News

Workshop with René van Rems

As the owner and lead floral designer at Floral Sunshine, I am constantly looking to grow, learn some new tricks, pick up new tips, and keep up with new trends.  In other words, I believe in continuing education.  So when I found out that René van Rems was visiting Portland, I jumped on this opportunity to sign up for his half-day hands-on workshop.

Unless if you’re a floral designer, you probably have no idea who this guy is… well, he’s a Dutch floral designer/presenter/consultant/instructor who lives in southern California who has some high floral industry credentials and travels all over the world sharing his talents.

I’ve always admired René from afar and own one of his books in my floral library.

rene_bookcoverI have yet to pick up the one below called René’s Bouquets for Brides that was published in 2011.  Will you take a look at this crazy-huge-amazing cascading bouquet???  Whoa…. In reality, she would probably be tripping over the trailing portion of her bridal bouquet.  So gorgeous and over-the-top, I love it!

renes_bouquets_for_brides_sizedSo, what did I learn at the workshop?  I’m not telling!  🙂  I did learn some cool new tricks that help with mechanics and efficiency for wedding flowers.

 

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Weekly flowers at Fourth Estate Coffeehouse

March has been a great month so far!  Floral Sunshine has a new weekly client – one of the newest coffee shops in the St Johns neighborhood.  It’s called Fourth Estate Coffeehouse and it’s a cute little place with excellent coffee (from Stumptown Coffee Roasters) and yummy food.  Each month, they feature a different artist.  For the month of March, the art that is featured on the walls is by a regular customer, Jim Ollett.

We love art of all types and are excited that our floral art will hang out on the counter at Fourth Estate too!  Are you a piece of work?  Maybe you will hang out there too!

Weekly flowers
Flowers delivered March 5th, 2014 at Fourth Estate Coffeehouse in the heart of St Johns

Getting weekly flowers for your business is a great way to create a welcoming and warm environment.  If you’re interested in getting floral or plant services for your business on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis.  Please don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us a note from our contact form.  We deliver weekly all over the Portland metro area and have a lot of experience working with hotels, restaurants, office buildings, law firms, wineries, waiting rooms / lobby areas, etc…. and we would love to create a customized plan that works for you.

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Valentine’s Day is just a few days away….

Red Roses
Two Dozen Long Stemmed Roses $150

2014 Valentine’s Pricing & Options:

  • Designer’s Choice Valentine’s Arr. – SMALL (a nice small but hearty arrangement of mixed seasonal flowers) @ $50.00
  • Designer’s Choice Valentine’s Arr. – MEDIUM (a lovely mixed arrangement, not too small and not too big) @ $75.00
  • Designer’s Choice Valentine’s Arr. – LARGE (an extra special LARGE mixed arrangement of many favorite flowers, coordinating foliage/filler/branches) @ $100.00
  • 1 Dozen Long-Stemmed Red Roses in a Glass Vase (professionally arranged, premium quality roses with coordinating foliage/filler/branches) @ $85.00
  • 2 Dozen Long-Stemmed Red Roses in a Glass Vase (professionally arranged, premium quality roses with coordinating foliage/filler/branches) @ $150.00
  • 1 Dozen Medium-Stemmed Roses in Glass Vase (professionally arranged, premium quality roses with coordinating foliage and filler) @ $55.00
  • Other?  Please call!

Delivery to downtown Portland or close-in $8, other areas approximately $10-15.  Please inquire specifically by calling (503) 974-4740 or emailing annie@floralsunshine.com.

So, you’ve procrastinated long enough! Don’t scramble at the last minute at the grocery store for a mediocre bunch of picked-over bouquets for your sweetheart… he/she deserves better and you don’t need the extra stress.

Call Floral Sunshine today to order a beautiful arrangement for your love and delivered locally to a business or residence. (503) 974-4740

Valentine’s Day is a month away!

Well…. I bet you’re either looking forward to Valentine’s Day this year, or you’re dreading it!  There seems to be no in-between.

Most florists have a love/hate relationship with Valentine’s Day.  No matter how much experience we have or # of years we have been in business, Valentine’s Day can be an unpredictable holiday.

To give you a little more insight, in our industry, florists must pre-order flowers for this BIG holiday over a month before Valentine’s Day.  (If we don’t pre-order, we may not be able to get what we need for our customers.)  Then we pray, wish and hope that we have guesstimated the right amount of each type of flower we purchased.  Sigh… Also another thing we have to deal with is supply and demand and the increased cost of flowers.  Supply and demand for flowers on Valentine’s Day (and Mother’s Day) go through the roof!  The cost of flowers increase significantly and sometimes up to twice the normal going rate.  So… for those of you that think that florists are evil and just jack up prices on Valentine’s Day… think again.  🙁  We don’t do it because we see this amazing money making opportunity.  We do it because our growers/supplies do it because of the supply and demand.

Enough negativity, buy your sweetheart, mother, friend, or buddy some flowers for Valentine’s Day… it’s the one holiday that you should definitely go all out to remind them that they are loved.  Oh, and don’t get it at the grocery store where all the bunches are picked over – get them from your local florist who will give you quality, long-lasting flowers, beautifully arranged in a vase.

New Years Resolutions 2014

Happy New Year, Everyone!  What are your new years resolutions this year?  Here, at Floral Sunshine some of our top goals for 2014 are:

  • Blog more, blog at least 2 times/month.  We try to post pictures on our Facebook Fan page fairly often, but we forget to blog.
  • Book more weekly/monthly reoccurring clients.  These clients could be either corporate accounts that need flowers every week for their lobby, front desk, or restaurant/hotel… or these could be flowers sent to your girlfriend at work or your grandma at her retirement community.  Check out our Flowers By Subscription plans!
  • Continue to add to our floral portfolio, especially with professionally shot photos – not grainy photos taken with an iPhone.
  • And I think it goes without saying — to book more weddings this year!  Last year, we were honored to be part of 29 weddings.  We <3 weddings!!

Wish us luck and feel free to help us out with any of our resolutions listed above!  🙂

Indian Wedding Mandap available for rent

Floral Sunshine is excited to announce that we now have an Indian wedding mandap for rent.  This is not a flimsy mandap, this is a very strong & sturdy white wooden mandap.  We set-up and decorate the mandap with coordinating fabric and flowers.

Indian wedding mandap decorated in orange & white
Indian wedding mandap decorated in orange & white

Please contact us for a consultation!  annie@floralsunshine.com or (503) 974-4740.

Indian Wedding Garlands

Did you know that Floral Sunshine makes custom Indian wedding garlands???  We recently collaborated with several other vendors in a styled Indian wedding shoot.  Floral Sunshine had the pleasure of working alongside Studio Varnika, Hayward Decorations, Masala Pop, and Sugar Shapes – at the Holiday Inn Portland Airport.

These particular Indian wedding garlands were made from white, maroon, red, and bi-color (white/cream/maroon/deep red) carnations.  It is a lot of work to put together these dense floral garlands but they are well worth the time and effort!

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If you’re having a traditional Indian (or other ethnic) wedding and would like to order custom floral garlands or other floral arrangements for your BIG day, contact Floral Sunshine!  We can’t wait to hear from you!

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Bigfoot Lodge Wedding

Floral Sunshine had the pleasure of working with a very lovely couple, Mandy & David this past July.  They got married at the Bigfoot Lodge (address to remain a hidden secret) as the lodge doesn’t publish their address because they are by appointment only for showings and events.  You won’t find too much info about the Bigfoot Lodge online or elsewhere really, but believe me, it is a very beautiful and quaint venue.

Powers Studios was Mandy & David’s photographer of choice and they wrote up a blog with lots of great pictures to look at.  Check it out…

http://www.powersstudios.com/blog/david-mandy-bigfoot-lodge

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Our favorite part of creating flowers for Mandy & David – was that they trusted us and allowed us to make designer’s choice flowers according to their color scheme.  Some of the flowers included were local purple dahlias, green spider mums, drumstick allium, green ball trix, green roses, kermit poms, and mini green hydrangeas.  We also emjoyed the challenge of making custom floral centerpieces inside/atop wooden cabins!

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Memorial Service Flowers

First and foremost, we are very sorry for your loss. Losing a loved one is never easy and ordering flowers for a memorial service can be confusing. Please feel free to give us a call directly so we can help you according to your choice of color(s), flower choices, or budget. 503-974-4740

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Basic Standing Spray $75 (economy flowers)

Deluxe Standing Spray $100 (standard flowers)

Premium Standing Spray $150 (includes 1 premium type of flower)

Large Premium Arrangement in Mache Container $135

Large Premium Arrangement in Plastic Urn $150

Wreath Standing Spray $185 (standard flowers)

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Cross Standing Spray $175 (standard flowers)

Please note that these are just a small sampling of Floral Sunshine’s memorial arrangements, we take customized orders all the time, so please call to discuss and we can let you know the cost and availability.

Floral Sunshine’s flowers are in MarryThis Guide 6!

Floral Sunshine’s flowers are featured in MarryThis Guide 6! Get your download this month! All the flowers used in these beach-themed arrangements are locally grown. Beautiful and fragrant Peterkort Roses and fluffy white peonies from a small local grower. We had the pleasure of working with photographer Sara Gray!

Floral Sunshine creates flowers for all occasions and loves traveling to the beautiful Oregon coast for destination weddings! Shoot us an email if you’re planning your big day at the coast!

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