Come On Spring! Hello Tulips!

It’s Tulips season! Actually, to be honest, tulips are available year round from your professional florist-- but Tulips are definitely a sign of Spring! Tulips offer one of the widest arrays of vibrant colors and varieties. So tis the season! Order your honey a fresh bouquet of tulips, or stop by your local florist or market to pick up a bunch for yourself. They will be sure to brighten your week!


We’ve listed some interesting tips about Tulips below:

- Did you know that tulips are one of the few flowers that continue to grow, up to an inch or more, after they are cut and put into an arrangement? If you are preparing floral centerpieces for a specific event, make sure to cut your tulips about an inch or so shorter than you would want them to be at the event.

- Did you know that tulips’ blooms will follow the light? While you should not place your tulips in direct sunlight, they will tend to follow light in the room. This is part of the beauty and movement of the flower.

- Are the stems of your tulips weak or rubbery when you get them home? Tulips take a lot of water. A tip to proper hydration is to gently wrap your tulips in a couple of pieces of newspaper. Hold the stems under water and cut (this prevents air from stopping up the flow of water. Transfer wrapped tulips in water and preservative and let stand for 1-2 hours. Then remove paper and re-cut stems. Your tulips should be hearty and happy for 7-10 days! Don’t forget to keep your eye on the water levels, and continue to cut stems as necessary.

Flower Bar offers floral design services for Weekly Accounts and Special Events in the Atlanta area. Call us at 404-641-0590 or visit our website at www.atlantaflowerbar.com for more information.

You can also email us at flowerbar@gmail.com

Free Cupcakes With Your Dozen Roses

Just to be different, this year we are offering two free cupcakes with your order of a dozen roses for Valentine's Day. Please order before Tuesday, February 10th to get your free cupcakes. The cupcakes come in a pretty little box with a bow.

Flower Bar will have several different versions of our dozen roses. Choose the contemporary version, as seen in this photo, or go for the more traditional arrangements-- long stemmed.

Valentine's Day is on a Saturday this year. We are encouraging our customers to send flowers earlier in the week so that your honey can enjoy their flowers all week long! We will also be delivering throughout the day on Saturday, February 14th.

Call 404-641-0590 to order the best Valentine's Day flowers in Atlanta!!

Best Ideas for Valentine's Day

Flower Bar has picked out a few of our favorite bouquets to suggest for our loyal customers. Below you will find images of our recommendations. Click on any image below to order that arrangement for Valentine's Delivery...or pick up!

This is "Burgundy Blush" a unique mix of pinks and reds, including lilies, hydrangea, roses, spray roses, seeded eucalyptus and more!

This is "Contempo Rose Cube" a more modern twist to the dozen roses...updated and romantic!!

This is "Imagination Blooms" a unique display of lilies, orchids and orchids, artistically arranged with tropical greens.

This is "Garden of Grace" the perfectly refreshing mix of blooms when you want to be different this Valentine's Day. No traditional roses, no red, but still tons of love!

This is "Dozen Sweet Roses" the tried and true and traditional dozen red roses...with our favorite greenery: blupleurum!

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Flower Bar is Atlanta's favorite florist for unique, fresh, quality arrangements. We take pride in making every bouquet a work of art. Please place your Valentine's Day order early.

And don't forget....Valentine's Day is on a Saturday this year!! We will be doing Valentine's Day delivery throughout the Atlanta area.

Romantic Flowers for Valentine's Day!

Once again we're gearing up for a fabulous Valentine's Day. This year you can send extra goodies with your flower arrangements. Select from a variety of ice cream flavors, cupcakes, cookies, candles, and special beauty pampering gifts. Call now for more information, or stay tuned to our website for details.

VALENTINE'S DAY TIP: February 14th is the busiest day for any florist. Most florists wouldn't be able to guarantee a specific time of delivery without steep "rush" fees added to your order. You wouldn't want your honey to have to wait all day wondering if you sent her anything, would you? We suggest sending your flowers on the day BEFORE Valentine's Day. That way he or she has their gift to enjoy all day long. **You may even get brownie points for being the first bouquet delivered to your sweeties office....oohhhs and ahhhs from the co-workers are always fun! :)

Flower Bar will deliver Valentine's Day flowers throughout the metro Atlanta area. Call 404-641-0590 to place your special delivery.

Blackberries...and we don't mean your phones

This week we have wonderful wild blackberry branches for your bouquets! Include blackberries in your next flower arrangement, to add a very unique touch...something you've probably never seen before.

Flower Bar has also been carrying a variety of wild basil. This basil is VERY hearty, smells great, and acts as a beautiful greenery to just about any arrangement. In fact we used our locally grown basil as the primary greenery in a recent wedding, and had rave reviews!

Call Flower Bar at 404-525-2244 for more information, or visit our website at www.flowerbar.org.

Kate and Brad Get Married!

This week we had the pleasure of working on both the Rehearsal Dinner and Wedding of Kate and Brad. They are a lovely couple, with great vision and ideas of the soft romantic look they wanted to create.

Here's a photo of their Rehearsal Dinner floral ring and hurricane centerpieces. Thanks to Marilyn, Kate's new Mother in Law, for being so easy to work with! We like how it turned out.

Kate and Brad's June 19th Wedding took place at The Houston Mill House, a wonderful gardeny location in the Decatur, GA area. We've done events here before and the staff is remarkably organized and helpful. They have a wonderful garden area for ceremonies, a historic home and beautiful back terrace for receptions.

The Wedding:

The one thing I am admittedly TERRIBLE at is getting pictures of our wedding bouquets and arrangements the day of the wedding. We rely on the photographers for professional shots but I'm terrible about following up with them as well....always moving on to the next event. This picture shown is of one of their table centerpieces-- the day after. They wanted a soft and petally romantic feel for their wedding dinner tables.

The outside terrace was decorated "understated but elegant" says Marilyn, with soft petally bud vase bouquets, an arrangement for the bar, and ivory hanging paper lanterns in the trees (operated by batteries- no hanging cords!).

My lighting expert, Sully overheard the Houston Mill House staff say our event was the prettiest this season! We can't wait to be back in touch with the Bride and Groom to hear all about their night!

Dayton's Proposal

One of the things I love the most about running a flower shop, is getting to peak into the romance of different people's lives. One of the most romantic times in people's lives is when a man proposes to a woman. So of course, I LOVE getting the phone call about a guy needing help with his plans to propose!

This past Memorial Day weekend, we got a call from Dayton. He told me his plan, and I got just as excited as I would if a brother called, telling me about asking his girlfriend to marry him. Dayton had a couple of logistical obstacles, which we helped him with, but here's how he popped the question!

Dayton's girlfriend Lindsey received an email on Saturday morning, telling her to make the trip from Newnan (where they live) to our flower shop to begin a little scavenger hunt. She has GPS, so she was to program in a new destination with each stop.

At about 2pm, Lindsey walked into Flower Bar pretty confused. She said she wasn't sure why she was there. I gave her the bouquet Dayton ordered (see picture) along with a card, and a gift certificate to Victoria Secret. The card had the store's address on it and note to shop for something she liked. After her shopping spree, she received instructions to go to The Embassy Suites downtown at Centennial Park.

At the hotel, she received a room key, where a masseuse would be on call for a nice massage. When she was done, her final instructions were to walk down to Centennial Park and look for Dayton. There he would propose! Their final stop- dinner at Ruth Chris Steak House downtown. Isn't it oh so romantic!!?

Thank you to Dayton for letting us post about his big day.

...I wonder if they are planning their wedding flowers yet.

Visit our website

The Two Steves....

Customer Update: Yesterday I received a call from a gentleman who ordered flowers from us a couple of months ago....he reminded me of his story. His name is Steve and he was ordering flowers for his wife's birthday. Steve was planning several days ahead of time, and we chatted a couple of times about what to send his wife to make a great impression.

When Steve placed his order he signed the card "Love Steve (The one from Florida)". He explained a story about how he and his wife had wondered if the wife's ex-boyfriend (also named Steve!) would send her Birthday wishes on her special day...so he put the little note at the end of his card to clarify, just in case.

On the day of the delivery, I got a call from Husband Steve. The wife was very disappointed. He mentioned that we had such great customer service, and he enjoyed planning the arrangement with us, and therefore was even more disappointed that she didn't like the flowers. I, of course, panicked. People don't complain about our arrangements! I told him we'd make good, or give him his money back, etc.

An hour or so later, he called me back. The ex-boyfriend Steve had in fact sent his wife the "ugly" flowers....PHEW! Our more gorgeous arrangement came just an hour later, and she loved it! His phone call yesterday was to order more flowers.

Thanks Husband Steve, for letting me blog about your story (and for reminding me about it yesterday), and for ordering more flowers from Flower Bar!! We hope we will continue to impress!

Visit the Flower Bar website

or call us at 404-525-2244

Join Us Thursday May 29th @ Paisley

Who Inspires Your Style? Paisley Umbrella Toasts Sex and the City: The Movie opening nationwide May 30th. Join Flower Bar for Cupcakes and Cocktails Thursday May 29th, 6-9pm at Paisley Umbrella, our bridal showroom location. Be one of the first 50 guests and get the ultimate Fashion Getaway gift tote, filled with goodies! Drawings for exclusive giveaways will be held every hour!

Win an outfit inspired by the stylish ladies of Sex the City, including a dress by Olive, shoes by Ann Roth, bag by AC Lynn, and jewelry by Nichola!

Are you cutting edge like Carrie? Classic and polished like Charlotte? Does an edgy professional look like Miranda's fit your style or is Samantha's mix of glamour and sexy more your taste? Tell us who you are and enter to win your best Sex and the City inspired outfit!

RSVP to olivestyle@comcast.net to enter the drawing. Look for upcoming emails for a chance to win a Paisley Umbrella Bridal Shower or Bachelorette Partyand movies passes to Sex and the City!

Valentine's Day Reports

As a florist, I started to worry about a week after Valentine's Day because we had not heard back from any of our customers. "I guess no news is good news," I thought. At least we didn't get any complaints that our flowers died in two days, or that someone didn't think they were pretty....

But wait-- NOW we are hearing back. Sixteen Days later. My customers are reporting back that their flowers are just now expiring. And the compliments and thank yous are abundant.

Phew, and YAY!

Breaking the Ice with Cocktails!

Cocktail Bouquets™ are to Flower Bar, like men are to single women...when it rains, it pours! This week was a BIG cocktail bouquet™ ordering week. What inspired this blog entry is--that we keep finding that our cocktail bouquets™ are absolutely perfect for a guy who wants to impress a new love interest.....especially if they met out somewhere while drinking cocktails.

Guys often come to us wanting to send something to someone they just met. They want to make a good impression, but they don't want to over do it. Sending a "single" serving size Cocktail Bouquet™, themed after her favorite beverage, is a perfect way to be different and make an impression, without overwhelming her too early in the relationship.

Hint: On your card- put "Cheers!," "You intoxicate me," "You're refreshing," or something of the like to go in theme with your bouquet. Love responsibly!

- Flower Bar

www.flowerbar.org

404-525-2244

Attention Men: Valentine's Day Is On The Way

Ok, so we're a fairly new florist (est. 2006) and last year we weren't quite sure what to expect for Valentine's Day. Being the optimist that I am, I decided to prepare for the best, and some how, some way, we'd sell all the roses I purchased.....1300 stems!! Some men placed their orders about week in advance, but not nearly as many as I had thought. The nights leading up to Valentine's Day I fell asleep full of anxiety, with visions of that American Beauty scene where rose petals are falling all over the Mena Suvari.

Much to my surprise (and relief!) 85% of our flower sales were made on Valentine's Day! There was a line out our door at one point, and the phone rang off the hook. In fact we sold out of every one of those 1300 stems I ordered...and that was just the roses. Really??! Come on guys! That's a big risk to wait until the very last moment. We were getting calls from men who said the florist they originally ordered from called them back and said they couldn't get their orders delivered, so they called Flower Bar to save them! Also, we did our research and most Atlanta florists were charging $125 or more per dozen....which to be honest, isn't all that unreasonable considering our Grower's prices spike dramatically during this holiday.

Our point is that this year we want to help men out. Let us give you incentive to think about what you will send to your honey BEFORE Thursday, February 14, 2008. Here are some tips, tricks and special offers to help you become a better Valentine.

1) Place your Valentine's Day order before February 2nd, and receive 20% off our "day of" pricing. (e.g. Doz gorgeous long stemmed roses with unique greens and vase: $76.00 before Feb 2nd, $95.00 after. Or a cocktail bouquet for $39.95 pre-ordered, $59.95 "day of").

2) Place your Valentine's Day order before February 9th and include Sweet Pocket's Cupcakes, Jake's Ice Cream, or Sally B's skin yummies with your delivery for no additional delivery fees!

3) Have your flowers delivered towards the end of the Day on the 13th. This is the best way to ensure your honey has their flowers in time to enjoy them all day long on Valentine's Day.

4) Pick up your bouquet from us that morning (or the day before) and hand deliver them yourself on Valentine's Day....surprise your honey at work, or greet them with flowers in-hand when you get home.

5) Get creative with what you give. Try an exclusive Cocktail Themed Bouquet™, or a short contemporary bouquet in a square glass vase, or order a bunch of rose petals to place along a dinner table, bubble bath, and/or bedroom.

6) Planning to propose on Valentine's Day? Call us! We'd love to be a part of your creativity! Plus we're suckers for that mushy gushy stuff, so we'll do just about anything to help you make it memorable.

Call Flower Bar at 404-525-2244 to discuss your Valentine's Day plans.

Visit our website to order