There is so much more to a flower shop than designing arrangements

Hey, this is Althea's "Personal assistant (I like to call myself that),"  Hannah.  The busy wedding season is upon us and the shop has turned into a maze of flower, vases, ribbons, and buckets.  The black and white checkered floors are just a distant memory to us as we weave our way through the items.  From my work at the computer I hear the usual "ugh" as somebody cuts themselves with a wire, or a nice "ooo" as Althea is please with a bouquet that she has prepared for a bride.  As I look up I see hydrangeas, daisies, football mums, and delphinium.  I often wonder if I am in a flower shop or in a wild garden where the flowers are strangely planted in white plastic buckets.  The phone rings, and email blinks in, or I am awaken from my wonderment and realize that I have a ton of work to complete myself.  You see, there is much more to a flower shop than creating flowers.

Four weeks ago I had knee surgery and well, it is hard to carry flowers, stand on your feet for hours, and create arrangements while on crutches.  I have been given the assignment of office assistant.  Until I was "placed" in this position I guess I never realized how much work goes into a floral business besides the lovely arrangements that the clients and public see.  There are hundreds of emails to answers, flowers to order, contracts to write, contracts to rewrite, phone calls to answer, and consultations with prospective glowing brides.  Not to mention the thousands, okay maybe that was an exaggeration, of letters to write!  Every client that orders flowers from us, bride and groom that selects us for their wedding, recipient of our arrangements, and couple with a one year anniversary receives either a handwritten letter or an email thanking them for their service.  I will be going out of the country in five weeks to Lithuania and have been catching up on the letters for the months of May, June, and July.  That's a lot of writing!  There are bills to be paid, invoices to be entered, contact lists to be updated.  Don't even get me started on filing.  I am often reminded of those cartoons that you see where there are people pushing piles of paper all over the office.  Yes, believe it or not, this is a floral shop behind the scenes.

Although it can be stressful at time and very busy for us all, when Austin brings in one of his delicious peanut butter pies or I break into song along with the radio, I am reminded that we are a family and it is this family that makes Rose of Sharon, Event Florist a wonderful place to work.