“Why” we are a florist is to challenge our imagination, spread interconnectedness in the community, and to do our part in preserving our planet.

The next step we are taking towards sustainability and preserving our planet is phasing out balloons. When we read about the negative consequences of latex balloons, mylar balloons, and helium, we decided not to purchase any new balloons. We will sell the inventory that we have, but you’ll see popular balloons disappearing as options on our website. The first selection we have run out of is our generic Happy Birthday balloons. We do still have a few milestone birthday balloons such as Sweet 16, 40^th, and 50^th, and “Over the Hill.” Just call us to find out what we still have in stock!

If you’re interested in what we’ve learned about balloons and helium, here are some of the statistics that went into our decision:

• Balloons can travel hundreds of miles before they land–which can be in the ocean, lakes, forests, or prairies. Wildlife gets entangled in the strings or ingests the balloons and strings causing injury and death. (https://wildlifecenter.org/help-advice/wildlife-issues/balloon-releases)
• Mylar balloons (the shiny foil balloons) never break down; they just become smaller and smaller pieces of microplastics. Latex balloons eventually break down, but it takes months, and they often affect wildlife before they have a chance of biodegrading. (https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/balloons-environmental-impact/)
• Balloons cause power outages affecting thousands each year, including in our own Arlington, VA. (https://www.arlnow.com/2022/04/20/balloons-caused-large-power-outage-in-arlington-yesterday/)
• “Helium is a nonrenewable resource with many crucial industrial, medical and scientific uses, such as in MRIs, superconductors and weather balloons. The U.S. is fortunate to be rich in helium; we produce 40% of the gas worldwide. But there is a global helium shortage, and projections of future helium demand indicate that we will face serious limitations in the helium supply within only a few decades.” (https://www.caryinstitute.org/news-insights/feature/helium-balloons-impose-toll-our-air-land-and-sea)
• As of 2021, it is illegal to release balloons in the Commonwealth of Virginia. “It is unlawful for any individual 16 years of age or older or other person to intentionally release, discard, or cause to be released or discarded outdoors any balloon made of a nonbiodegradable or nonphotodegradable material or any material that requires more than five minutes’ contact with air or water to degrade. Any person convicted of a violation of this section is liable for a civil penalty of $25 per balloon released or discarded…” (https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title29.1/chapter5/section29.1-556.1/)

Despite phasing out balloons as part of our commitment towards sustainable practices, we have partnered with several like-minded local family-owned businesses for alternative add-on offerings. Check out our River-Sea Chocolate selections, our Grace+Love Candle selections, and our Tea for All Reasons selections!

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River-Sea Chocolates is all of that! They are located just around the corner from us so we were able to tour their bean-to-bar factory, meet the owners, and try their delicious, small-batch, artisanal chocolates. We think you’ll agree that adding one of their chocolate bars or sampler gift boxes to your flower arrangement order is that decadent touch that you can’t get anywhere else!

Each chocolate purchase supports the Amazon River cleanup project called Projeto SUPaneiro in the Amazon Delta region where owner, Mariano, grew up and where his family still lives. As an avid standup paddle boarder (SUP), Margie loves this idea! Even more exciting is the way River-Sea transports their beans to the US. “River-Sea’s first shipment of cacao was the very first Sail Cargo shipment allowed in the USA since motorized cargo became the convention! Over 100 years!”

Why is this exciting? “The shipping industry accounts for over 80% of the world’s trade volume and 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions.” ~United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

According to River-Sea, “Sail transport reduces carbon emissions by 99% over conventional cargo transport, while providing a more nimble and efficient sustainable solution for trade.”

But don’t take our word for it! Add one of our River-Sea Chocolates to your order and let us know what you think!

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Why We Chose Grace+Love Candle Company

We were looking for candles from a shop that has a philosophy similar to ours—locally owned and operated, offering a quality product, community-oriented, and focused on sustainability. Grace+Love is owned by the wife and husband duo of Natalie and Jamahl Grace based in Loudoun County. One of their missions is to donate funds towards minority education. You can read about their inspiring story here!

How are Grace+Love Candles Made?

The entire collection is vegan friendly and cruelty free, using domestically grown soy wax, phthalate free fragrances, and lead-free cotton wicks. What does that mean for you?

Soy wax burns clean (no blackened walls) with no toxins, carcinogens, or pollutants. Derived from soybeans, soy wax is a renewable resource and supports American farmers. It’s also biodegradable so it cleans up nicely with just soap and water. Soy wax also burns at a lower temperature than paraffin which means your candle will last longer!

Our Current Fragrances

We’re starting with five fragrances which we believe offer a nice selection of floral, fruity, and earthy. Click on each photo for more information!

Give us a call and let us know what you think! We’re eager for your feedback!

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Single-use plastics are notoriously bad for not only our wildlife and the environment, they are bad for anyone that consumes the wildlife that ingest these plastics. We’ve eliminated one more single-use plastic from our shop, and we’re recycling in the process! Have you ever turned a rose upside-down to preserve it and noticed just how strong the stem becomes when it’s dried? We noticed that too!

It takes a bit of effort and vigilance, but the environment is so worth each sustainable step we can take. We often cut our long stem rose stems to accommodate shorter arrangements or remove them altogether for rose petal orders. Instead of throwing them away, we are saving these stems, drying them, and making slits at one end to hold the envelopes that carry message cards and care instructions.

The next time you receive an arrangement from us, you can compost the sustainable card holder right along with the flowers and greenery!

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Before you give us a call, you’ll want to gather some information, and then the corsage or boutonniere designs itself!

Wrist or Pin-on Corsage?

Most people prefer wrist corsages, but you’ll sometimes find your grandmother prefers a pin-on corsage because that is what she is used to. Wrist corsages are nice because they go with any kind of dress or material. If the dress is strapless or has spaghetti straps, a wrist corsage is perfect because you don’t have to worry about where to pin the corsage. If the dress is made out of a fabric that isn’t sturdy enough to support the weight of a pin-on corsage, then a wrist corsage is perfect.

We have several different wristlet options to accommodate different sized wrists. Just let us know if your wrist is particular petite. You can even come in to try on the wristlets.

Color Palate

Are you trying to match a dress or a suit? Is this for a wedding so you want to coordinate with the wedding flowers? Are there school colors you want to include? For the most part, each element of the corsage or boutonniere can be the color of your choosing from the flowers, to the smaller supporting flowers, to the greenery, and finally the ribbon.

What kind of flower?

Roses are the most popular. For a corsage, we use several spray roses instead of the larger full-size rose in order to accommodate a woman’s smaller wrist size. Roses come in a variety of colors including the standard white, red, and light pink. But they also come in yellow, peach, lavender, burgundy, and orange. If you’re interested in one of the specialty colors, just call us about a week in advance so we are able to order the flowers for you.

If you want something a little more unusual, there are many other flowers that make beautiful corsages and boutonnieres. Orchids lend an exotic look and come in unusual colors such as the larger cymbidium orchid…

…or the smaller dendrobium orchid. Ranunculus offers a delicate look with gradations of color that are unpredictable and whimsical.

Calla lilies bring a classic sophisticated look and come in white, yellow, mango, pink/light purple, and a dark eggplant purple.

Additions

A traditional corsage and boutonniere is comprised of roses, baby’s breath, bakers fern, and a ribbon. We love requests for original designs. Some fun small flower additions are wax flower, solidago, astilbe, and statice.

Greenery comes in lots of different tones and textures including eucalyptus, myrtle, ruscus, variegated pittosporum, or even hypericum berries.

Ribbon

Most people include ribbon, but you don’t have to. Ribbon has so many characteristics including width, sheer or solid, matte or sparkly, or you can even choose two different ribbons.

You can certainly place your order over the phone. But if you’d like something more unique, you might consider visiting the shop. We have a huge selection of ribbon if you want to match fabric or just see the different colors and textures that are available. You’d be surprised at how many shades of blue there are! We can also pull various elements together like flowers, greenery, and ribbon so you get a feel for what the finished product will look like.

Whatever your needs are for corsages and boutonnieres, we’re here to help!

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Types of Flowers

Each arrangement consists of focal flowers and then what we call “fillers and spillers.” Focal flowers are the flowers that people can usually identify such as roses, orchids, peonies, sunflowers, dahlias, etc. They tend to be larger, hence the name focal flower since they become the flowers that draw people’s attention.

Fillers and spillers are equally important but aren’t necessarily the first thing that draws people’s focus. These flowers give the arrangement its vibe and reinforce a color palette. For instance, if you want an English Garden vibe, the designer might add hydrangea, lace flower, and astilbe.

For a wildflower look, the designer might add daisies, gomphrena, and scabiosa;

Some focal flowers are more expensive than others, with peonies and orchids being some of the most valuable flowers. The same applies to fillers and spillers. Solidago, daisies, carnations, lace flower, astilbe, and hydrangea are lovely flowers that add texture and color to arrangements. Astilbe and hydrangea are going to be more expensive than daisies and carnations.

Size and Style

In general, smaller arrangements are going to be less expensive than larger arrangements. The style of the arrangement also impacts price. A short compact arrangement that is about 12” x 12” in total size can be same price as an arrangement that is 24” x 24” in total size because both arrangements have the same number/value of flowers. You can see an example of this in the photos below. The short and compact arrangement on the left has essentially the same number/value of flowers compacted together in a smaller space as the arrangement on the right that is tall and open.

Pricing

A $200 arrangement of just peonies will be much smaller than a $200 arrangement of just sunflowers. This is why our pricing is based on the qualities of the flowers and the style of the arrangement rather than the size of the arrangement.

A standard arrangement will be small with just a few standard focal flowers such as roses or sunflowers and mostly standard filler/spiller flowers such as carnations, mums, daisies, and/or alstromeria.

As you move into Deluxe and Intricate, you have the option of smaller arrangements with more expensive flowers or larger arrangements using standard flowers. This is a nice option if you are looking for a small arrangement, but you don’t want any carnations or mums. If you don’t mind standard flowers, these price points allow for larger arrangements.  

Premium and Extravagant arrangements can be about size or flowers or both. If you would like a large arrangement that takes up a lot of space, Premium and Extravagant arrangements are great. They will be large and showy using a variety of flowers in all ranges.

With Premium and Extravagant arrangements, you can also focus on the more expensive focal flowers such as peonies, orchids, and dahlias while using fewer and more unique filler and spiller flowers such as astilbe and hellebores. With a focus on the more expensive flowers, these arrangements won’t be as large.

As you can see, flower arrangement sizes and prices are dependent on the style and flowers you would like to use. Feel free to call or email us! We’re happy to take orders over the phone and discuss options with you.

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Slight of Hand

Our arrangements are stunning in person! Sometimes a photo does not do justice to our arrangements, which is why we have relied on stock photos. Recently we decided that the natural beauty of our arrangements is more important. The added bonus is that our photos don’t set unrealistic expectations. Seriously, count the stems in the vases of some of those stock photos compared to the flowers! Or those flowers at the top of the arrangement that don’t look like they’re attached to anything—a little like elongating Gigi Hadid’s hand.

Wonderful Idiosyncrasies

If you have ever tried to arrange flowers in a vase, you quickly realize that flowers are like people—they don’t always do what you want them to do. You might want that sunflower to face front, but it is going to curve right no matter what you do. A talented designer knows the quirks of each flower and has learned to work with their idiosyncrasies so that each arrangement is balanced and artistically beautiful. Our own photos represent the wonderful idiosyncrasies of flowers, not unreal photoshopped perfection. And isn’t that one of the reasons we love flowers?!

Updating Our Website

Not only are we replacing stock photos with our own photos, we’re also generalizing the descriptions. This way we can focus on the look and feel of an arrangement instead of specific flowers. Sometimes we aren’t able to source specific flowers, especially if they are out of season. Sometimes the flowers come in, but they’re not up to our standards of quality.

The “Frankie,” a lovely arrangement of hot pinks and greens, is a good example of the changes we’re making. The stock photo and original description contained hot pink peonies. Peonies are only in season for about 6 weeks in the spring so I would take the arrangement off the website by the middle of June. But that combination of vibrant colors is stunning, and we get other premium hot pink seasonal flowers throughout the year such as ranunculus, dahlias, and zinnias. Now the “Frankie” will be up all year round. These are the photos you will see on our website of variations we have done using peonies, ranunculus, zinnias, and cymbidium orchids. The arrangements all have the same look and feel, but the flowers differ in each arrangement.

Sustainability and Signature Designs

In our quest for sustainable practices, we source flowers from local regenerative flower farmers. As a result, we receive so many wonderful flowers that you will never see in stock photos. This is another reason we are transitioning to our own photos, and it is the reason we encourage our customers to choose our Signature Designer’s Choice. It allows our designers to use absolutely gorgeous flowers that you might not have heard of such as scabiosa, gomphrena, chocolate lace flower, monarda, or fuzzy teddy bear sunflowers! Most of our long-time customers love this option. As they say, “Work your magic! We love every arrangement we’ve received!” For those customers that really like to know the kind of arrangement they are ordering, we are happy to provide options, like the “Frankie,” for you!

As we update our website and transition to our own photos, we’d love your feedback!

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Toys for Tots was started in 1947 by a Marine Corp Reserve Major Bill Hendricks. His civilian job was Director of Public Relations at Warner Brothers Studio where he befriended Walt Disney. Disney actually designed the first Toys for Tots poster (below left). Today, Toys for Tots distributes toys to 7 million less fortunate children.

We have a huge box in the shop that we would love to fill. You can drop toys off anytime between now and December 10^th. As a thank you for your kindness, we’ll send you home with a beautiful flower!

If you don’t have time to buy and drop off a toy, we’ve got you covered! We have a virtual donation box through Amazon. Just click here or scan the QR code below, choose a toy, and it will be delivered to our local Toys for Tots hub. Easy!

Many thanks, and we hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

~Your Fantasy Floral Family

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We shortened our shop hours from 7pm to 5pm, even though our competitors were open later than we. This allowed (and continues to allow) us to have quality time with family each evening. When we were able to finally hire employees, we sought out individuals with the same qualities and values that we have as a family. We also sought out individuals that added to and improved the family atmosphere of our shop.

Our goal is to have a shop full of people that care about each other and our customers as much as they care about their own families. With big box companies gobbling up whole industries because they make purchases cheap and easy, we are able to do the one thing those companies can’t—treat you like family and offer you beautiful, artistic, unique designs.

Putting family first means offering our employees living wages. We are happier at work and kinder to our families when we get home if we are not stressed about money. We stay with companies longer when we feel valued and cherished. Most of our employees have been here for at least two years. There is so much value in that kind of longevity.

Our front of the house all know that Mrs. W is allergic to eucalyptus and Mr. S likes Ikebana-style arrangements. Our drivers know not to ring the B Sisters doorbell because it makes their dogs go crazy. Just text them, and they’ll slip out to grab the flowers. Casey talked to a long-time customer yesterday who was in a hurry. The call lasted 1 minute and 39 seconds because they knew his wife’s preferences and had all the information needed for a delivery. We’ve also had calls that last a half hour as we talk through options and offer suggestions to ensure we are creating the perfect arrangement for the occasion.

Our prices and delivery fees continue to be very competitive compared to other high-end florists (not Costco)! But the way and reason we structure our prices is founded in sourcing quality long-lasting flowers, supporting local regenerative (#sustainability #grownnotflown) family flower farmers, and putting family first by offering living wages. We continue to see the amazing benefits of this focus in our individual lives, the atmosphere of the shop, the quality of our arrangements, and the family-oriented customer service we extend to our customers. We all make choices to support businesses that focus on qualities and practices that align with our priorities. We hope knowing a bit more about our foundation and priorities reinforces the trust you have put into our wonderful family business!

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Orange Flowers

Mums and daisies come in gorgeous fall colors, including orange. Gerbera daisies, roses, snap dragons, and lilies also come in beautiful shades of orange.

Black Flowers

While Mother Nature doesn’t give us any true black flowers, there are many dark maroon and purple flowers that look almost black. Some of my favorites are dahlias, calla lilies, scabiosa, and columbine.

Green Flowers

The bright green color in so many drawings of pumpkins is an easy color to find in flowers. Some of our current favorite bright green flowers are green ball dianthus, button mums, bells of Ireland, and green cymbidium orchids.

Unusual textures

Our designer’s love to use unusual textures within arrangements. It adds uniqueness or whimsy or artistry that sets our arrangements apart. Thistle has been a shop favorite, but we also love safflower, safari sunset, hypericum berries, grevillea, and sorghum.

If you’re treating others this Halloween or just want to trick out your coffin with festive color, give us a scream to place your Halloween flowers order!

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