Our Brand New Flower Design Baby is Born....

Ever since I was born, the original Flower Design Baby (Incidentally I was born in a flower shop) I have loved, eaten, slept, breathed and dreamed of flowers, I have truly believed that the world revolves around them, but as I've got older I've come to realise that it isn't actually the flowers that the world revolves around moreover its the reason for the flowers, the Birth, the Anniversary, the Tradition, the Celebration and of course the softening of Sorrow, flowers have power you see, they are a living breathing, utterly beautiful and dynamically uplifting part of life and culture that makes us human.

I have always felt immensely privileged to be involved in my customers lives, to be a part of their "Big Days" whilst always respecting them and their hopes and dreams.

Without exception Wedding Days are my passion, to me it's like spring, it's the start of new life, new beginnings and ultimately a public show of love, affection and what the Bride & Groom are all about, what their taste is like, what's important to them and where they're going, onward and upward....

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For the past four or five years we've been developing Flower Design to be "The Wedding & Event Designers of Lancashire" we wanted to offer a seriously sublime and totally unique service, with every thought considered and every Bride & Groom enjoying a thoroughly in depth creative experience resulting in a perfectly styled wedding day, perfectly proportioned to them a huge or an intimate affair.

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Consequently Flower Design has evolved, our services and facilities have grown resulting in something rather like "The House That Jack Built" with the Fridge unit down the alleyway behind M&S and the Work Room down the other alley way, the Bridal Studio up stairs at the shop.

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So from this point forward we are going to be 100% dedicated to weddings and events with none of the usual tedious flower shop diversions of deliveries, Interflora, Peak Periods and day to day retail mithers.

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Creatively we've just got better and better with design ideas overflowing at our regular design meetings on Monday mornings, the only thing holding us back was the discipline of the retail shop, space and not having all of our facilities under one roof !

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So finally after months of planning and searching our "New Flower Design Baby" will be born to very proud parents on 30th March, over the next week we will be moving lock stock and barrel to a fabulous purpose built facility complete with all sorts of exciting extras including a full banqueting dining table to try out table designs, lots of hands on opportunities for our clients, to touch, smell and interactively design the flowers for their big day.

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It's going to be a bit like a "Flower Fairy Workshop" crossed with the most wonderful meeting space all open plan with lots of opportunity to see behind the scenes.

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A fantastic Flower Design Flower Club will be commencing in the Autumn with a full programme of evening and afternoon classes covering everything from Hand Tied Bouquets, Table Designs to Christmas Designs.

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The new address is...

Flower Design

5 Keystone Court

Hallam Way

Whitehills Park

FY4 5NZ

Obviously the telephone numbers are the same 01253 727722 and 01253 724100 and mobile 07921 903 658

and emails are as usual jane@flowerdesign.co.uk

jason@flowerdesign.co.uk

admin@flowerdesign.co.uk

As I am ever the optimist so I envisage a seriously seamless transition we've chosen this week as the week to move as it's the only one without a huge number of events, but please if you do have any queries or appointment requests don't hesitate to call or email but please be a little patient with us!

Trust me I'm a Florist

It's always an honour to be asked to design someone’s wedding flowers or in fact to be asked to create flowers for anyone; for special occasions or just to sit in their home to be enjoyed for a week or so.

This is how I've been brought up in floristry, customers have a choice and they may choose someone else to arrange their flowers.

When I'm planning weddings I'm always respectful of favourite flowers, particular colour combinations and design choices, even if they aren’t mine. Over the years I’ve learned that no matter how weird, strange, downright boring or utterly outrageous some clients preferences are, I need to listen, and sometimes I agree absolutely with them, because experience tells me when push comes to shove these favourite flowers etc. Fit them and their day.

I want you to know however I don’t go down without a fight, I tempt them with delicious alternatives, after all they just might not know what is available, I show them some inspired creations and nine times out of ten clients are grateful, glad of my in-put and are delighted with our final selections, sometimes we compromise and very occasionally I just can’t get on the same page as them.

When the latter happens I am always gutted, devastated and quite often beside myself, because I really do care. I care about our clients, our team, our suppliers and our reputation.

A friend of ours is a “business moghul”, he wheels and deals, is massively successful and makes huge amounts of wonga, he is horrified at how the flower industry works, the fact that we have little idea of how much our final invoice will be for our flowers when we place an order and probably less clue when we quote for events, this situation to him seems ridiculous and I certainly wouldn’t like to be interrogated by any “Dragons in the Den” on the subject, of course experience helps, but sometimes we get nasty surprises.

Something that is even more incredulous to him is our own work ethic, the incredible hours, on average Jason works an 80-90 hour week where as I do a pathetic 70-75 for very little financial gain.

But you see it really isn’t about the money, the worst thing that could happen to us is if someone didn’t love their event flowers, where as the worst thing that could happen to my moghul friend is that he didn’t get paid!

So this is why I listen, I want my Brides to love their wedding flowers and if the addition of some carnations gets Cupid on side then they really need to be included.

Years ago I had a meeting with an out of town Bride who really wanted Carnations and British ones to boot, in all of those magical colours, she’d been to see a number of excellent event florists who’d really been quite rude about her choice.

Picture Source

It turned out that her father who had passed away was a Carnation grower and he’d won many Chelsea Gold Medals for his work, I didn’t know this until the wedding day when everyone was talking about the magnificent carnations and how much he would have approved, so florally she had her dad with her for her wedding day.

I certainly wouldn’t as a matter of course include Carnations, Gypsophilia or Chrysanthemums but if these flowers float your boat, I’m here to listen, but please be warned I intend to show you a plethora of alternatives, precious florists who needs ‘em!

Today is my Birthday

This is me in 1976& with my Dad
He was the most beautiful florist I've ever known, he taught me to love flowers

Greetings from Fullwood Hall

Okay so sorry for the lack of postings this week, Ive been for a break (Not my leg just a mini vacation) in Fullwood Hall Hospital, nothing serious just some routine maintenance, I thought I might give my self some Romance and tell you I'd had a facelift, Boob Job or Tummy Tuck (I could probably use them all) or something but ahh the truth will out.

Any way I just wanted to tell you how phenominal the nurses and doctors are at this magnificent establishment (sorry the same can't be said for the facilities bathrooms are terrible, showers on raised platforms, regular flooding!!) but back to the staff, I love Denise (Day) and Jackie (Night) Pritti (Who seems to be here all the time) and Antonia (Doctor extrodinaire and best drip putter in in the business), they have all looked after me brilliantly.

The food has really gone up a notch "Sean the Chef" creates some really chefy food that makes you feel like eating and all the catering girls are so cheerful, now last but not least the lovely ladies that cleaned my room, many thanks for the book I read it last night and have left it for you along with the one I finished this morning.

To be honest from the minute you walk in and are greeted by lovely receptionists all the way through to XRay, Physio and everything in-between the girls and boys have been utterly sublime and I thank them for their professionalism.

Dr Munavvar is the Greatest! we brokered a deal "if he guaranteed I 'd be out by Wednesday night I'd come in" which means I'll be home in time to do tomorrows demonstration for the NSPCC Ladies at The Grand Hotel.

I hope you love the flowers Jo made & Jason brought for me, they've kept me very happy all week.

P.S. Thanks for letting me use my laptop!