged, got her dress, came to flowers.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_03: What color are the bridesmaids' dresses?
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_03: How many tables are you gonna have?
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_03: How many rows um along the aisle are there going to be?
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_03: How many guests are you gonna have?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_03: Are you gonna be inside, outside?
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_03: Are you gonna have round tables?
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_03: Are you gonna have rectangular tables?
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_03: Is it gonna be buffet style food?
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_03: Is it gonna be plated or is it gonna be family style?
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because all those things are I'm sure if there's a couple lessons in there like, oh gosh.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_03: Sorry.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's okay.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_01: It is it's all good, yeah.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but I mean, it's those decisions matter in how the flowers are.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_03: Because if you're having family style food, you can't have a big centerpiece because your food's gonna get in the way.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_03: And so, but if you're gonna have, you know, a plated meal and everything comes, there's no salad dressing, there's no nothing, then we can have more extensive flowers and not be in anybody's way.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: So it's not that I don't want to talk to brides right when they get engaged because I'm so excited for them to be so excited and it's wonderful, but they're not really ready to talk to me yet.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's tough because they probably are excited too.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_03: They are, and they are and flowers are so fun and they're pretty and they but they really are the icing on the cake.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_03: We gotta build the cake first.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's it's tough because it's just, you know, again, it's that like comparison to what you're seeing versus what you want versus what you can get.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I can see some couples that are like, I just want to know like what it's gonna be, how much it's gonna cost, what all the different details, but um, I can see how waiting is also super helpful.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um curious for you, uh are there specific like flowers, textures, color palettes that you particularly enjoy working with?
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: Well, of course I love what I did for my own wedding 16 years ago.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think it will always have my heart.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: I thought it was beautiful and wonderful.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_03: And it's my bridesmaids wore black because I had three bridesmaids and they all lived in different states.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: They were all in different stages of life and had different financial situations.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_03: So I didn't want to say go buy a$300 dress.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_03: When one could was like, oh, that's pennies, and the other one was like, Oh, I'm gonna have to save for a month for that.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I said, go buy a black dress that you're comfortable in, you're comfortable wearing, you're comfortable paying for.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_03: And so then I could play with color because it was basically it was so um it's like a blank canvas, literally.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_03: It's very, very, yep.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I love peacocks and peacock the birds and the feathers, and I love texture, and so um kind of all the peacock colors.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_03: So it was blues and greens, burgundies, magentas, and hot pinks, um, and varieties of that and different textures.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I love that.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um what what's one of the biggest things that couples are either overlooking or maybe, you know, a mistake that they're making when it comes to their floral decisions?
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I actually feel like not thinking about what's going to happen.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: To the florals after is something that they forget about.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_03: Because it's so much about how it looks and what's happening.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_03: And that is very, very important.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_03: But at the end of the night, who is taking them home or where are they going or where can they be donated to or what's happening with them is something that I would like to have be more a part of the conversation.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: What's what's your favorite thing for them to be done?
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I love them to be loaded up and used again and again and again.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I have actually, it was a wedding that happened here.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_03: And actually three years ago today, so my employee Lizzie, who's working for me today, she and her husband Ian.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_03: I know, Lizzie and Ian.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um they got married here and um it was actually before Lizzie started working for me.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_03: So after she got married, she decided to come work for us.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's great.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um they had some vases that we tied with a ribbon to hang on the chairs down the aisle.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_03: Those flowers then went to the high top table centerpieces, then they got transferred to the dancing room centerpieces here at Antrim.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_03: Then they went to the brunch the next morning here, and then they went home with mom.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's so fun.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_03: And so utilizing them more is always great.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but if they can be transferred home and used for brunch the next day, if they can be sent home with guests if guests are going home that evening, um, but if it's something where people are not local or whatever, um, kind of collecting them and sending them to either a nursing home or a hospital or um something like that where people can appreciate them.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because one of the things that I feel is very important to me is that the flowers look as good or better at the end of the night that they did at the beginning, so that they're not done at the end of the party.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're still alive.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and they're beautiful and to have somewhere for them to go to for them to continue to be appreciated is really cool.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_01: You have sort of a creative mind, right?
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: You have the artist in you that's creating the floral design and installing it and doing all that, and you also have you know the business side of things.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just curious, like, how are you managing both of those kind of mindsets?
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: If you are, if you aren't, like what's yeah, I'm thinking of the vendor type, you know, similar to me.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I have the creative side and I have the business side as a videographer, photographers, same kind of thing.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like what's your best advice for kind of balancing those two things?
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_03: Be able to divide and conquer, like divide and say, okay, now is when I get to be creative and I'm gonna just do that.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_03: And now is the time where I'm going to set aside and do, you know, the business part.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because I don't know about other people, but I can't do both of those at the same time because it it neither one of them works really well.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: And but they both have to be stellar to continue.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_03: So you've got to be able to say, now is my three-hour window to do this, you know, paperwork business stuff and get it all done.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_03: And then this six-hour block is I'm gonna be making, I'm gonna be messy, my hands are gonna be dirty, my heart's gonna be happy.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: See, my problem is I just have too much ADHD.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I got one hand in one thing and one hand on another, and my brain's like, what are we doing?
• 47:22
  unknown: Yep.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I could probably use that advice a little bit.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh have to, you know, put that to practice.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and it also helps for me that my workstation is dirty and messy, and I cannot have a computer there.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_03: There you go.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_01: Or if you did, it probably would only work for like a month.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_03: I have to have another spot where to do the more paperwork business stuff because I cannot do it on my workstation.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: Your numbers person is gonna be like, You bought 12 computers this year?
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_03: Sorry, kept spilling faces on them.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right, yeah.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm I'm wondering if maybe there's a budding florist.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow, look at that.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh, a fancy.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_01: Budding florist, right?
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: I did not, that was not intentional, but it did work out.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um and they're listening, they're inspired by your story, but they're just like, oh, where do I start?
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_01: How do I get to the point where I could be saying, like, yeah, I've been in business 25 years and it's been great, and I'm still crying over the fact that I even got the chance to do this because there's so much passion, right?
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say to them?
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: How do they get started?
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_01: What do they do?
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, where do they start?
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_03: That's such a wonderful question.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because right now there are so many videos out there, because anybody can make a video and put it out there.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's true.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: Good or bad.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_03: Good and bad.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_03: Not or.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_03: And there are a lot of them that just make me want to cry sad tears because I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe you're giving such bad advice on florals, and you've put it out there, and this video has gone viral, and it's everything that's wrong with what you're saying.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I would say to somebody who wants to get into the industry is to um learn as, you know, watch as many online videos as you can and really take them all in with a grain of salt and then start doing practicing, like get some flowers, work with them.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_03: If there's a florist in your area that you're able to do um either an internship or get a part-time job with, or even volunteer to go on wedding deliveries, um, if that's something that somebody in your area would be willing to do, just kind of get your hands in there.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um but also the number one thing, sweep the floor and take out the trash.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like if you get hired in a flower shop, the best thing you can do is to help with the cleanup part.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then everyone who's been doing it for longer is gonna be so much more willing to help you and to teach you to learn if you're willing to do the hard stuff.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, gotta be a good thing.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_01: Break down the boxes, yeah.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_03: You know, take out the trash, carry the heavy boxes, do all that stuff, and really kind of immerse yourself in the room, and you'll start to pick up on things.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much that goes into a wedding day, and you know, one thing that I talk about all the time on the podcast is vendors working together, the the collaborative work.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: One, to make sure that the couple just has the best day, two, they have no idea all the stuff that might be going wrong in the background, right?
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you can only get those two things.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: It'll sound like there should have been a third.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, maybe there's a third.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you can't really get those without that teamwork first approach.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just curious, you know, as you're stepping into a wedding day, I know from what talking to you that you've probably have all your ducks in a row.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: If you have everyone else's ducks in a row too.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_01: But but what's that process look like showing up, the timeline of the day, working alongside the venue, the coordinators, the planners, the photographers, and everyone in between?
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_03: So day of really starts on consultation day.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_03: Really, it starts with a what vendors do you have you already booked?
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_03: Do I know all of them?
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_03: Do I have all their contact information?
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_03: Because day of wedding, if there's an issue, I'm not calling the bride and groom.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_03: I'm calling whoever I need to talk to on that vendor team.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um usually prior to we will have had a day of schedule.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and that's either built by photographer, by DJ, by, you know, whoever, usually coordinator, venue coordinator, you know, planner, somebody like that.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and we kind of set our delivery times really more based on photography schedule, but also um venue schedule of when tables will be set, because we want to come and deliver personal flowers prior to couples getting ready so that they can have all the detailed shots and things like that with the flowers.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_03: But we also don't want to be standing around for three hours waiting for the tables to be set with linen so that we so we can do everything.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_03: So it's this wonderful um getting ready dance of weddings of where we bring personal flowers and we set the ceremony and we set the reception and we're kind of we we say we're little flower fairies, kind of going about two to three hours.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we're getting our little flowers everywhere.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_03: But two to three hours prior to things starting to happen, yeah, is where we're kind of setting flowers and we kind of move integrally with the other vendors, but kind of in and out.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_03: So that my goal is to never have anyone waiting on me, but for me not to have to wait on anybody else either.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it's that weird dance of the in-between, yeah.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, doing it all, and that sometimes takes a little bit of planning, but it also takes a little bit of rolling with it, you know, day of.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um we've try not to put linens on tables, but we've been known to because if they're there and we need them on the table, we're gonna put them on the table and be able to set our centerpieces.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but also I have a toolkit that I bring with me to be able to do what I need to do and to be able to fix any issues that might come up with me.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_03: But a wedding two weeks ago, I hemmed a groomsman's pants with some safety pins while he was wearing his pants.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_03: I was hemming them.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_03: And then I also fixed a a bow tie of another groomsman because his wasn't working.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_03: So we all work as a team.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like we're all on team couple, yeah.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_03: We're sure we're there to make it all happen for them.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_03: And my goal is for them to come into the this space and so my gosh, this is amazing.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm in the corner chuckling because I'm like, I just sweeped up broken glass from there, and I, you know, we did all these things, but we all do it for the good of the event, and we're all working together to do that.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like the the fourth wall analogy when like you're doing video stuff, like you want to try to have it be this like mystical thing, like we weren't there, but we were there.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_01: You don't see any of the like background stuff happening, you just see all the magic, and it kind of seems like that might be the case.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I have to imagine you're not doing this by yourself.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_01: So what's that what's that team look like for you guys?
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_03: I will put them up against any team, anywhere, anywhere.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_03: I have 28 employees, not including my mom.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big team.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big team.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_01: So you can probably take out most other teams.
• 54:30
  unknown: Yeah.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_03: We are we are we're the best.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_03: We love, we love each other.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_03: It is a it's a family.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and but it's not just the wedding teams that a lot of our other wedding friends see.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I have four daily delivery drivers who deliver the birthday and anniversary flowers during the week.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I have my team that stays in the back and cleans all the glassware for all of our rentals.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I also have the ladies who work in the gift shop who, when you're walking on Main Street and downtown Mount Area and come in and visit the shop and you want to buy a pair of earrings and some chocolate, they're gonna be the ones to help you.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I've got my floral design team and I've got my admin team, and and and it's amazing.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_03: And it all they we work well together.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_03: We actually do like each other as people uh outside of getting to work together.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um and and it wouldn't be possible without them.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it takes a village.
• 55:35
  unknown: It really does.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really does.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_03: But I've got the best.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Renee, thank you so much for being on.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you were not inspired by this story, you need like I don't even know what's going on.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um your story is so cool, and just hearing the journey that you've been on and how the pieces of the puzzle just seem to magically fit together.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's just so fun.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_01: Where can people find and follow along with what you guys are doing?
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, we are on all of the platforms.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_03: We are so we have a wonderful website um that's in the process of being revamped because I think everybody is always in the process of revamping something.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_03: So why not do it in June?
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um uh but we're blossomandbasketboutique.com.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we're also Blossom and Basket Boutique on Facebook and Instagram.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's a long name, but it's very descriptive and nobody else has it.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_03: So that's my name everywhere.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you can't spell that or don't know what to do, all the links will be in the description.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_01: So you can just go click all those and check out Rainy and her team, and maybe even say hi to mom.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure she'd appreciate that.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I appreciate you being on, and I'm just glad and grateful for everyone who takes part in uh you know consuming these episodes.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of heart that goes into these film days, and um yeah, just such a great guest um like Reene.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, that's all for this episode, and we will catch you guys next time on the preferred list.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for having me.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_03: Of course.