Flora in Winter 2012 - Ticket Giveaway!

Yes, it's Flora in Winter time at the Worcester Art Museum and we have some free tickets to give away to all you crazy flower lovers!!!

To win some tickets you're going to have to pay attention to the blog, our Facebook page, and our Tweets for the next 3 days.

Now for our first giveaway!

To enter a drawing for a pair of tix to the opening night party, Flora Euphoria Champagne Preview on 1/26, leave a comment on this blog post telling us why Sprout is special to you. Comments will close at noon 1/25, with the random winner chosen shortly after.

Showering you all with flowery love and luck!

Time to Talk Prom!

Yes, it is that time of the year again - prom time! I know you guys are getting ready for prom already and so are we. Today we have a nice prom photo shoot with Baystate Parent Magazine and yesterday some of our prom flowers were featured on the Prom Flowers blog - Golden Globe prom-spiration! Check it out!

I should have some behind the scene pics from the photo shoot on out Facebook page later today or tomorrow.

What prom flower looks are you interested in seeing for 2012??!!

Funeral, Memorial Flowers - for Cremation

Burial trends across the United States show an upward rise in cremations. While not as popular in Massachusetts as it is in other areas of the country, we have also noticed a move towards memorial services which involve cremains.

The absence of a casket and the small size of the typical urn can make it challenging to create a fitting final floral tribute that a loved one deserves. It should be something that is sized appropriately and shows the care and love of the family but also doesn't overwhelm the urn.

We recently did this lovely display for a memorial service. The raised platform in the center of the flowers gives the urn a special place, while the flowing flowers below the table's edge increases its presence without overwhelming it.

While we hope you never need to order funeral flowers from us and that all of your flower occasions are happy ones, know that we are also there to help guide you through some of your most difficult times.

Christmas Wedding - Tartan, Plaid, and Trees!

We had a holiday wedding the week before Christmas this year, often times it's the week after, so this was a nice treat for both us and the guests!

The bride wanted a Christmas look to her wedding that didn't scream Christmas, so no red and green for her. Too obvious. She decided on dark blue gowns for the maids and get this - black watch plaid bow ties and cummerbunds for the men! Classic.

When did you last see plaid ties and cummerbunds? I think this look is meant for a return and is especially appropriate for the holidays. Wish I had a pic of them!

So simple green and blue hydrangea bouquets with evergreens for the maids. You can't see in the photo, but they have the black watch tartan wrapped around their stems.

The bride chose lovely creams, and soft greens with blue accents of hyacinth and thistles. Classic wedding blooms like roses and stephanotis with just a touch of winter pines for greenery fill the bouquet out.

OK, here's my favorite part of the bride's bouquet! We talked about having just a touch of the tartan on the handle of her bouquet, maybe a discrete tailored bow. But when I was working with the ribbon, I thought it might lend itself to kind of a rosette.

I think I had kind of a "Four Weddings and a Funeral" Highland wedding vision in my head. You know, the Scottish wedding, where the guy in a kilt drops dead?

That, or I've been reading way too many British wedding mags over the past 20 years! Either way, I gave the bride a tartan rosette. I hope it made her as happy as it made me to do it!

Centerpieces at Tuckerman Hall were super simple but elegant Christmas trees. These were real live dwarf Alberta spruces in sparkly gold bowls with a touch of, you guessed it, black watch plaid ribbon.

A strand of teeny tiny LED lights and all was complete! Love, love, love these lights!! They were pricey, but well worth it I thought. My first time using them and they are truly tiny. The bulbs are maybe half a grain of rice big.

Tiny.

Any how, I'm mad for plaid!

What about you?

And no, I don't know if the bride or groom was Scottish.

Silly me for not asking!

Four Things I Learned in the Past Week

One hundred and nine yards (approximately a football field and one end zone) of ribbon does not go as far as you'd think.

Fame is fleeting.

The Mannys are on some one's Christmas card.

Husband can recite whole passages from Good Will Hunting.

Well That Was a Bust

Probably not going to let a strange man tape a microphone to my boob again. (reference previous post here)

HD television would not be kind to my sap stained florist hands anyhow.

So cancel the book tour, tell my agent I've retired.

I will happily continue to do my own hair and makeup.


Thanks to all you darlings for believing!

Fifteen Seconds of Fame. Maybe.

So w-a-a-a-y back in the beginning of September my staff fielded a call from someone "claiming" to be a "producer" for a wedding program that was going to air on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

They thought, yeah, sure, and suggested the "producer" email the details. It was 5 minutes before closing for Labor Day weekend. They said they would like to tape the following day.

After reading the email, and doing some on line searching and deciding that this company was legit, I replied, but didn't hear anything back. It was the holiday weekend, I took my time replying, I thought oh well, it sounded interesting, but life goes on.

Fast forward 7 days.

We get another call.

It's Friday, 5 minutes before closing again.

They want to tape at Sprout on Monday.

They send paperwork.

This might really happen.

For real.

We clean like crazy people. The shop is closed on Mondays, and they're not coming until the end of the day so I go buy flowers and spend the day making the shop look its Sprouty best. Bonnie weeds the entire block just in case there is a shot of the neighborhood. So Worcester would look good to the world.

We wait.

The appointed time goes by.

We wait some more.

I make a call.

They're not coming - things happen, and the schedule is out of whack.

We negotiate a different time/day for them to come. We have a wedding that week, my window of available time is very small, but we work it out and decide on Thursday before the shop opens.

And then they come.

A swarm of very intense folks with walkie talkies and serious looking equipment storms the shop.

Lights!

Sound!

Cameras!

There were 8 crew - 1 producer/ director (yeah, reality TV is only sort of real LOL!), 1 production assistant (those two hid in the back and watched the footage as it was being taped on their computers), 2 sound people, 2 camera people, 1 guy for paperwork (there were more papers to sign), and 1 person who stayed outside the shop, presumably to keep people out.

Oh, and the bride and her maid of honor.

And me.

A lot of people for my tiny place.

Oh, it's called Don't Tell the Bride!

The premise - a happy couple are given $25,000 to put on their wedding. They have 3 weeks to do it.

The catch - the groom does all of the planning! And they can't see or talk to each other until they meet at the end of the aisle.

Hilarity ensues.

I had no preparation other than I was the bride's "fantasy" florist and that I might have to make a centerpiece while we talked. I did not know anything about her, her taste, her color scheme, etc.

I gather they contrast what the bride would like to have at her wedding with what the groom really chooses. Hence the hilarity.

Even after taping, I know virtually nothing about the couple or the wedding. We were sworn to secrecy about our part in the show and they were mum about the rest of it. I do know the couple are from Worcester.

And during the taping I got the impression that they were getting towards the end of the three week planning period and that it was very tough on the bride to be away from her honey for so long.

So I need to watch the show just to see how it all turns out!

I was very nervous.

They let me jammer on camera for almost an hour and a half.

I'm pretty sure I never once said the name of the shop.

Some strange man had to tape a microphone to my boob.

Husband has put him on a "list".

They said they chose Sprout because it has personality.

I was paid only for the cost of the flowers I used.

I did my own hair and make up.

Such as it is.

These are just a few quick shots I took to document that this was for real. I couldn't tell you about it until the program started to air, which was mid-October. And then I waited until now because they post the schedule only 2 weeks ahead, and even then it is constantly changing.

But "our" episode is scheduled to air this week - FINALLY!

Don't Tell the Bride - OWN, Oprah Winfrey Network, Local Charter channel #301 for you Worcester folks.

Wednesday, December 14, 10:00pm.

I'm DVRing it, because I have to get up early to buy flowers Thursday morning.

I know Sprout may end up on the cutting room floor.

But if you see it, and we make the show, please be a dear and just tell me the shop looks marvelous, that I don't sound like an idiot, and most importantly that I don't look ginormous.

Because that's what really matters.

Right?