Word is getting around...

That Paisley Petals is a great company to work with for wedding and event flowers! In the past 4 months, we've won 3 pretty amazing awards that we're super excited about! If you're a fan of our Facebook page, you've probably already heard, but we thought we'd put them all here in one post. We don't want to brag too much, but we've worked really hard to be the best at what we do, and we're pretty excited that people are taking notice!

In October, we won 4th place out of 96 nominations for best wedding florist in King 5's annual Best of Western Washington Contest! It was so exciting to watch as we moved up through the ranks! Thanks to everyone who voted for us! The top 5 in each category are featured on the BOWW website all year! Check it out here.



In January, we were notified that we had received two more awards, each from a different nationally known wedding website. The first is from The Knot. Paisley Petals has been rated by local brides and voted The Knot Best of Weddings 2011 Pick! You can check out our profile on The Knot here.



The second is the Bride's Choice Awards 2011 from Wedding Wire. This award recognizes the top 5 percent of local wedding professionals from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate quality and service excellence in the wedding industry. This is the third year in a row we've won this award, and it's an honor every time! You can view our Wedding Wire profile here.



So once again, we'd like to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all of our clients, family and friends for your continued support, love, encouragement and referrals! Looking forward to another great wedding season in 2011!

It's That Time Again!

The month of January has become almost as crazy for Paisley Petals as the month of June! This is the time of year when Spring & Summer brides turn their attention to booking a florist. My schedule is chock full of consultations, quote work-ups, and contracts. We already have 8 Spring and Summer dates booked up! Thank you so much to everyone who continues to send us your referrals- we couldn't do this without you! Having said that-- if you know someone who is engaged to be married this year, we would love it if you would send them our way! All of our contact information can be found on our website-- www.paisleypetals.com.

A lot of you have asked about new photos. I am still working on getting my hands on professional photos from most of my summer weddings. But, here is one to tide you over! Aly & DJ were married on July 17th, 2010. Isn't she beautiful?! Congrats, you two! (Photo by One Love Photo)

Top 5!

Thanks so much to all of you who voted for Paisley Petals in King 5's annual Best of Western Washington Contest! There were 96 florists nominated, and Paisley Petals got 4th place! Pretty exciting stuff!

Click here to see us on the BOWW website.

Thanks again to all of our clients and friends!

Guess the Price: Round 2

Hey there, faithful blog readers! You should be hearing a lot more from me for awhile, as wedding season is winding down.

A couple of people have asked, so here it is: round 2 of the guess the price game! Here's a re-cap of how it works:


1) I will post a photo of an arrangement out of a magazine
2) You, dear readers, will leave a comment with your guess as to how much that arrangement would cost
3) The first comment to hit the right answer, or to come closest without going over (price is right rules!) in one week wins a prize!

We're sticking with salted caramels from Sweet Necessities as a prize- Yum!

Okay, so we're going bridal for this round. What do you think this funky fall bridal bouquet would cost?



To help you out with your guess, you should know that this bouquet contains: cymbidium orchids, mokara orchids, fern curls, craspedia, montbreitia, pincushion protea and ferns.

Good Luck!

Oh, and the winner from last round was Rebecca Nash-- Most of the guesses came in via Facebook, which is why you don't see her guess in the comments section here. Wish I could figure out how to make the comments show up in both places! Anyway- Congrats Rebecca!!

Vote For Us!

Paisley Petals has been nominated for best flowers in King 5's annual Best of Western Washington contest! Please vote to help make us #1! All you have to do is click on the "vote for us" icon below. You'll be redirected to our voting page-- it will only take a few seconds. Thank you!

New Feature/Giveaway

I've been running up against a lot of misconceptions about how much wedding flowers cost these days. Keep in mind that I have been told by clients over and over again that I am underpriced. Still, even I have a hard time fitting everything a bride wants into her budget sometimes. So, just for fun, I've decided to add a new feature to my blog called "Guess The Price!"

Here's how it works:
1) I will post a photo of an arrangement out of a magazine
2) You, dear readers, will leave a comment with your guess as to how much that centerpiece would cost
3) The first comment to hit the right answer, or to come closest without going over (price is right rules!) in one week wins a prize!

Fun, right? OK, so here is your first shot:

This is a centerpiece from Martha Stewart Weddings. It's all carnations. Those who know me know I'm not a huge fan of carnations, except en masse like this. This look has been quite popular the past couple of years. In fact, I just did centerpieces like this for a wedding last weekend!



So, what's your guess for the price of this centerpiece *NOT* including the white container it's in?

This week's Prize: A bag of salted carmel from Sweet Necessities!

The Appendectomy

So, I bet you're curious to know how a wedding florist goes about getting an emergency appendectomy during wedding season. Well, lucky you, I just happen to have a first-hand account of that very scenario!

Wednesday night: Don't sleep all night because you have a strange pain in your stomach. Debate going to the emergency room. Decide they will probably just tell you you have a stomach bug, and it would be a waste of money. Get up and run an inconclusive symptom checker through WebMD. Go back to bed and try to sleep.

Thursday Morning: Finally wake Husband up at 5 & tell him you're not feeling so hot. Convince him to wait for nearest Urgent Care to open at 7 to avoid going to the ER and paying too much money. Load up baby and head to Doctor. Wait. See Nurse. Wait... and wait... See Doctor. Get labs run. Wait. Wonder how Husband is getting along taking care of baby in the lobby. Get inconclusive lab results & instructions to drink nasty orange liquid and have an CT scan in 4 hours. Insist on being sent home while waiting for CT scan.

Thursday Late Morning: Drop baby off at grandparent's house. Send Husband to work. Head out to flower shop and put together bride's bouquet, bridesmaid's bouquets, and samples of boutonnieres, corsages, and centerpieces for assistant to copy.

Thursday Afternoon: Get picked up by brother in law and driven back to Urgent Care. Wait. Have CT scan (weird experience!). Wait. See nurse again. Wait. See Doctor. Find out appendicitis is the culprit and an emergency appendectomy the only cure. Insist on being sent to Enumclaw Regional Hospital to be close at hand should any flower questions arise. Run home one more time to meet assistant and go over everything. Leave baby with Gram. Head to hospital with Husband.

Thursday Evening: Have appendix removed. Wake up in worse pain than before. Have visits from awesome family and friends. Try not to stress to much. Take pain meds. Stay overnight in hospital. Get woken up approximately every 5 minutes to have vitals taken.

Friday Morning: Insist on being sent home as early as possible. Hobble in pain out to flower shop to inspect everything (which looks fabulous, by the way- great work, Kylie) then hobble inside and lay down. Go over delivery details with assistant and mom (thanks again, you two, for your help). Wait anxiously.

Friday Afternoon: Receive positive report and glowing reviews about wedding flowers. Breathe a sigh of relief, say a prayer of thanks, and try not to stress about next weekend's weddings!

As you may have gathered, it's been a little more nuts than usual this wedding season! Although, the same was true last season with the arrival of our sweet baby boy. Here's hoping this doesn't become the norm! A HUGE thank-you to everyone who pitched in, prayed, cooked, babysat, made me an awesome banner that says "boo appendix," brought me coffee, and generally encouraged me through the ridiculousness that was a wedding florist's wedding season appendectomy!