Bloom Bar Bloomed
Good Morning!
This is officially my first blog post EVER and I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing but as my dad (Mr.Smith) would say “That’s never stopped me”. I would like to start this blog at the beginning- but not the kind of beginning that involves me telling you a three hour version of my life story. Therefore lets start at the point in which Bloom Bar Floral Designs went from dreams and ideas and planning into actual production. And what a production it was…most people wouldn’t choose the largest holiday in the flower business to kickstart their career - or maybe they would but if they did they probably wouldn’t have taken seventy-three orders in one weekend to start. Some people definitely thought I was insane.
It all started when a close friend of mine who had moved to Atlanta texted and asked me if I was designing flower arrangements for Mother’s Day. I wasn’t, but it got me thinking why not. So I sent out a text to my closest friend’s with details and pricing, and that’s when it all began.
Immediately I began to receive orders and for the next two weeks they kept coming in. The planning also began. Planning and logistics with my dad was intense- there were hand drawn maps, spreadsheets, receipts, lists of all sorts and things laid out across tables in preparation.
The week of I placed my order for my flowers and scheduled pick up for Thursday and Friday before Mother’s Day- we were ready. I remember the night before I was having a meeting with my dad reviewing last minute details and I began to have a little anxiety attack. I excused myself for a moment and went outside. Anxiety is normal for me and can be triggered by many things- I don’t know how to explain it, maybe it was excitement maybe it was fear maybe a little bit of both. I had had trouble sleeping the past week, I was literally dreaming of flowers or deliveries or things I had to do. I was nervous of failing and things just going wrong. Well guess what Amanda- it’s too late to worry about that now, put your big girl pants on and GO! Okay, so now that my anxiety was compartmentalized and my heart wasn’t racing- time to finish up and get some rest- big weekend ahead.
Finally Friday morning came and I went and picked up my huge flower order, it was ten boxes of all sorts of flowers flown in. From that point on it was all work at the house, my boyfriend was helping with the heavy lifting and deliveries, my dad was creating schedules and delivery routes, my mother in law was helping me prep the flowers and vases and I was designing arrangements. It was crazy, a real working assembly line. The first day, Friday, we made about twenty arrangements and delivered about 10, Saturday we pumped out even more and Sunday I made the rest of the arrangements in the morning and finished deliveries in the early afternoon.
I could not have done it without all the help from my boyfriend, his family and mine, especially my dad, thank you. Also I have to thank all my friends and new friends who I met through this experience. The support was amazing but I was not surprised - I have a GREAT group of friends that I can always count on.
The last thing I would like to share about this weekend was when I received a text message complementing and congratulating me on my work, it was an important moment for because of the way it made me feel. First of all it brought me to tears and I was overwhelmed by joy. Finally at thirty years old I have found a career path I enjoy and that I am good at. It’s kind words like that that can drive us forward towards our dreams, Thank you, you know who you are.
Overall we all got through the weekend without so much as a vase breaking so I guess you could say we did it-actually we nailed it.
-Amanda Leigh
