Christmas Open house all month!

  We looked at the calendar to pick out the perfect date for a Holiday open house this month and we pondered long and hard on which weekend would work best for all of our customers (and for us too)   Nothing seemed to fit.  We wanted a date that wasn't competing with any of the big fundraising auctions for the local charities.  Or Thanksgiving and Black Friday shoppers.  Or  birthday celebrations for the grandkids, (one must have priorites).

  So, the only thing we could think to do is celebrate our open house....ALL MONTH LONG!!  A holiday extravaganza all month at The Enchanted Florist.  Different specials and sales every week.  As well as discounts on preordered Christmas bouquets and wreaths all month.  That's right.  Pre order your Christmas bouquets before November 30th and receive 20% off the regular price.  Wreaths, both fresh and silk are 10% off.

And this week only, glorious mercury glass containers are 25% off.  It's a holly jolly holiday open house at your favorite little flower shop.  Stop and see some of the  beautiful, fun pieces we've found for you.

In Fine Company!

The results are in for the October Cooler Challenge!  I am so Happy!!  I finished in 3rd place this month!   It is such an honor to be in such fine company.  I wanted to post copies of the other bouquets here  with full credit given to the submitting shops  just because they are so darn cool I needed to share, but I was afraid to do so with out the permission of the other designers or Teleflora.  So you'll just have to take my word for it.  They were REALLY COOL. 

Boy's and Girls Club Dinner and Auction!

  The Boys and Girls club of Skagit county is hosting it's annual fundraising Dinner and Auction on Saturday night.  It's a festive, fun filled evening of wonderful food and the most incredible, wildly desirable and extraordinary items up for auction that you will ever see gathered together in one room ready for your bidding pleasure.  Bring your wallet.  You're going to want to bid.  Alot.
      The Enchanted Florist will be donating to the auction One Dozen Long Stemmed Roses, arranged in vase.  Every Month for an Entire Year!    This is your chance to donate to a wonderful cause AND make brownie points for 12 entire months.  It's a win win situation. 

    Saturday night at Saint Josephs Center.  6:30pm  Tickets are $75 at the door.  So go....Eat , Drink, Make Merry and Raise lots and lots of money for this very worth while cause.  The kids'll thank you for it.

The Wedding that wasn't.

       So, sometimes in life things don't work out the way we plan.  Sometimes the most elaborate plans fall apart at the last moment.  Sometimes, that's a really good thing.  You could even say, a blessing.
       Last Saturday we were supposed to be delivering the flowers for a wedding in Anacortes.  The bride, a lovely woman glowing with excitement, had come in to the shop a couple of months prior to look through our albums and pick out her bouquets.  The bouquets she like best, she told me, were the messy-looking, wild bouquets.  Full of ferns, grasses, twigs and wildflowers.   Hmmm.... messy I can do.  As a matter of fact, I believe that messy, wildflower bouquets are what I do best.  We hit it off right away. 
      Fast forward to the Friday before the wedding date.  The mother of the bride calls to let me know the wedding has been called off.  She doesn't go into details.  She doesn't need to, that part isn't any of my business.  But what to do about the floral bouquets.
      We have a pretty strict policy about when we will accept cancellations, and up until what point the deposit becomes non-refundable.  In this case, one week before the wedding, the flowers have already been pre-ordered from half a dozen different suppliers.  They are on the way from different parts of the world.  Too late to back out now.  Mom understood the situation from a business stand point, but really....what do to with all those flowers? 
      I suggested re purposing them into different bouquets.  Just as beautiful, still messy and wild, but more the type of bouquets that the bride could gift to friends or family that had been particularly helpful during this trying time.  Mom decided that they could also gift some of the bouquets to friends who had given wedding gifts that were not returnable, another great idea. 
       I feel so badly for this young woman to have to go through such a difficult time when she had been planning the most special day of her life.  But I also know that whatever it was that came up, would have come up eventually.  Next month or next year or even a couple of years down the road when there were children involved in the mix.  It's so much easier to call off a wedding at the last minute, avoiding all that future heartache, than to wait and wonder if you should have.  She's very brave and I wish her all the best for her future happiness.
     Below are pictures of some of the bouquets that she gifted to her friends and family.

From the Garden to the Flower shop

One of my wire services hosts a monthly competition, this month the theme for the Cooler Competition (as it is called) was to pull some type of foliage from outside the flower shop and use it in a bouquet.  It could be from anywhere outside.  The flower garden down the street, the tree outside the window, where ever.  I am very fortunate that I have a plethora of choices when it comes to both foliage and flowers when I walk outside my door.

 Everything in the bouquet shown above was plucked, trimmed, yanked or cut from the flower garden in front of the shop, the window boxes on my sidewalk, the field across the street, or the woods next door. 

It was like a treasure hunt.  I found fall blooming crocus in the flower bed, along with heather, the last buddelia of the season, spanish lavender, crocisima pods, and clematis pods.  The abandoned field across the street yielded wild sweet peas, oregano (I know, who would have guessed), a few stems of wild grasses  and black berries (no surprise there), the flower pots had geraniums and petunias.  From the overgrown woods in the lot next door I found what looks like pink yarrow but I know that it is not and some kind of lovely mauve flower that I have no name for.  And of course, more black berries.  I had to fight the spiders for the blackberries but I won that battle. 

And the summer wedding season rolls on....

The Bride's bouquet.The bride's bouquet with all of her bridesmaids.

I'm loving all of these colors together, From the deepest aubergine to the palest lavender and every shade of lilac in between.

The new floral cooler

First we had to tear out the old one and rip up the carpet.Then Vince, Glen, Josh, and I spent 4th of July weekend hard at work putting together this beautiful new cooler. 

What do you think???

The Croatian Cultural Center

     Just when I think I've been in every wedding venue between Seattle and the Canadian border, a bride surprises me with something new.
Last Saturday I was pleased to be delivering the flowers for her reception to the Croation cultural Center in Anacortes.  A completely charming older building in the heart of old town. 
     The lady in charge introduced herself as "the head witch"  and the younger woman assisting her was pleased to call herself  the "witch in training".  They were extremely helpful to me with unloading the floral bouquets and getting everything set up. The "Head Witch"  gave me the history of the building, (the first church built in Anacortes amongst other things) while we were working, and details about the restoration that is still in progress.  If you ever have a chance to stop by there while sightseeing in Anacortes, it is worth the stop.  It is only one block west of the the Saturday Farmers Market,  and although we didn't have time to stop there, it looked like a very busy and fruitful market day.

The Brides bouquet.

Prior to delivery, the centerpieces get a last minute touch up.  The taller piece, above was designed for the cake table but ended up being displayed on a large pedestal behind the head table. 

Bridesmaids bouquets.

The main hall of the Center.

The courtyard of the Croatian Cultural Center.

The centerpeice bouquets were a pretty garden mix of lilies, agapanthus, delphinium, alstromeria, and queen annes's lace.

The outdoor bouquets were slightly smaller and featured hydrangeas.

Another week....Another wedding

It must be summer time, the weeks are flying by and every week brings another bride and another fun wedding.

Kateryna was my helper and wedding delivery assistant for this wedding.  And my photography go to girl. 

Last weekends bride chose deep lapiz purple with creamy white for her wedding flowers.  A most excellent choice, if you ask me.

Pretty Pink weddings

I did a pink wedding a couple of weeks ago.  A delightful mix of gerber daisys, peonies, and tulips.  Fragrant and fun. And very very vivid. 

This is the brides bouquet.  A very delicate  nosegay with just a few gerber daisys accented with a single sparkling drop of crystal in the center, mixed in with  sprinkle of tulips in different shades of pink, some wonderful frilly peonys and some (hidden) asters.

The maid of Honor and the bridesmaids bouquets were a mixture of different shades of gerber daisys.

The flowergirls bouquet was a tiny nosegay with just two gerbs and a sprinkle of asters and waxflower.  A perfect little petite handful.

A Good Husband

I had a regular customer who called occasionally to send flowers to his wife.  Sometimes for an anniversary, sometimes for her birthday, mostly just because he loves her and he's thinking about her.  I think that's the nicest reason of all.  A surprise bouquet that arrives on any given Tuesday, for no particular reason, can  just fill your heart right up and remind you that you are loved.  It's a very precious thing.
  The  unusual part about this customer's orders is that he worked in the fishing industry off the coast of Alaska.  He'd be gone for long stretches of time, far from land and any reliable communication system.  He would have to wait until he was close enough to an island with a cell tower on it before he could make any calls.  And then he would promptly call his wife.  And then me, to order flowers for his wife.  A very thoughtful husband.  Every woman should have one.  (I'm very lucky, too.  Because I do have one)
I received an order this morning for the funeral service of this very thoughtful and loving husband.  He was 54 years old when he passed away unexpectedly in Naknek, Alaska.  Sometimes, life is shorter than you think it is going to be.   My heart goes out to his wife and his family for their loss. 

We are a favorite Place on Google!

Google sent us a colorful little note this week congratulating us on becoming a "Favorite Place" on Google.  What is a "Favorite place" you ask?  It's a good question, it's the first thing I asked when I saw the big sticker that came with the letter. 
Apparently, for the three months that started December1st and went through January and February of this year, I was one of the most popular businesses on Google as measured by how many time people found my business listing, and clicked on it for more information.  I was pretty impressed with that statistic and even more so when they informed me that only 1% of the businesses in the U.S. receive this recoginition.  Well, now I feel really special.

So, to every one who looked me up on Google (and clicked through for more info) I thank you for this very unexpected honor.

And the days go by....

        I must say I am shocked by how quickly the spring is sweeping past.  It's seems like it just arrived a few days ago and now it's already almost the end of May.  I know, I know....the older you get, the quicker the time flies. 

I'm certain that all the children who are sitting in classrooms around the country this week, waiting impatiently for the start of summer vacation are not thinking that time is going by at the speed of light. 

But here in flower world, the iris that were just spearing up out of the ground last week, are already starting to lose some of their blooms.  The lilacs came on early this year (thanks to some unexpectedly warm weather) and they've long since drifted away on the breeze.

 And now the peonies, that would normally be playing peek-a-boo a long about Memorial day, are already starting to show hints of flashy pink color.  And what glorious color it is.  Peony season normally lasts for about 6 weeks, give or take, but what a joy it is while it's here.  Flirty, fabulous, fragrant,and so much fun to work with.  I love love love peonies. 

And it looks like the season might very well stretchhhhhh out for a couple of extra weeks this year (that warm spell has given way to a cold snap, it feels like March out there today) But here in the Pacific NW, the weather can, and often does, change with a fingersnap.

Lucky for us, we still have hothouse tulips available for the spring weddings that had requested them.

  And I can't really regret the early arrival of  the foxgloves that are crowding into my garden right now.  It's going to be a great summer.