Joys of a Wedding, Sacramento Florist

The mother of the groom for one of the recent weddings we worked on last month came for a visit today with a thank you card, and a wedding favor and the wedding album.
She mentioned that the bride loved her bouquet and the guests expressed that they were very impressed with the flowers and the decorations for the wedding event and the reception.
There were a lot of pictures of the flowers and she promised to provide me with a copy of the disk so that I can use it as a portfolio. The result of a professional photography makes all the difference and shows the beauty of the professionally arranged bouquets. It makes for a happy closure to the week and helps keep the joys of being a Sacramento florist, and a small entrepreneur.

Sacramento Florist Going Green

Flowers bring the romance with all its fragrance - sweet, soft, or strong scent, and they come in really pretty colors, and in many shapes. This month of March brings the color GREEN for the St. Patrick's Day celebration. We use green carnations, green mums, green gladiola and lots of greenery in our arrangements.

St. Patrick's Day brings us all to wearing green even if we're not Irish. We celebrate it on Thursday, March 17, 2010. And to all the Patricks and Patricias or Patty's, we celebrate your day with you!
Let's drink Ale to that!

And speaking of green, we either put the stems and leaves cut off from our flowers and greens into the green pile and into the greens trash bin but mostly into our compost pile. We recycle all our newspaper and the paper wrappings that our flowers are wrapped with by the wholesalers and all the cardboard boxes that our vases come in. We try to be responsible stewards of our environment and our land.

Flowers from the Heart, Sacramento Florist delivers for you

Valentine's Day is over, Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday celebration has started and the joy that love brings continue. Actually, Mardi Gras is the day of merrymaking, outrageous parades and carnivals in New Orleans, Paris and other cities. For Catholics, it is a day before Lent - a time of penance, prayer, preparation for or recollection of baptism, and preparation for the celebration of Easter. For Christians, it is the love Of Jesus for all people that He suffered, was crucified and then resurrected on Easter.

For some of us, sending flowers to loved ones anytime of the year shows how special we think of them.

Whether it's pure joy or pure love, this gorgeous arrangement of white roses and lilies is surely the right choice.

Visit our shop today or online at www.avanityfairflorist.com. Fresh flowers at affordable prices, we hand deliver your order in a very timely manner in and around Sacramento, CA.

Flowers, Food and Celebrations

Holidays are special occasions for friends and family - our loved ones to get together and catch up. It seems, during these special occasion of family and close friends gathering, flowers, food and celebrations have always been old companions as well. Creative centerpieces adorning dining tables make the gathering more festive, lively and very inviting. You can pick up beautifully and professionally designed centerpiece at your local florist. In Sacramento, if you want to stay indoors during the cold and dreary rainy day, call your local Sacramento florist to deliver your flowers.

During the hustle and bustle of the holiday preparations, we wish you all peace, joy, and love. And remember, for last minute gifts, call your local florist who can artistically put together a gift for a host or a loved one.

Sacramento Florist - Change with the Economy

The last few months have become very challenging for small businesses like florists. Driving to work, it is very discomforting to see empty commercial spaces and large 'For Lease' signs on windows, and on the side of roads. Next to our shop, there used to be no parking space to be had; trucks and cars used to park on the street. In March, a large construction painting company just closed their shop and now there's a lot of empty parking spaces.

Our flower business is down by at least 20% for the first quarter of the year and it looks like it would be the same for the second quarter. Brides have become very cost conscious - those that came to us ordered only the basic flowers they needed - bridal bouquet, small bridesmaids bouquets, small corsages and boutonnieres, and loose flowers or rose petals that they will use for table decorations. We've had a few nice wedding business, but a lot fewer this year than last. We particularly loved the wedding we did last month where we did centerpieces including the guest sign-in table, food table and the ladies' bathroom. The chuppah was a challenge to make but in a good way.

The funeral business has also slowed down. Families have also become more cost conscious in their flower purchases. We had one family order loose flowers and materials for a relative to arrange the flowers for the service. Fortunately, there are still a few that we were able to do, a recent one were tropical arrangements for a funeral.

We have hunkered down, downsized as much as we are able to, and still continue to operate the business without going into debt. We are still able to pay our bills, mortgage for the shop and our residence. Still, the economy does not look good. In Sacramento, our economy depend so much on the government - it is the biggest employer, and with Friday furloughs, not only are the government employees affected, a lot of businesses are affected - restaurants, gift shops, etc.

We are hoping the economy improves, but if not, we will continue to watch our expenses, market our business the most economical way and hopefully find ways to do it for free, and find additional corporate accounts. We look for best pricing in flowers so that we can offer the best price to our customers. Our best asset will still be our customer service and our same day delivery service.

Local Florist in Sacramento, CA

We are in a challenging economic environment. A Vanity Fair Florist used to be located in a leased space in a strip mall in Citrus Heights on the corner of Auburn and Greenback Lane. During those years we were there, we were burglarized several times, along with cash, our cash register was stolen, door lock broken and had to be repaired, windows needed to be replaced. Any plant or item left outside the shop would disappear and after our lease was up, our lease was about to go up. Burglary on other businesses nearby was occurring quite often.

The bad economy also discouraged people to walk into a flower shop. Because of all these problems, we decided to buy our own commercial property - a little old house in a commercial lot situated between an office building and an auto repair shop and facing the FBI and the Sacramento Sheriff's department. Unfortunately, we bought it at the height of the real estate boom. We are now upside down on the property and cannot find financing to update the property as of yet. However, we are still a running business because we are able to operate with lower overhead. There used to be a very nice shop called Conroy's located not too far from us on Madison Ave. Another shop rented a nice location not too far from us on Auburn Blvd. is also shut down.And yet another flower shop located on Garfield Ave. is also long gone. The economy forced us to move to our humble location, still serving our old customers and people sending flowers to funerals at East Lawn Sierra Hills Cemetery and to Calvary Catholic Cemetery. We also deliver to Reichert's Funeral and Price Funeral Home in Citrus Heights. We service Merrill Gardens in Citrus Heights, CA, the Carmichael Oaks Retirement Home in Carmichael, CA, the Atria El Camino Gardens also in Carmichael, and others. We provide weekly flowers and flowers for special occasions. Aside from flowers, we have balloons, plush toys, silk flowers, candles, greeting cards, plants, baskets, and floral supplies.

There is a real bad looking building that used to be a florist on the corner of Orange Grove and Auburn Blvd. It used to house a flower shop called Flower Station. It was abandoned in 2002 but remained listed in directories as Love N Touch until 2008. It has hand painted signs now faded that says - Roses, Valentines Flowers. I wonder if that is the building that Dina saw driving by and became passionate to write a review about A Vanity Fair Florist.

Local Sacramento Florist prepares for Easter

One of the holidays that florists await for, plan and prepare for is Easter. When times were better, relatives who live out of town send flowers, gift baskets or the traditional Easter lily plant to their loved ones in Sacramento. Nowadays, most florists just plan for a nice full week. For those of us who have corporate customers like churches, we have Easter lilies to prepare and church arrangements to work on for delivery for the Easter service and for retirement homes for their dining rooms.
In other countries like the Philippines, they celebrate Easter which starts with Palm Sunday and the rest of the week is called Holy Week. Students would be given the whole week off to go back home and celebrate the holiday with their family.
So, before we all get busy with our Easter work, I send you my wish for a peaceful week - Happy Easter to you all.

Valentines Day - Express your Feelings with Flowers

Often times finding the right words to express feelings and emotions is difficult. This Valentines Day, how can you best say what is in your heart and on your mind? Flowers can help. Considered the universal language by many, flowers transcend emotional, racial, and national barriers to express a wide variety of feelings.

The following is a list of contemporary meaning commonly associated with the color of roses:

• Red - true love, passion, I love you

• Yellow - happiness, friendship, freedom

• Pink - sweetness, gentleness, grace, joy

• Bright pink - thankfulness

• Peach - sincerity

• Orange - fascination, enthusiasm

• White - purity and innocence
• Lavender - enchantment, love at first sight

Valentine's Day is a very busy time for flower shops, so be sure to give your local florist plenty of advance notice, most especially if you want to send a specific color or variety of rose. It's also a good idea to have a second choice in mind. And remember that your local florist can arrange for roses to be delivered out of town, too. Consider having the flowers delivered a day or two early. It will make easier for your florist to give you the best selection and service, and it will let your Valentine know that you just couldn't wait to get your message across.