April 1, 2008

Just Another Manic Monday

Ooooh ooooooo. Except it is Tuesday. Ooooh ooooooo.

Don't mind me. It feels like I've had two insane Mondays in a row and there doesn't appear to a let up in sight this week! You may notice that I wasn't able to update the blog much of last week ... and if I had my crystal ball in front of me right now, I would probably see the same kind of week this week. ACK! In fact, I'm updating now solely to prove I'm alive and thinking about you all ... even though it's after ten o'clock at night.

To give you an update on a planner's life in the springtime, here's what my couple of weeks is shaping up like ...


- finish blogger bride’s invites
- go over wedding update with kd_2b_kk
- send quote to client getting married in 2009
- send invitations details to new client
- catch up with planner colleague
- meetings with OSEB (don't worry ... I know you don't know what that is)
- meetings with Town of Whitby
- meeting at Cullen Gardens
- finalize budget for trade show
- finalize registration forms for trade show
- phone & then email approx. 100 businesses regarding participation in trade show
- prepare for April 10th trade show workshop
- check in with all Spring & Summer brides
- finalize draft invitation for a December bride
- start draft invites for two Summer brides

Life isn't like this all the time. It can always get busier (and likely will). Luckily I thrive on always working and keeping the pulse on all the details!

That and lucky I have a blog where I can write down my to-do list ;)


Behind the scenes



ERIN - Weddings can often be a time of high stress. Here at Periwinkle Flowers we really feel it is our job to lighten your work load and make things less stressful and more enjoyable for a bride and groom. So I thought this week’s blog should be dedicated to letting brides out there know what we are doing behind the scenes to make sure her wedding flowers are exactly as she imagined. When you are comparison shopping for flowers you’re not just buying the wedding bouquet of your dreams, you’re buying the service that comes along with it.

JESS- That’s right Erin. It doesn’t matter how gorgeous the centerpieces you’ve chosen are, they also need to be constructed properly from product that is at just the right stage (open enough to look perfect, but not so much that it falls apart before party’s end), and they also need to be at the right place at the right time ( i.e. your venue, not someone else’s!), placed by someone who will ask the tough question of the linen person if the tablecloths are a sketchy looking stripe when we know the bride is expecting damask (seriously, this has happened).

ERIN – that is right, on the day of the wedding we take care of everything for you. Consider us your “flower wedding planners” We deliver flowers to the bride’s house - usually her bouquet, the bridesmaid’s bouquets and boutonnieres and corsages for her family. We often decorate the house with flowers as well. Then we deliver flowers to the groom’s house – boutonnieres and corsages for his family. Next it is off to the church where we deliver and set up large ceremony arrangements that stand on pillars on either side of the bride and groom, pew flowers, aisle runners and signing table arrangements. We discreetly wait for the ceremony to finish and then we move all of the ceremony flowers from the ceremony location to the hall. At the hall we place all of the centerpieces on the tables, decorate the head table, place flowers in the washrooms, decorate the cake and cake table, and find suitable places to put all of the flowers from the church. On top of all that like you mentioned we are constantly checking to make sure everything is perfect and as it should be. All of this usually takes two of us the entire day, and that is just what goes on the day of your wedding, there is a lot of work involved behind the scenes to get to this point!

JESS- right- those are all the things you can obviously see happen, but we are also working months ahead of your day planning your flowers. We spend a lot of time dealing with growers and suppliers to get the exact shade of rose for example, and are constantly checking in to make sure everything will be exactly what you want. The week of your event the flowers are received, checked and processed, and we have to carefully watch and gauge the blooms to get them to be at the perfect stage of openness for the big day. Containers are received and all have to be checked over for any problems and are cleaned and prepped during the week of. Phone calls are made to the various venues involved to coordinate our arrival and set up- and the days timeline is set.

Erin – and don’t forget we actually spend up to two full days making the flowers. So as you can see there is a lot of work involved in designing wedding flowers on the day of your wedding and months in advance.



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