Red Monochromatic Flower Arrangement
We began the month creating floral arrangements for two special events for the same client. The first was on a Monday.
They requested arrangements with an Asian flair. So we created centerpieces with burgundy cymbidium orchids. They loved them. Said they hadn't seen anything like them before.
The next day we were asked to create flower arrangements for an event for men. They specifically asked that they not be too frilly or feminine.
So I create what I thought were "stunningly beautiful monochromatic flower arrangements" for this event.
I decided to use burgundy calla lilies, red roses, black magic roses (a huge and magnificent deep red rose), red ginger, hypericum berries, celosia, and burgundy leaves.
I was in a hurry when I took the picture of the red monochromatic arrangement above. So it really doesn't do it justice.
Anyway, we checked each of the arrangements to make sure they were perfect. Packed them in boxes and loaded them into the vehicle.
My business partner, Dave, decided to take the invoice with him. As he reviews it, he noticed the following words: "bright and colorful."
We thought the arrangements looked great, but by no stretch of the imagination could they possibly be called "bright and colorful."
As a matter of fact, when I ran out of burgundy leaves and began adding green ones I thought they looked rather Christmasy.
There was no time to make any changes. I didn't have enough "bright and colorful" flowers to add to them anyway.
They were elegant. They were sophisticated. They just weren't" bright and colorful."
I was frantic!
I had two things going for me though:
1) I didn't have to deliver them. That was Dave's job. In my eyes, that would have been "a fate worse then death."
2) Since it was an event for men, there was little chance that there would be carefully coordinated pastel napkins or "bright and colorful" favors at each place setting.
So I do the only thing I know how to do in these situations. I pray. I prayed that they would be so overwhelmed by these "stunningly beautiful monochromatic flower arrangements" that they wouldn't care what color they were.
After major flower deliveries, I usually get a call from Dave giving me the low down on how everything went. He didn't call. And I was way too scared to call him. Figured I'd just wait to hear the bad news when he returned.
As soon as Dave walked into the venue, the staff began calling to him, "Let me see. Let me see." They were apparently so pleased with the flower arrangements from the day before that they could not wait to see these.
Our contact at the venue took one look at them and said, "These are beautiful!" The rest of the staff were saying similar things.
Once Dave realized that we were not in big trouble. He said, "We were worried when we realized at the last moment that you had actually requested bright and colorful floral arrangements. " She told him, "No, this is EXACTLY what I wanted."
Every day I'm learning. When I really do my thing with flowers. Truly my thing. People are always delighted. More and more of you are just calling and trusting us to make arrangements for you.
I knew the reds would work for these men as long as I made the arrangements sophisticated, textural and interesting.
But you better believe I won't be making that mistake again!
What have you done wrong that ultimately turned out to be just right?
Mimi