Details about the 2015 Flower School Vouchers and Loyalty

Officially the most boring blog post title I have ever published.

Can't get the tech to publish a new page and the flyer says the information is available on the blog.  So what the flyer says, one must make available, even if not on a page.

So here it is.

Our little Manchester based Flower School is growing. We are very proud of our Classes for the Florally Curious, and very soon, we'll have a blog entirely dedicated to them. And a newsletter. I know, grand plans are afoot.

We have a lovely, loyal following of people who love flower arranging, styling and learning floristry techniques, so we've thought about it and created a few new little ideas.

Here they are, just in time for Christmas. We are just about to launch our 2015 Flower School dates, which will be published here.

Florally Loyal and Continuously Curious
This is our new Loyalty Scheme, starting in January 2015. When you attend our classes, you will get a little stamp on a new loyalty card. There is no time limit to the card, so if you come every month, or twice a year, you can still save up. When you get to six classes, you can opt to get a discount voucher worth £15 off of your next class, or keep going and get ten stamps and your eleventh class in on us. Hurrah!

Flower School Voucher
£35 for a 'Classes for the Florally Curious' Flower School voucher. Redeemable against any of our evening classses, subject to availability.

Florally Curious Flower School Voucher
£195. Advance purchase five classes and your sixth class is £20 instead of £35. This is a the perfect gift for someone who loves flowers as a hobby and loves a little floral indulgence every now and then. Must be used in one calendar year and the same person must be in attendance.

Very Florally Curious Flower School Voucher
£315. Advance purchase ten classes (must be used within one calendar year and the same person must be in attendance) and the tenth class is on us. The classes you attend are up to you. You can attend any ten that we run within the year.

Brides that are Curious Flower School Voucher
£195. This is the perfect gift for a bride to be, friend or relative who dabbles in wedding blooms, or is braving doing their own wedding blooms. Across the year, we run six classes that have a focus on the skills you need for wedding floristry.

Groups that are Florally Curious
For groups of four or more attending on one evening, we offer the class at £32 per person instead of £35 per person. Just about enough to get a glass of wine at a local establishment once the class has finished!

For more information please contact Laura on laura@lauracolemanflowers.co.uk or ring The Flower School at Laura Coleman Flowers on 07941 888654.

Christmas. I'm ready for it now.

Here it is. Got a fancy photograph with my logo on it and everything.  Marvellous stuff.  Huge thanks to Phill's colleague who gave us a magic logo.  He is a clever one.

From the Heart - An Evening of Fundraising with Flowers

I am a great one for ideas. Thought I should put this one into play.

Fundraising. To support my brothers cycle from London to Paris to raise a mountain of pennies for a charity that supports a cause which I know is close to the hearts of his family, mine and many of my friends.

I'm not normally one to be so personal on the blog. I tend to stick to flowers. I am a florist. Makes sense. Occassionally I digress. I say occasionally. Total fib. There's been a bit of science on here of late. Ambitious.

I was simply going to donate some money myself, then realised I could do more with the money I was going to donate. Use it to run an event where I could do a little more fundraising. Raise awareness. Involve people. Run a demonstration. Do a raffle. (Everybody loves a raffle do they not?)

So, here it is. My idea.

An Evening of Fundraising with Flowers

Date: Thursday 10 July 2014
Time: 6.30pm to 8.15pm.
Cost: £10 per ticket – ALL of which goes to 'Action Medical Research For Children'.
Included in the ticket is a strip of complimentary raffle tickets and a small gift from me.
Where: And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon, Burton Road, West Didsbury, Manchester.
Drinks and cake can be purchased on the night up until 7pm directly from the Cafe.
Email me to book on laura@lauracolemanflowers.co.uk.

 

On the night expect:

• A floral demonstration by me
• To pick up a few tips and tricks of the floral trade
• A little bit of unexpected fun (there's always a surprise)
• An auction – yep, bring your pennies, I'll be auctioning off the flowers I create

In all seriousness, the evening is about raising some money for a seriously important cause.

 

The Charity that will benefit is 'Action Medical Research For Children' with information about them on their website. http://www.action.org.uk/ My brother's personal explanation of why he is fundraising for them is here: http://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/edhall I will let you read it yourselves. I am sure that in some way, whether through your own experiences, or the experiences of those that you love, you can relate to his reasons for wanting to support the charity.

 

So, dig deep, book a place and get in the floral mood. Tell your friends. Bring your husbands. Pursuade the person sitting next to you at work. Come along because you love flowers, or simply because you are my friend and want to see the evening be a success.

Thank you in advance and see you there!

Laura x

Images (c) Kate Scott Photography.  One of my brides who took these pictures for me two days before her wedding while I demonstrated how to create tablecentres, and her and her friends created them.  All round rather lovely and very clever girl.  Thank you Kate xx

Mother's Day

This year I wrote it down.  What is in my head.  The things I never say to my Mum.   It helped me reflect on being a Mum myself. 

Here is Mother's Day 2014.

Posy collection.  Pure blooms, no foliage.  Thoughful and simple.
£5 for a little posy- choose from 20 stems of narcissus, 10 stems of anemone, 10 stems of tulip or 5 stems of hyacinth
£10 for medium posy - choose from 40 stems of narcissus, 20 stems of anemone, 20 stems of tulip or 10 stems of hyacinth
£15 for lovely posy bunch - choose from 60 stems of narcissus, 30 stems of anemone, 30 stems of tulip or 15 stems of hyacinth
£20 for a large posy - choose from 80 stems of narcissus, 40 stems of anemone, 40 stems of tulip or 20 stems of hyacinth

Beautiful Seasonal Bouquets.  Flowers and foliages.  The best of the season.
Seasonal bouquets start at £25 and will include the best of the seasons flowers and foliages hand selected by us to make sure all blooms are tip top and pretty. Arranged in a hand tie design, these lovely bouquets will reflect our classic and pretty house style.

All posies and bouquets are wrapped with our signature brown paper and white tissue paper and this year, we'll be finishing each posy or bouquet with a bow of twine. Heart strings if you will.

Order by Thursday 27th March for collection on Friday 28th, Saturday 29th or Sunday 30th.  Sunday 30th collections before 12noon by email to laura@lauracolemanflowers.co.uk.

Laura x

The Big Hint

Ah yes.  Valentines Day.

The 14th February.  Annually.

This year it falls on a Friday.  A useful planning fact. 

All the prices are under the chalkboard.

 

Men. If you need clarification.  If she has done any of the following, please take it with the subtlety of a sledgehammer through a glass window that yes, she would like something ordered. 
a.  Sent you a direct link via email or social media
b.  Laughed out loud in your presence and said that she finds this incredibly funny and that you 'really should have a look at this'
c.  Left the page open on your jointly owned tablet in the hope you'll see it
d.  Made it quite clear and told you outright

I am of the 'b' variety.  Generally this means I get nothing.  I draw the line at making my own Valentines gift.  Ladies, (or gents, you too, you may well like flowers) be subtle at your peril.

THE PRICE LIST
£15 Single Red - Single red rose set with foliages inspired by nature.
£25 Small Bunch - Hand selected seasonal blooms* and greens inspired by nature.
£35 Lovely Bunch - Hand selected seasonal blooms* and greens inspired by nature.
£35 Class Voucher for one of our 'Classes for the Florally Curious'.
£40 Half Dozen Red - Half a dozen beautiful red roses set with foliages inspired by nature.
£45 Good Bunch - Hand selected seasonal blooms* and greens inspired by nature.
£55 Big Bunch - Hand selected seasonal blooms* and greens inspired by nature.
£65 Dozen red - A dozen red roses set with foliages inspired by nature.
£75 Oh My - Hand selected seasonal blooms* and greens inspired by nature.
  
The Lovers Deal - £5 off any of the above flower prices when you purchase a voucher for one of our 'Classes for the Florally Curious' at the same time.  ie Single Red and a Class Voucher would total £45.

All bouquets are wrapped in our signature gift wrapping.  Brown Kraft Paper, clear cellophane and finished with an elegant finish of grey and red grosgrain ribbon.  Hand written gift tag and flower food are included.

THE DETAILS
All or our bouquets are designed to fit within our house style.  We simply can't compete on price with major high street supermarkets and department stores, so we've opted for doing what we do best.  Quality.

All flowers will be looked after by us.  Think of us as floral babysitters.  Conditioned to last, hand selected for their beauty and we're staying away from cost cutting foliages and sticking to beautiful blooms.  Expect lovely eucalyptus, touches of thlaspi green bell and whatever takes our hearts on our buying day.  Roses will be long stem, large headed 'Freedom Roses'.  We are happy to create bouquets using Grand Prix.  Please quadruple the above costs.

The *seasonal blooms that we use will be just that.  The absolute best that we can buy for the money.  There will be a complete mix and they may not even be red.  Roses won't be included unless they 'work' as part of the designs.  Hand chosen to be simply beautiful and to reflect our own personal love of all things nature inspired, you could get anything. It might be tulips mixed with ranunculus, it might be some broom.  What it won't be is 'bulked' out with the 'not nice' stuff.  Gerbera are off the list. These designs are perfect for the person who simply loves flowers, whatever they are.

ORDERING
You can order your bouquet directly from us.  Email us the following by Monday 10th February (ideally) or Tuesday 11th February (at a push.)  We're on laura@lauracolemanflowers.co.uk.
- Your name
- The name of the person the gift is for
- The title of the bouquet as per the price list
- The date you would like it (13th, 14th or 15th)
- Short message (about 15 words, we don't mind whether they are romantic or naughty, it's your message, say what you will)
- Whether you would like collection or delivery - see below.  Delivery does incur additional charges and is only available on Friday 14 January to the South Manchester area.  Ask us for details.
- Make a payment to us via bank transfer before V-day.  We'll send you details.

COLLECTION AND DELIVERY
We are happy for you to collect bouquets free of charge.  Just let use know a rough time.
Thursday 13th - Noon until 8pm
Friday 14th - 8.30am until 8pm
Saturday 15th - 8.30am until noon.
Delivery can be made locally on Friday 14th February only and charges will apply.

If you have any specific requests, (floral ones) then we'll see what we can do.

Laura xx

Flowers for Her Majesty The Queen

Today is a proud day. 

Yesterday was a giddy day.

The day before that was full of stress.

And now I can breath.

Today, Her Majesty The Queen was presented with a posy of flowers that I created when she went for luncheon (yep, they call it that in Downton Abbey, rather grand) at The Monastery in Gorton.   She will sit at a table in front of the table displays we created.  I tell you, that vaseware hasn't gleamed this much since I don't know when.

We were commissioned by The Monastery to create some displays for a very VIP lady.  There were details I needed to follow including red. white and blue blooms.  But The Monastery put their trust in me for the overall design. We worked our magic.  It would have been all too easy to go with expensive roses, set with standard foliages because they were a safe bet. Too easy to say, yep, let's put everything in.  Not us. We took a step back.  We kept it seasonal.  We put an autumn spin on the shades we used.  We used the interiors and intricate details of the nave at The Monastery as our starting point.  We used British narcissus.  We bought all the flowers at the wholesaler because they have looked after us for years. At this point I did not know the design was to be for H.R.H.  Luckily the Monastery team loved what we came up with.  Phew and thank you.

So, hurricane lamps and seasonal wreaths it was.

On the day they could officially tell me that The Queen was visiting I was giddier than a spinning stop.  I stopped talking I was so giddy.  Those who know me know that silencing me is tricky.  Then they mentioned posies.  I was so quiet that they checked I was still on the line.  They invited me to design this however I wanted to.  It was my gift to her.  So, I thought about it.  Again, I kept it seasonal.  Agapanthus, oak, seeded eucalyptus, thlaspi, rosemary, gentiana, faded autumn hydrangea, pincushion flower seed pods, ammi, waxflower, ranunculus and British narcissus.  The first attempt at the bouquet I wasn't my relaxed self.  I didn't like it.  I shook.  I have never shaken with flowers before.  Not even with too much caffeine.  So I calmed down.  I started again.  I smiled and thought about it.  Her Majesty is a family woman.  So I thought of my family.  What would my Grandmother like?  So I made it for her.

I know my Grandmother will love the design.  I hope The Queen did too.

Here are some pictures.  In my garden.  Due to being searched by a Police team, all vases, toolboxes and water sprays examined and the flowers needing to be checked out by Colin the sniffer dog, we couldn't put them on the tables today.  It all went in in secret on Wednesday.  Excitement indeed.

 

On a personal note. Thank you to my daughters nursery for looking after her at short notice so that I could carry out this once in a lifetime commission. And to Lisa and her Mum for sorting their diaries at the drop of a hat. All these things put my mind at rest that both the flowers and my little girl were in the safest of hands.

Checkered past

When given the challenge of black and white for a wedding.  One could start researching roses.  One could research stocks.  One could look at black stones.  I'll never research black stones.  That's just the way it is.  Sorry.

 

Then there's the way my mind works.  Black and white you say?  No problem.  According to science, white is the colour the eyes of a human sees when it looks at light which contains all the wavelengths of the visible spectrum. (Reference, Wikipedia).  Thank you Wikipedia.

 

So, my black and white was inspired by the works of clever old Isaac Newton.

 

Here it is.